MSFT
With new consoles, gaming industry faces question: Staying power, or a
flash in the pandemic pan?
- The release of new state-of-the-art videogame consoles from Microsoft
(NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony(NYSE:SNE) isn't just the start of a new era for
the industry (the two companies' last consoles came out seven years ago),
but also an exclamation point on a banner year, with gamers new and old
stuck at home and spending heavily.
- This week's report on videogame sales from the NPD Group indicated
year-to-date
sales in the industry through 10 months came to $37.5B, up 20% from last
year.
- Even hardware spending, usually pressured by an impending new console
release, is up 23% year-to-date from the same period last year - to
$2.5B.
- The debate videogame investors are having, though, is whether the
gains go away with the end of the pandemic, or whether they're sticky
enough to keep growing. Shares of game publishers often go down even
after
mostly positive reports, and they declined last Monday (along with fellow
names in the "pandemic trade") after data showing the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine was 90% effective.
- Skeptics think that gamers might put down devices when they're able to
attend concerts, movies and sports again; one NYU professor tells the
*NYT* that if gaming companies were as optimistic as they said, there
would have been more acquisitions and investments recently: "It's strange
to me that the industry, in this moment of incredible momentum, has
failed
or refused to use it as tinder to just light a fire ... Why hasn't the
top
brass in the games industry taken more risk?"
- But Xbox Chief Marketing Officer Jerret West points to "comet moments"
every six to seven years where people "reinvest into the ecosystem."
- Related tickers: (OTCPK:NTDOY+1.8%), (SNE+3.0%), (MSFT+0.5%), (HEAR
+2.3%), (EA+1.2%), (ATVI+1.1%), (TTWO+1.0%), (T+1.7%),
(OTCPK:UBSFY+2.1%),
(OTCPK:NCBDY), (OTCPK:SQNNY), (OTCPK:CCOEY+1.9%), (OTCPK:SGAMY+1.1%).
Retail stock: (GME-1.1%).
- ETFs: (GAMR+2.4%), (ESPO+1.4%), (NERD+2.3%)
|Today, 11:01 AM
With new consoles, gaming industry faces question: Staying power, or a
flash in the pandemic pan?
- The release of new state-of-the-art videogame consoles from Microsoft
(NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony(NYSE:SNE) isn't just the start of a new era for
the industry (the two companies' last consoles came out seven years ago),
but also an exclamation point on a banner year, with gamers new and old
stuck at home and spending heavily.
- This week's report on videogame sales from the NPD Group indicated
year-to-date
sales in the industry through 10 months came to $37.5B, up 20% from last
year.
- Even hardware spending, usually pressured by an impending new console
release, is up 23% year-to-date from the same period last year - to
$2.5B.
- The debate videogame investors are having, though, is whether the
gains go away with the end of the pandemic, or whether they're sticky
enough to keep growing. Shares of game publishers often go down even
after
mostly positive reports, and they declined last Monday (along with fellow
names in the "pandemic trade") after data showing the Pfizer/BioNTech
vaccine was 90% effective.
- Skeptics think that gamers might put down devices when they're able to
attend concerts, movies and sports again; one NYU professor tells the
*NYT* that if gaming companies were as optimistic as they said, there
would have been more acquisitions and investments recently: "It's strange
to me that the industry, in this moment of incredible momentum, has
failed
or refused to use it as tinder to just light a fire ... Why hasn't the
top
brass in the games industry taken more risk?"
- But Xbox Chief Marketing Officer Jerret West points to "comet moments"
every six to seven years where people "reinvest into the ecosystem."
- Related tickers: (OTCPK:NTDOY+1.8%), (SNE+3.0%), (MSFT+0.5%), (HEAR
+2.3%), (EA+1.2%), (ATVI+1.1%), (TTWO+1.0%), (T+1.7%),
(OTCPK:UBSFY+2.1%),
(OTCPK:NCBDY), (OTCPK:SQNNY), (OTCPK:CCOEY+1.9%), (OTCPK:SGAMY+1.1%).
Retail stock: (GME-1.1%).
- ETFs: (GAMR+2.4%), (ESPO+1.4%), (NERD+2.3%)
|Today, 11:01 AM
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