"Game On" is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES: This week’s major release is Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) action role-playing game "Diablo IV," which launches June 6 for PlayStation 5 (SONY), Xbox Series X/S (MSFT), PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In an announcement on the online-based game going live, Activision Blizzard said that "Diablo IV" is already Blizzard Entertainment’s fastest-selling game of all time, with the business’ highest pre-launch unit sales ever on both console and PC.
Meanwhile, Truist analyst Matthew Thornton last week said that the high Metacritic scores for "Diablo IV" on PC and console are "very positive," though he noted that this is not a guarantee of commercial success. For reference, "Diablo III" scored 86-88 back in 2012 and went on to sell 12M copies in year one and over 30M copies by year three, Thornton noted. The analyst believes the sell-side consensus expectation embeds at least low-teens million "Diablo IV" copies sold in 2023. The firm has a Buy rating on Activision Blizzard with an $84 price target.
APPLE VISION PRO: At its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote event, Apple (AAPL) unveiled the Apple Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset that utilizes "spatial computing" to blend digital content with the physical world. "Vision Pro creates an infinite canvas for apps that scales beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a fully three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible – a user’s eyes, hands, and voice," the company said. "Featuring visionOS, the world’s first spatial operating system, Vision Pro lets users interact with digital content in a way that feels like it is physically present in their space. The breakthrough design of Vision Pro features an ultra-high-resolution display system that packs 23 million pixels across two displays, and custom Apple silicon in a unique dual-chip design to ensure every experience feels like it’s taking place in front of the user’s eyes in real time." During its presentation unveiling the device, the tech giant showcased how users would be able to play many Apple Arcade games on the headset using a large, virtual screen in their living room via augmented reality. The company also it is partnering with Unity (U) to bring a variety of apps to Vision Pro, and that the device comes with Xbox and PlayStation controller support. The headset starts at $3,499 and will be available early next year at Apple Store locations in the U.S., with more countries coming later next year, the company stated.
Meanwhile, Apple also announced during the WWDC keynote that a number of new video game-related features will be coming to macOS Sonoma, its newest operating system for Mac computers. The company showcased Game Mode, which "significantly" reduces input latency for compatible controllers and will make Mac computers able to better run games such as Capcom’s (CCOEY) "Resident Evil Village" and Kojima Productions’ "Death Stranding." Apple also stated that a new Game Porting Toolkit for developers is coming to Mac this year, which will make it easier to port video games to Mac.
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SONY CEO ON CLOUD: In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that cloud gaming is "very tricky" but that the company will look into "various options" "for streaming games over the internet." Yoshida added that Sony could use "GT Sophy, its artificial intelligence agent, to enhance cloud gaming," according to FT. "I think cloud itself is an amazing business model, but when it comes to games, the technical difficulties are high… so there will be challenges to cloud gaming, but we want to take on those challenges," the CEO said.
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
- Activision Blizzard saw an uptick in misconduct incidents by staff last year, Axios reports [read more]
- Comcast’s (CMCSA) "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has become the second highest-grossing animated film of all time, Variety reports [read more]
- Meanwhile, Nintendo opted to wind down operations of its Russian unit [read more]
- 2021 PlayStation 5 exclusive "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart" will release on PC July 26 [read more]
- Nike (NKE) and EA Sports (EA) are partnering to bring .SWOOSH virtual creations to sports games [read more]
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