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New ‘Destiny 2’ expansion out this week
“Game On” is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES:Â
Among this week’s biggest releases is Koei Tecmo’s (TKHCF) “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty,” an action role-playing game that launches on March 3 for PlayStation 4 (SONY), PS5, PC, Xbox One (MSFT), and Xbox Series X/S. Also out this week is Bungie’s “Destiny 2: Lightfall,” the latest major expansion in the “Destiny” series. The game launched February 28 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MICROSOFT/ACTIVISION:Â
Last week, Microsoft president Brad Smith aid that the company signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) “Call of Duty” franchise to Nintendo’s (NTDOY) gamers, should the deal finally be approved. In addition, the Xbox maker and Nvidia (NVDA) announced the companies have also agreed to a 10-year partnership to bring Xbox PC games to the Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud gaming service, which has more than 25M members in over 100 countries. “The agreement will enable gamers to stream Xbox PC titles from GeForce NOW to PCs, macOS, Chromebooks, smartphones and other devices. It will also enable Activision Blizzard PC titles, such as Call of Duty, to be streamed on GeForce NOW after Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision closes.” Both announcements come as the deal is continuing to see scrutiny in the U.S., U.K., and European Union, and as Sony continues to publicly object to the transaction amid competition concerns.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported this week that EU European Union antitrust regulators have pushed their deadline for a determination on the deal to April 25. The Xbox maker is anticipated to offer remedies to the EU competition enforcer soon. The news comes a few days after Xbox Gaming head Phil Spencer said that the proposed acquisition is not a “linchpin” for the future of the Xbox brand, and that the business will continue to exist even if the transaction is blocked by regulators, VideoGamesChronicle’s Andy Robinson reported. Spencer was in the U.K. recently for talks with the Competition and Markets Authority following a European Commission hearing in which the company defended the proposed acquisition amid competition concerns, according to VGC.
NINTENDO DOWNGRADES:Â
Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs analyst Minami Munakata downgraded Nintendo to Neutral from Buy with a 5,000 yen price target as the firm adjusted earnings estimates to account for Q3 results and recent business trends. Demand for the Nintendo Switch has been “slowing more markedly than we had previously assumed” and the firm assumes a lull leading up to the launch of the company’s next-generation game console.
The research note came days after Citi analyst Junko Yamamura downgraded Nintendo to Neutral from Buy with a price target of 5,600 yen, down from 7,100 yen. The analyst cut estimates and awaits news on the company expanding its total addressable market.
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
- Activision’s next “Call of Duty” game will be a continuation of 2022’s “Modern Warfare II,” Bloomberg reports [read more]
- Electronic Arts (EA) laid off more than 200 “Apex Legends” QA testers this week, Kotaku reports [read more]
- Nintendo told The Verge that it won’t attend this year’s E3 [read more]
- Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) said its recent “Harry Potter” game “Hogwarts Legacy” sold over 12M units in its first two weeks [read more]
- Bandai Namco (NCBDY) said that “Elden Ring” has shipped over 20M units worldwide since its February 2022 release [read more]
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Originally Posted March 1, 2023 – What You Missed This Week in Video Games
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