"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 puzzle game "Big Brain Academy: Brain vs Brain," which is published by Nintendo (NTDOY) and will launch exclusively on Switch consoles on December 3.
SWITCH/BLACK FRIDAY: Gamesindustry.biz's Christopher Dring reported yesterday that last week was the largest sales week ever for Nintendo Switch consoles in Great Britain. The Switch console, as well as the game "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" and a three-month subscription to Nintendo Switch Online, "stole the show" over Black Friday in the U.K., Dring said, noting that Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox Series S was in a "very distant" second place in terms of U.K. console sales last week.
PLAYSTATION SUIT: A former IT security analyst at Sony's (SONY) PlayStation business is suing the company in California, accusing the video game giant of gender discrimination and wrongful termination after speaking up "about discrimination against females," Axios' Stephen Totilo reported last week. The suit claims the company violated the United States' Equal Pay Act, with the security analyst in question Emma Majo seeking court approval to expand her effort into a class action on behalf of woman who have worked at the company in the past few years, the author noted. The suit comes as Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is currently mired in controversy following multiple reports of sexual misconduct at the company, which CEO Bobby Kotick allegedly knew about.
HARMONIX: Epic Games said last week that it acquired Harmonix, a game development studio known for the "Rock Band" and "Dance Central" franchises. "Harmonix has a track record of creating fun and engaging music experiences designed for everyone to enjoy," Epic said. "As we work to build the metaverse, this expertise is needed to reimagine how music is experienced, created and distributed. The Harmonix team will collaborate closely with Epic to develop musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite while continuing to support existing titles including Rock Band 4." Investors in Epic Games include Tencent (TCEHY), KKR (KKR), Disney (DIS), and Sony.
NETEASE: The Wall Street Journal's Yifan Wang noted that NetEase (NTES) shares fell 7% in Hong Kong afternoon trading on Tuesday, which was blamed in part to speculation that the company's temporary suspension of availability of a game on PCs indicates that the product has regulatory issues and could hurt revenue. Investors appeared to suspect that NetEase's recent decision to suspend the desktop simulator for its new Harry Potter-themed game was related to regulatory issues in addition to the company's claim that it was due to a technical upgrade, Wang quoted brokerage UOB Kay Hian as having said.
MASS EFFECT SHOW: Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reported last week that Amazon (AMZN) is nearing a deal to develop a show for Prime Video based on Electronic Arts' (EA) "Mass Effect" video game franchise. "You will see us continuing to invest in fantasy genre of all kinds, we have a genre-focused team on the ground in Studios who work tirelessly with our creative partners on those slates, and you can look forward to more," Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke told Deadline.
Nintendo
+2.44 (+4.50%)
Microsoft
-6.93 (-2.06%)
Sony
-0.56 (-0.46%)
acquired by MSFT
-1.01 (-1.68%)
Tencent
-0.64 (-1.08%)
KKR
-1.83 (-2.40%)
Disney
-3.65 (-2.47%)
NetEase
-1.1375 (-1.03%)
Amazon.com
-49.31 (-1.38%)
Electronic Arts
-0.76 (-0.61%)
Take-Two
-2.15 (-1.27%)
Ubisoft
-0.0005 (-0.00%)