E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is an event that takes place each year during which hardware manufacturers, publishers, and software developers from the industry present new and upcoming products to attendees, primarily members of the video game press or specific retailers. For most of the rest of the world its known as the week we get all our video game news on youtube.
E3 is massively popular, garnering 69,200 attendees this year alone, while millions of people worldwide watched the week's events unfold online, according to the Entertainment Software Association, or the ESA for short. The three day show ended on Thursday after revealing plenty of new game information on everything from
Fallout 76 to
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, and fans and news sites alike are still trying to catch up on everything that we've learned this year in regards to video games and platforms. So much so that some pretty important information almost slipped by us, stock effects!
Taking a look at the numbers, you can see that the major U.S. game publishers saw a climb from the expo. Shares of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) climbed 4.6%, while shares of Electronic Arts (EA) rose a similar 4.7%. Meanwhile, shares of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) rose 7.4% throughout the week.
Other companies also saw a boost from the event, with keyboard and gaming headset maker Logitech (LOGI) up 3.8% and graphics-chip makers Nvidia and Andvanced Micro Devices up 1.8% and 6.6% respectively. The biggest boost seen however, was for Turtle Beach (HEAR). From Monday through Thursday, when the Electronic Entertainment Expo ended this year, it rose a shocking 9%. This is likely due to an announcement by the company during the show that new headsets would be arriving specifically designed for casual gamers who enjoy the battle royale style of gaming that games like
Fortnite and
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds have become well known for.
"After a week of E3, the botton line is that there is clearly still significant investor interest in video games. The group remains a focus for media, tech, and consumer investors, in addition to those who have traditionally followed the industry in the past. There are perhaps more global investors interested than usual as well." - Ben Schachter, Macquarie analyst
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for everyone coming out of the conference, however, so don't let those comments fully fool you. All three major console makers saw their shares decline during E3 2018, with Sony (SNE) dropping 1.7% and Microsoft (MSFT) barely dipping with a measly .2%. The biggest tumble taken was on the part of Nintendo (NTDOY) who saw a massive 10.4% sink in their shares.
What do you think? Do you pay attention to the stocks or are you more concerned with getting your hands on all the new games just announced? Either way, let us know below!