"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES: This week's major release is Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us Part II," which comes out exclusive for the PlayStation 4 (SNE) on June 19. The game, which has achieved a 96/100 rating on Metacritic, is a sequel to 2013's "The Last of Us."
AT&T MAY SELL WBIE: Late last week, NBC's Alex Sherman reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that AT&T (T) is considering a sale of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in a deal that could fetch roughly $4B. Take-Two (TTWO), Electronic Arts (EA), and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) have all expressed interest in acquiring the business, though no deal is assured or imminent, Sherman said. Meanwhile, two sources confirmed the news to VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi, saying that the business is indeed up for sale. A source told Takahashi, however, that the price offered for the unit was $2B, with a "major game company" telling the publication that it was not interested in the purchase because WBIE only intermittently makes money, and does not own some of the major franchises at the core of its biggest titles. Responding to the news, analysts at Oppenheimer and Stephens said that Electronic Arts would likely be the best fit to buy WBIE.
PS5: Last Thursday, Sony hosted an official reveal event for its upcoming PlayStation 5, unveiling a collection of new games that will be available on the console. Notably, the company unveiled "VILLAGE: Resident Evil" (CCOEY), "Spider-Man: Miles Morales," "Horizon: Forbidden West," a remake of "Demon's Souls," "Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart," "Gran Turismo 7," "Hitman III," "NBA 2K21," and an enhanced version of "Grand Theft Auto V." Sony also showed the design of the PS5 itself, noting that there will be two versions of the console, one with a disc drive and one that will only allow for game downloads.
EPIC VALUATION: Bloomberg reported Monday that Epic Games, which owns "Fortnite," Unreal Engine, Houseparty, and the Epic Store, is near raising $750M at a roughly $17B valuation, with new investors including T. Rowe Price (TROW) as well as existing investors including KKR (KKR) participating in the round. The new valuation, which includes the new funding, is an increase from the $15B valuation Epic garnered in 2018, Bloomberg noted. Other investors in Epic include Tencent (TCEHY) and Disney (DIS).
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
Symbol now SONY
-0.09 (-0.13%)
Nintendo
+ (+0.00%)
Microsoft
+4.6 (+2.43%)
Electronic Arts
-0.37 (-0.29%)
Take-Two
-0.17 (-0.12%)
acquired by MSFT
+0.36 (+0.49%)
AT&T
+0.3 (+0.98%)
Capcom
+ (+0.00%)
T. Rowe Price
+0.69 (+0.56%)
KKR
+0.76 (+2.52%)
Tencent
+ (+0.00%)
Disney
+0.66 (+0.56%)
Amazon.com
+35.38 (+1.38%)
Ubisoft
+ (+0.00%)