Whether gamers themselves want to talk about it or not, stock prices in the video game space are important to certain people in charge. Obviously, if your company isn’t valuable enough to have high stock prices, it means you’re not making enough money to be of value. Plus, it could mean you’re up for being bought by someone else, but that’s another topic entirely. Instead, what we’re talking about is a new report from Serkantoto, who noted via one of its analysts that five of the eight major AAA Japanese developers aren’t just doing well, but they all have had stock highs in recent periods, a stark contrast to what’s been going on in the United States via all the layoffs and shutdowns by major entities.
The big ones, of course, are Sony and Nintendo. The former has been doing well with the PlayStation 5 and other entertainment products, even if the PS5 isn’t exactly “rolling out the video games” at a great clip like many people want. The fact of the matter is that it went to war against Xbox and Microsoft once again and is blowing it out of the water so badly that it’s pretty much a joke that the Xbox Series X/S still exists at this point.
As for The Big N, they’ve been dominating the gaming market for eight years now via the Switch and its insanely epic gaming lineup. The Switch’s sales are very close to all-time best levels, and that doesn’t even count the software sales, which have broken numerous records that may not be topped. The Switch’s successor is coming out this year, with a Direct about it coming next week, so the anticipation is driving the stock prices even higher. So, yeah, the company is doing great.
The other three that have hit all-time highs recently are Konami, Capcom, and Bandai Namco. Capcom arguably is the least surprising of those three, and it’s been crushing it with quality game releases recently, including one in February that has already set sales records for the series and Capcom in general.
The other two have been doing fine, but their stocks might be going up due to “global issues.”
Either way, the fact that all of these AAA Japanese developers are doing well while the Western market is flailing at certain points is very telling. Do recall that in the initial gaming crash of 1983, Japan was fine and brought the gaming world back in many respects. Perhaps it’ll lead the way back to glory once again.
