Just read the article - may help to put some perspective on it that in February this year EA stocks were under $16 - if memory serves. The global market took a kicking then, but share prices bounced back.
The market was hammered generally over the past few days - as others have pointed out.
It remains to be seen how well the market will bounce back and how game companies willl be affected long-term.
Thus far, game companies have been pretty insulated from the effects of the recession - it makes more sense to many of us to keep paying for games as a cheaper form of entertainment than to pay for several trips to the movies, or pay an MMO sub when entertainment budgets are constrained (all you can eat entertainment for $15 a month).
Over here in Ireland (we're not quite Greece yet), the gaming industry (BioWare (EA) / Zenimax (Bethesda) / Blizzard) are among the only job creators right now.
I think it's too early to be raising a flag about the dip in the market affecting planned releases / titles in development - if it persists for most of a financial quarter we may see some reassessment then, but reacting this quickly would be a real sign of bad management.
Comments
Just read the article - may help to put some perspective on it that in February this year EA stocks were under $16 - if memory serves. The global market took a kicking then, but share prices bounced back.
The market was hammered generally over the past few days - as others have pointed out.
It remains to be seen how well the market will bounce back and how game companies willl be affected long-term.
Thus far, game companies have been pretty insulated from the effects of the recession - it makes more sense to many of us to keep paying for games as a cheaper form of entertainment than to pay for several trips to the movies, or pay an MMO sub when entertainment budgets are constrained (all you can eat entertainment for $15 a month).
Over here in Ireland (we're not quite Greece yet), the gaming industry (BioWare (EA) / Zenimax (Bethesda) / Blizzard) are among the only job creators right now.
I think it's too early to be raising a flag about the dip in the market affecting planned releases / titles in development - if it persists for most of a financial quarter we may see some reassessment then, but reacting this quickly would be a real sign of bad management.
first of all, LOL @ the 2nd comment on this thread. secondly, it's funny how all kinds of gamers believe they're pro's with economics.