The Electronic Entertainment Expo starts on Tuesday, and everyone who is anyone in the gaming industry will be there, including Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two Interactive (TTWO), Disney (DIS), Sony (SNE), Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook’s (FB) Oculus VR and more. Virtual reality is expected to be a huge attention-getter this year as several big names are getting in the VR game. Facebook’s Oculus Rift will ship out in early
Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO), maker of the hit pro basketball video game “NBA 2K15,” delivered a slam dunk Monday for its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Take-Two stock rose 18% to 28.62 on the stock market today. The game publisher, best known for its “Grand Theft Auto” series, hit a record high of 30.80 on Jan. 28. For the quarter ended March 31, Take-Two earned 49 cents a share excluding items, up 133% year over year and beating Wall Street’s target of 27 cents. Sales rose 83% to $428 million, short of the $459 million expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Take-Two lost $2.99 a share in Q4, vs. a year-earlier profit of 40 cents a share. GAAP sales rose 54% to $300 million.
Cops-and-robbers video game “Battlefield Hardline” from Electronic Arts (EA) shot up the competition last month in what was an overall down month for the video game sector. “Battlefield Hardline” was the No. 1 best-selling video game at U.S. retail in March, the NPD Group reported late Thursday. Sony ‘s (SNE) “Bloodborne” came in second place for sales, followed by Take-Two Interactive Software ‘s (TTWO) “Grand Theft Auto 5” and Nintendo ‘s (NTDOY) “Mario Party 10.” Overall sales of new video game products fell 6% year over year to $964 million in March, NPD said. Game hardware suffered the biggest drop, down 21% to $311 million. Game software sales dipped 3% to $395 million. Game accessory sales rose 15% to $257 million.