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The video game industry has seen a rapid increase in global revenues year after year, with Statista.com estimating that the PC/MMO sector will earn a total of $26.7 billion in the U.S. market. This is not that surprising for those who have been paying attention to the trends though, since the overall interest in video games has expanded far beyond the traditional home console to include computers, tablets, and smartphones. More than that, digital sales have also started overtaking traditional hardcopies of games since they are considered cheaper and more convenient.
Seeking Alpha covered the topic, stating that one of the top video game companies “Electronic Arts” (NASDAQ:EA) surpassed the expectations of Wall Street in terms of revenue, and this was largely because of the sale of digital copies. Some of their biggest titles to perform well with online purchases include their “Madden NFL” game and “FIFA”. The article highlights the importance of video game companies recognizing that customers now prefer to buy through the medium that they are most familiar with, which is through online stores.
Fool.com also released a podcast talking about “EA’s” phenomenal revenue performance and how they were able to use licensures as well as certain partnership arrangements in order to squeeze the most amount of money they can from the industry. The podcast also asks the question if “EA’s” stocks are now too expensive for investors.
Regarding other major video game companies, NASDAQ covers “Take Two Interactive’s” solid performance for Q4 of 2016. It was noted however, that the company’s overall yearly revenue performance has dropped by 20 percent.
The article also touched on “Sony’s” initiative to invest in a California-based startup called “Cogitai” to help them with their efforts to boost their artificial intelligence technology. The Japanese company hopes to provide customers with a product or service through AI that can learn and interact autonomously with people and real world elements. Seeing as how “Google,” “Facebook,” and “Amazon” are also hard at work to develop their own AI technology for the same purpose, there does seem like a lucrative market for it.
