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This year’s launch of Wii U will not provide a significant share price boost for third party publishers, but a predicted autumn 2013 release for the next Xbox will be a driver, Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz has predicted.
“We note that while the WiiU will launch later this year, we do not view it as a likely driver of third party publisher shares given their historically low exposure to Nintendo platforms,” said the report produced by Creutz.
However, given the strong third-party sales on Xbox 360, news of a next Xbox console is very likely to be a catalyst for a rise in third-party share prices.
“Although not yet confirmed by Microsoft, we believe the next generation Xbox console could launch in the fall of 2013,” explained Creutz. “In past console cycles, the video game publisher stocks outperformed the S&P 500 for the 12 months leading up to the key console launch of that generation by an average of plus 57 per cent.”
Creutz rules out a digital only console from Microsoft, but does believe the platform holder will make it cheaper to stimulate early adoption.
