What You Missed This Week in Video Games

New ‘Mario Bros.’ movie dominates box office in opening weekend

"Game On" is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.

NEW RELEASES: Among this week’s notable releases is the Xbox Series X/S (MSFT) port of 2022 title "Ghostwire: Tokyo," an action-horror title published by Microsoft’s Bethesda. The game, which originally launched on PlayStation 5 and PC last year, will release on Xbox April 12. Also out this week is Capcom’s (CCOEY) "Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection," which launches April 14 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (NTDOY), and PC.

‘MARIO BROS.’ FILM: Universal’s (CMCSA) latest film "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," based on the Nintendo franchise, beat all expectations at the box office this past Easter weekend, scoring the top opening of all time for an animated movie with $377M worldwide. At the domestic box office, the film won the long weekend with a $204.6M debut, including $146.4M for the three-day weekend. Such results even surpass the starts of recent installments in Universal’s largest film franchises, like "Jurassic World Dominion" and "Fast and Furious 9," according to Variety.

Following the release, Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating on Nintendo, saying that while the game maker has not issued any official comments, the media reporting on the box office results has driven up the shares. The firm noted that the film is due for release in Japan on April 28, and that the firm sees this as more of a good catalyst to potentially boost the values of Nintendo’s IP, rather than a source of earnings contribution through the box-office sales. The analyst added that they are also looking for the potential launch of a new "Super Mario" series game on the Switch, though nothing has been officially announced.

Click here to check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Nintendo as measured by TipRanks.

BOFA GLOBAL GAME INVESTMENT: In a research note last week, BofA said that the firm launched a collaborative effort to give investors a "high-level view" of the global video game investment universe. BofA said that, as of March 27, the best performing group in this so-called "universe" is GameTech, which is up 28% year-to-day, with Roblox (RBLX) and AppLovin (APP) among the strongest names in 2023, despite being among the worst performing stocks in video games in 2022. PC/Console games sales grew 2% year-over-year in the Q4, the firm said said, driven by new titles from Sony and Activision Blizzard (ATVI), including "God of War Ragnarok" and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II." The firm added that Q4 mobile gaming revenue was down 2% quarter-on-quarter and down 8% year-over-year, with management outlooks not appearing to assume a recession explicitly.

AMAZON LUNA: Amazon (AMZN) announced last week that rime members can play Luna, the e-commerce giant’s cloud gaming service, at no additional cost. "Prime Members get access to a rotating selection of games every month, and Prime members and Luna+ subscribers alike can also link their Ubisoft account to Luna and play select Ubisoft PC games they already own on their Fire TV or on any other supported device," Christian de Looper wrote on Amazon’s website. Amazon Luna works best with the ergonomic and comfortable Luna Controller — available for $69.99. Users can also play Luna using other compatible controllers or by using the Luna Phone Controller app, available as a free download in the Amazon, Android, or iOS app stores. For a monthly fee, a few subscription services can give users access to more games. "Luna+ offers the largest and most diverse collection of games from across genres, and it’s growing." Luna+ subscribers-and Prime members-can also link their Ubisoft (UBSFY) account to Luna, and play select Ubisoft PC games they already own straight on their Fire TV or on any other supported device.

OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:

• Microsoft announced a 10-year cloud gaming partnership with EE [read more]
• Sony said that Capcom’s "Resident Evil 4" remake was the most downloaded PS5 game in March in the U.S., Canada, and EU [read more]
• Electronic Arts (EA) unveiled a new logo for "EA Sports FC," its rebranded soccer sim [read more]

Keywords: video games, game on, mario bros., movie, box office