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Game stocks regain ground in market rally

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Sep 30, 2008 5:44 pm PT

EA, Activision, THQ, Ubisoft, Sony, and Microsoft partially recover from yesterday's fiscal boot party on Wall Street.

Yesterday was one of the worst days on Wall Street in decades, with markets crashing after the US Congress voted down a $700 billion rescue plan. UK-based newspaper The Daily Telegraph estimated corporate losses as being worth as much as the entire economy of India, with the Dow Jones industrial average shedding 777 points--the biggest one-day point drop in its history.

Also pummeled was the NASDAQ average, where most game-related stocks are traded. Luckily, when the closing bell rang this afternoon, the NASDAQ Composite Index had climbed 4.97 percent after falling 9.14 percent the day before. The rising tide took many game stocks along with it, with the biggest third-party publisher, Activision Blizzard, getting back $1.31 per share (9.28 percent) of the $2.26 it lost Monday to close at $15.43.

Acti-Blizz's nemesis Electronic Arts also recouped some of the $3.63, or 9.16 percent, that was shaved off of its share price Monday, closing up $0.99 (2.75 percent) at $36.99. Though still far below its asking price back when it was an EA takeover target, Take-Two more than recovered the 4.52 percent ($0.73) cleaved of its stock yesterday, ending the day up $0.97, or 6.29 percent, at $16.40. THQ trimmed its $0.87-per-share slip somewhat by regaining $0.56 (4.88 percent) to close at $12.04.

Though games are just a small part of its business, Xbox 360-maker Microsoft rallied as well, regaining $1.68 (6.72 percent) to reach $26.69 as the NASDAQ closing bell tolled. The day prior, the software giant's worth shrunk 8.72 percent, or $2.39 per share. Unfortunately, over on the New York Stock Exchange, Sony Corp. posted a tiny $0.11 per share gain, barely denting the $1.65-per-share blow it took on the corporate chin at the week's start.

Overseas, yesterday's biggest loser was French publisher Ubisoft, which saw €12.47 ($17.92) lopped off its share price. Today, it bounced back by €7.25 ($10.23) to close at €48.80 ($68.84). Eidos parent SCi Entertainment ended the day up £1.75 ($3.12) at £28.50 ($50.75), blunting the £3.75 ($6.75) wound inflicted on it the day before.

152 Comments

  • Thrash2kill

    Posted Oct 9, 2008 6:29 am PT

    Gatts, where are you from? I'd really love to know. I'm sure wherever it is your governments is much less corrupt and your people are far from possessive, greedy, and opportunistic. In fact I'm positive your country is the only one not affected but the tide of globalization. I'm sure you live a life of thoughtfulness of others, respect for the planet.

    Stop judging people because of the invisible borders they live in. Some of us work hard everyday to do the right thing, other not so much but don't generalize us, or anyone for that matter. We're not SUV driving, flag waving, cowboys. So if you want to talk about learning from history, why don't start reading up on some yourself. If you do, I promise the next time your post a comment you won't sound like such a ignorant, ill informed prick

  • piotr1

    Posted Oct 8, 2008 1:12 am PT

    thank you geaorge bush , well when you elect a clown to run the most powerful country in the world what do you think will happen,

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 6:39 pm PT

    what are u, santa claus?

  • Cant-Get-Right

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 6:11 pm PT

    Ohohoho! It funny because Bush sucks! Ohohoho and its funny because EA would suck then! Ohohoho

  • Lisandro_v22

    Posted Oct 7, 2008 3:27 pm PT

    Bush is to economy what EA is to videogames

  • skate_n_game

    Posted Oct 5, 2008 4:06 pm PT

    I agree with both statements below. Solely blaming Bush for this crisis is beyond childish....

  • snakes3425

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 2:05 pm PT

    These days it's easier to blame everyone but yourself for your failures. It's easier to point to Bush, Corperate Interests, the Rich or find some vast conspiricy to blame for the mess we're in but what about the people who took out those loans knowing full well they couldn't pay them back, and then spent the money on stuff they couldn't afford or didn't need and went back for more? Do they deserve a bailout even though those loans they took out are the cause of the problem.
    When a bank goes under, everyone who had money in that bank, wheather they have good credit or not, and everyone who works there, executive and joe shmoe loses their jobs.
    People are against the bill because they hate the idea of paying extra to keep banks afloat, but they change their tone when it's their own job or finances that are on the line.

  • thepyrethatburn

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 1:49 pm PT

    *Sigh* Okay, first, while it is tempting to blame Bush, it is inaccurate. This crisis has been in the making for 13 years and many say for even longer.

    Take Glass-Stegall being repealed. Some would say "Clinton signed it into law so it's his fault" Not so fast. The effort to repeal the act was led by Phil Gramm and James Leach, both of whom were Republicans. "Ah, so it's actually the Republicans." Hold on there. The act's repeal got a veto-proof majority from both parties. This means that both parties overwhelmingly approved of this.

    The above example is just one of a number of efforts that the government did to help bring about this crisis. There is enough blame on both ends of the aisle that saying "It's all Bush's fault" is simply childish.

    Now Yuck and Dark have debated most of the salient points of the bailout so I won't repeat. I tend to side with Yuck on this. All this bailout is going to do is draw out a mild recession for a while until we are finally unable to support this shell game that we have going on and the whole thing collapses only, by then, we won't have any resources in reserve to recover. I would have preferred that we had just bit the bullet and accepted a year or two of pain but that's not what this bill was about.
    This bill was about the lobbyists and corporate interests who have bought our representatives. Members of the House and Senate kept saying "The people want this bill." is that so? Why has EVERY opinion poll been overwhelmingly against this bailout then?
    What this bill boiled down to is that the corporate interests who have been "donating" to the campaigns of our representatives have been telling them "You owe us. Time to pay up." Our representatives are okay with this because it's not their money that's being flushed down the toilet. They also know that, by the time elections swing around, the American public (being far more concerned with American Idol results than our government) will vote in the same two parties that they always have. Yeah, some of them may lose their jobs but the idea of any form of meaningful change is a bedtime story that people tell their children at this point.

  • hiway2hell

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 6:47 am PT

    Bush did sign the bailout

  • sakaiXxX

    Posted Oct 4, 2008 3:51 am PT

    it's u who u choose your leader and what a stupid choice u made.........Damn u who voted for bush!!!

  • Zerosumgame

    Posted Oct 3, 2008 8:12 am PT

    I am surprised that GDP of India is actually higher than Australia and South Korea.

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