What You Missed This Week in Video Games

“Game On” is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.

NEW RELEASES: This week’s biggest release is Nintendo’s (NTDOY) “Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD,” a Switch remaster of 2013 Nintendo 3DS title “Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.” The action-adventure game arrives on Switch consoles June 27. Also out this week is Sega’s (SGAMY) platform game “Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble,” which releases for Switch on June 25.

EUROPE MAY SALES: 11.6M video games on PC and consoles were purchased across European markets last month, marking a nearly 17% year-over-year drop from the same five-week period last year, Gamesindustry.biz’s Christopher Dring (EA) “EA Sports FC 24,” followed by Take-Two’s (TTWO) “Grand Theft Auto V,” EA’s “F1 2024,” Sony’s (SONY) “Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut,” and Nintendo’s “Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.” Other top sellers for the month were Activision’s (MSFT) “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Hogwarts Legacy,” Sony’s “Helldivers 2,” EA’s “Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,” and Take-Two’s “Red Dead Redemption 2.”

OPCO POSITIVE ON EA: Late last week, Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and $150 on Electronic Arts after catching up with the game maker’s investor relations team this week to discuss recent game reveals and feedback. The firm said that, overall, it came away incrementally positive based on constructive comments on the early reception of “Dragon Age: The Veilguard.” The company’s management noted that it saw player sentiment improving from the game’s reveal trailer to the later gameplay trailer.

Not long after, Stifel analyst Drew Crum raised the firm’s price target on Electronic Arts to $163 from $150 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm recommends buying the shares ahead of what it sees as a series of potential near-term catalysts, some of which it argues “may not be fully appreciated by the market as reflected in current valuations.”

OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:

• Pixelworks (PXLW) is collaborating with Tencent’s (TCHEY) TiMI Studio gruop on mobile game “Honor of Kings”(CCOEY) said that its 2019 “Resident Evil 2” remake has sold over 13.9M copies (read more)
• Korean developer ShiftUp’s latest game “Stellar Blade,” which is currently a PlayStation 5 exclusive, has sold over 1M copies since its late April release, Gamestalk.net reports (read more)