Shares of Electronic Arts (EA) are in focus after an analyst from Piper Jaffray raised his price target on the shares, saying the firm's surveys indicate a high level of purchase intent for "Anthem," EA's newest live services online shooter set for a worldwide launch tomorrow for PC, PlayStation 4 (SNE), and Xbox One (MSFT).
PIPER UPS PT: In a research note to investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson raised his price target on EA shares to $111 from $99 and kept an Overweight rating on the stock, saying that his firm's survey of over 600 gamers suggests a "surprisingly high" level of purchase intent for "Anthem," which is developed by "Mass Effect" and "Dragon Age" creator BioWare. More specifically, the Piper survey results show that roughly 25% of current console owners plan to purchase the game, the analyst said. For comparison, when the firm did a similar survey for Activision's (ATVI) "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" in September 2015, it showed a purchase intent of 40% of that game, which went on to sell 23M-24M units in its launch year, Olson noted. The analyst added that EA's YouTube (GOOG) trailer views for "Anthem" have a likes-to-dislikes ratio of 17-to-1, which, for comparison, puts it on par with "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" and above games such as the first "Destiny" release and the past two full release versions of Ubisoft's (UBSFY) "Assassin's Creed." Olson noted that he remains cautiously optimistic about "Anthem," despite EA's recent challenges with non-sports games.
STEPHEN'S COHEN SAYS 'ANTHEM' VERY IMPORTANT: In an exclusive interview with The Fly earlier this month, Stephens analyst Jeff Cohen said that "Anthem" will be "very important" for Electronic Arts, considering the significant investment made in the title. “The way I’ve been framing 'Anthem' is that it could be a positive catalyst that could improve the sentiment around EA," Cohen said. "Because I think the perception around EA in the past year and a half has been one of a lot of execution struggles. So, I do think it’s important that they have a clean release.”
CURRENT 'ANTHEM' RECEPTION: While not all major publications have published reviews for the game just yet, initial reactions to "Anthem" have been largely mixed. The game currently has a score of 67 on Metacritic, which aggregates review scores from critics. For comparison, EA's last two major releases, namely "Apex Legends" and "Battlefield V," scored 89 and 81, respectively, on Metacritic. According to the site, a score of 67 indicates "mixed or average" reviews.
Several video game writers and critics have complimented the gameplay of "Anthem" while pointing out many of the title's technical flaws. Destructoid's Chris Carter noted that the game's load times, which BioWare claims will be fixed in a day-one patch, hinder the experience, and that the title currently includes "various bugs that involve crashing or delays when objectives are met." GameSpot's Kallie Plagge said that the title "has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution," noting that "you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment" when one of the game's flaws interrupts one of its better moments. Meanwhile, Kotaku's Jason Schreier said that, while playing the game during an early access period for media and EA Access subscribers, the game took an "excruciating" two minutes and 24 seconds to load a mission to play with friends.
WHAT'S NOTABLE: Patrick Soderlund, a former Electronic Arts executive who left the company last summer, said in a Medium blog post yesterday that his new studio, Embark Studios, is currently prototyping its first game, which will be a "cooperative free-to-play action game set in a distant future." The blog post included a video explaining a terrain test of the game and noted that the title will be developed using Epic's Unreal Engine, augmented with some of Embark's own new technology. Investors in Epic include Tencent (TCEHY), Disney (DIS), and KKR (KKR).
PRICE ACTION: In afternoon trading, Electronic Arts shares are down about 1% to $97.68.
Electronic Arts
-0.78 (-0.79%)
Symbol now SONY
+0.9003 (+1.92%)
Microsoft
+2.15 (+2.01%)
acquired by MSFT
-0.14 (-0.33%)
Ubisoft
+ (+0.00%)
Tencent
+ (+0.00%)
Disney
-0.04 (-0.04%)
KKR
-0.13 (-0.55%)