Game Reviews Affect Stock Prices?

June 12th, 2006 by Tobias Dahl in Action, Business, Online, PC, Software, Xbox360

taketwo

Game reviews have always had an impact on the buyers and their selection. Now it seems that reviews also have an impact on publisher share prices. Martketwatch.com analyzed how game publisher stocks performed when their games good and bad reviews. In case of Take Two, publisher of the top seller Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion there were no high expectations for the game, but when it received critical acclaim from reviewers, Take Two’s stock rose almost 20%. The Xbox360 version sold 1.7 million copies, far more than analysts predicted, and the stock rose steadily for ten days in a row. Most of the impact was done by review site Metacritic.com, where Oblivion is the highest rated Xbox360 game to date.

On the other hand, Activision’s True Crime: New York City had high expectation but failed at the review desk among game sites like GameSpot and IGN. Average rating was around 60 (out of 100) on Metacritic, and Activision shares fell in value for 5 days in a row.

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