Game stocks hit by Wall Street upheaval

Though Greece is one of the smaller economies in the European Union, its financial woes are being felt worldwide. Violent protests in the Aegean nation sent stocks south on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing over 1,000 points at the day's nadir of trading. The index closed down 347.8 points at 10,520, after rising over 11,000 just a few weeks ago.

Most game companies' stocks are traded on the NASDAQ exchange, which lost 76.13 points--or 3.17 percent of its value--to close at 2,326.16. The hardest-hit publisher was Electronic Arts, which saw its stock sink 5.8 percent, or $1.12 per share, to close at $18.18. Some 5.43 percent ($1.33) was shaved off the shares of specialty retailer GameStop, which ended the day at $23.18.

Similarly hard hit was Take-Two Interactive, which closed down 4.47 percent ($0.46) at $9.83. Despite posting solid earnings yesterday, THQ also took it on the chin, shedding 4.40 percent ($0.31) of its value, with shares priced at $6.74 at the closing bell.

Microsoft's share price fared slightly better, losing 2.91 percent of its value ($0.87) to end the day at $28.98 per share. Activision Blizzard stumbled 2.42 percent ($0.26) to $10.49 just minutes before it reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings of $1.3 billion. Sony's stock was largely unaffected by the turmoil, losing only 8 cents, or 0.24 percent, to close at $33.20.