Key Strategic Investors Make Major Bet on Interactive Game Streaming Technologies

Key Strategic Investors Make Major Bet on Interactive Game Streaming Technologies

Genvid Technologies focuses on what many would consider an obscure area, interactive streaming SDKs for game developers. However, this is an area that could drive a new future of game industry business models. Investors tend to agree as the company announced an oversubscribed Series B round from important strategic investors. The new funding round is for $33 million, raising the total investment in Genvid to $53 million. However, it was not the amount of money that made this investment.....
Activision Blizzard Removes Games from GeForce Now

Activision Blizzard Removes Games from GeForce Now

Last week Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) released its annual results for 2019.  Revenue was down over 2018, but the stock had a nice increase.  This week ATVI announced it would remove its games from the newly launched GeForce Now streaming service.  So, what is up with Activision? In 2019, Activision revenue was $6.5 billion versus $7.0 billion for 2018.  Net income in 2019 was $1.5 billion versus $1.8 billion the previous year.  However, the week after th.....
Activision Blizzard Sees Success with World of Warcraft Classic Sales

Activision Blizzard Sees Success with World of Warcraft Classic Sales

Large video game publishers have significant value in their historic franchises.  Unfortunately, they have often struggled to take full advantage of those evergreen classics.  Activision Blizzard was no exception.  However, the recent release of World of Warcraft Classic shows that they may be coming around. World of Warcraft Classic released on August 26th.  The main attraction of this product is that it is a version of the game from when it first launched 15 years ago .....
Will it be Sony and Microsoft versus Google and Amazon?

Will it be Sony and Microsoft versus Google and Amazon?

Last week many industry observers were surprised when Sony and Microsoft announced a deal to work together on cloud games/AI and other technology.  This deal was done at the highest level of both companies.  The big question of many observers is whether Sony and Microsoft are teaming up to fight a perceived challenge from newcomers like Google and Amazon? The deal basically has Sony using some of Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform technology to develop game and content streaming serv.....
Digital Lego: Can Lego Remain Relevant in the Digital Age

Digital Lego: Can Lego Remain Relevant in the Digital Age

In recent months, a major question being asked of DFC Intelligence is the impact of Fortnite on the overall video game industry.  Our overall take has been that Fortnite is not taking away business from most other companies in the industry.  However, there are exceptions.  Toy manufacturer Lego is an example of a company potentially being impacted by products like Fortnite.  So it is worth asking if ther.....
Is Fortnite Killing Game Company Stocks?

Is Fortnite Killing Game Company Stocks?

Since last October major game company stocks have been down significantly.  Of course, much of this was due to an overall market decline.  However, as market indexes have bounced back, game companies are still down.  One of the big culprits many people are pointing to for this decline is Fortnite. DFC Intelligence does regular calls with investors about individual company performance.  Recently there have been quite a few calls from investors asking how much Fortnite is having an i.....

Losing Bungie Raises Big Concerns about the Destiny of Activision

In the past few months, a big topic for DFC Intelligence analysts has been investor concern over the fate of big game publishers Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard.  This issue really came to a head with the announcement that Bungie, developer of the Destiny franchise, was making a break from its publisher Activision.  What exactly does this announcement say about the future of a company like Activision Blizzard?  To be cute, in other words, what is the destiny of Activision? D.....
Ubisoft Versus Take-Two Interactive: When Less is More

Ubisoft Versus Take-Two Interactive: When Less is More

In the recent DFC Intelligence report The Business of Video Games, we classified Take-Two Interactive and Ubisoft as medium-sized traditional publishers.  In fact, they are two of the few remaining notable mid-size publishers focused on AAA-console games.  The companies have a similar revenue base so we thought it would be interesting to compare Ubisoft versus Take-Two Interactive. In terms of revenue, both Take-Tw.....