EA?s stock has taken a pretty nice tumble since November 4, when it celebrated a 52-week high. In fact, since that day in late fall, EA stocks have slipped by an astounding 30%. Much of the slide comes as the result of concerns over Star Wars: The Old Republic, and EA?s refusal to publish any formal sales tallies.
Everyone knows that EA has made a substantial investment in the Star Wars-themed MMO, and has largely hung its financial hopes on the success of the game. Shareholders in the company are wary of taking a fall and have chosen to interpret EA?s reluctance to release sales figures for The Old Republic as an indicator that the numbers must be bad. This speculation is taking a toll on EA stocks.
However, analyst group Macquarie Securities believes investors may be getting ahead of themselves by abandoning the EA ship. The company issued a report early this week addressing the fact that EA?s refusal to release numbers doesn?t guarantee that the numbers are bad, and that most copies of the game were moved through the currently untracked Origin online service. This means the retail sales, tracked by a third party agency, may not be up to snuff.
The analyst company believes that EA is still a good buy, and that SWTOR will likely hit its target of 1.5 million units moved. So, if you?re thinking about dumping your EA stock, you may want to hold onto it until the official numbers come out.
Have you played Star Wars: The Old Republic? How does it compare to other sci-fi role-playing games?
Source: Gamasutra