"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES: This week's biggest new release is Electronic Arts' (EA) "Madden NFL 23," which launches August 19 for PC, PlayStation 4 (SONY), PS5, Xbox One (MSFT), and Xbox Series X/S. Also out this week is Nintendo's (NTDOY) "Kirby's Dream Buffet," a budget party game launching exclusive for the Switch on August 17. Additionally, Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) free-to-play fighting game "Multiversus" launched on August 15 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game features playable fighters from across the Warner Bros. portfolio, including characters from DC Comics, "Game of Thrones," and "Looney Tunes."
U.K. SALES: Last week, Gamesindustry.biz's Christopher Dring reported that console sales in the U.K. dropped slightly in July compared with June, with a decline in sales for all three major consoles. Roughly 104,000 game consoles were sold across the U.K. in July, falling 16% month-on-month, and game console sales year-to-date are down 38%, according to GfK. PS5 sales fell the least during the month, down just 14%, and as a result is now the country's second most popular console of the year behind the Nintendo Switch, Dring noted.
Earlier this week, Dring reported that Sega's (SGAMY) latest video game "Two Point Campus" debuted in second place in U.K. weekly physical charts, though the game will likely have performed strongly as a digital download on PC. 64% of the boxed sales of "Two Point Campus" were for Nintendo Switch, 19% for PlayStation 5, 12% on PS4, and 5% on Xbox Series consoles, Dring said. Sony's "Horizon Forbidden West" remained in the top spot for the week ending August 13, as the game continues to be available as part of PlayStation 5 bundles, the author said, noting that "Horizon" boxed sales rose 35% week-over-week. Other games in the top ten in the U.K. for the week include "Nintendo Switch Sports," "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," "Gran Turismo 7," and Warner Bros. Discovery's "Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga."
MICROSOFT VS. SONY: After Sony claimed in documents submitted to Brazil's antitrust regulator that Microsoft's proposed takeover of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) would be anticompetitive because it would mean the Xbox maker would own the "Call of Duty" franchise, Microsoft rejected such claims, according to VideoGamesChronicle. The Xbox maker said that while numerous third party game publishers, such as Ubisoft (UBSFY) and Bandai Namco (NCBDY), provided responses to CADE on the matter, the PlayStation owner was the only company that alleged "Call of Duty" was in a genre of its own with no competition. "Only one third party, Sony, presented materially different opinions than the Applicants and the other third parties consulted by the SG," Microsoft said, as translated from Portuguese. "Sony is isolated in this understanding and, curiously, even contradicts itself in its response to the letter, as will be detailed below."
In addition, Microsoft alleged that Sony pays certain video game developers for "blocking rights" in return for those companies agreeing not to put their content on Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's video game subscription service, according to VGC's Chris Scullion. "Considering that exclusivity strategies have been at the core of Sony's strategy to strengthen its presence in the games industry, and that Sony is a leader in the distribution of digital games, Sony's concern with possible exclusivity of Activision's content is incoherent, to say the least," Microsoft claims in the documents published by CADE. “It only reveals, once again, a fear about an innovative business model that offers high-quality content at low costs to gamers, threatening a leadership that has been forged from a device-centric and exclusivity-focused strategy over the years.”
As this story has developed, The Verge's Tom Warren reported yesterday that Microsoft admitted to Brazil's CADE that its Xbox One console, which launched in 2013, sold less than half as many units as Sony's (SONY) PlayStation 4, which launched the same year. The Xbox maker stopped reporting Xbox One sales figures at the start of its 2016 fiscal year, but now documents given to Brazil show Microsoft admitting its sales for the Xbox One were less than half that of its biggest competitor. "Sony has surpassed Microsoft in terms of console sales and installed base, having sold more than twice as many Xbox in the last generation," said Microsoft.
EA: Electronic Arts made a number of major announcements over the past week, starting with its new multi-year partnership renewal with the National Football League for the the EA Sports Madden NFL Championship Series, or MCS. The agreement will help align MCS with NFL events and key moments throughout the season, the game maker said. In addition, EA and Disney's (DIS) Marvel Entertainment announced yesterday that they would collaborate to bring a new cast of FIFA Ultimate Team Heroes to the pitch in "EA SPORTS FIFA 23," reimagined and inspired by Marvel Comics. This collaboration between the two brands will bring some of the game's fan favorites to the game and celebrate their larger-than-life cult hero status alongside the amazing artists at Marvel, the companies said. The announcement came just days after EA told Eurogamer in a statement that loot boxes, a controversial monetization system, will be returning to the Ultimate Team mode for "FIFA 23."
Additionally, EA disclosed in a regulatory filing this week that its board authorized a new program to repurchase up to $2.6B of the company's common stock. Repurchases under this new share repurchase authorization will begin upon the completion of repurchases under the company's current share repurchase authorization, which is expected in late September or early October 2022. This new stock repurchase program expires on November 4, 2024.
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
Take-Two
+5.99 (+4.70%)
Disney
+1.23 (+0.99%)
Bandai Namco
-0.04 (-0.11%)
Ubisoft
-0.06 (-0.64%)
acquired by MSFT
+0.09 (+0.11%)
Sega Sammy Holdings
-0.03 (-0.79%)
Electronic Arts
+1.4 (+1.06%)
Nintendo
+0.24 (+0.44%)
Microsoft
-0.69 (-0.24%)
Sony
-1.02 (-1.17%)
Warner Bros. Discovery
+0.12 (+0.91%)