Game companies like EA see sharp drop in share value

Stock markets aren't something we usually report on here at Gamereactor, but it's certainly caught our attention recently as the stock for major gaming companies has been in decline over the last four months, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

Sony, Nintendo, EA, and Take-Two Interactive have all had their shares drop dramatically between 13 and 14% after their financial reports for Q3 of the 2019 fiscal year were released, while Activision Blizzard - who has yet to provide its financial report - also dropped 10% too.

This is only one part of a continual decline over the last few months, with Sony and Take-Two losing around a third of their value since September, while Nintendo's dropped 40% since almost a year ago and EA has lost 43% since June.

The unstoppable rise of Epic Games' Fortnite has been blamed by many, with revenues reaching around $3-4 billion USD and people making claims it's hogging all the attention in the space. That said, this is similar to when World of Warcraft which had between $1.5-2 billion in revenue, although this grew the industry rather than damaging it. Epic's parent company Tencent has also had a declining share price too, so this explanation isn't likely.

Speculation aside, it's a rather bizarre situation that the industry and these major companies have found themselves in, as these declines in shares can't easily be explained away, especially with Red Dead Redemption II and other big games delivering satisfying results for these companies.

What do you think it could mean?