How about a videogame stock? But, hurry, your time is running out. Most of these companies are either climbing the stairway to EA Heaven, or starting to feel the sulferous fumes of pink sheet hell. Successful videogame companies have, as they say in the MBA studies, a bell shaped distribution. You're either an insanely talented individual programmer/artist who makes a great game or engine who is immediately swamped with that ever-charming term F***-you money, or a distribution/publishing behemoth who gets benefits from scale. The mid-tier gets squeezed, and even if you do arguably the greatest videogame of all time you still might not stay independent.
So here's a list of your available options. Anyone we're missing? Strange numbers and letters before or after the usual ticker symbol mean its traded on a foreign exchange. Help us build out the list, with companies that derive 50% or more of their revenue or profits from the videogame industry.
| Company | Stock Symbol |
| Activision | ATVI |
| Atari | ATAR.PK |
| Capcom | 9697:TSE |
| Electronic Arts | ERTS |
| Funcom | FUNCOM.OL |
| GameStop | GME |
| Glu Mobile | GLUU |
| Infogrames | IFG.PA |
| JoWood (Dreamcatcher, Adventure Company) | JWD.BE |
| Konami | KNM |
| Majesco | COOL |
| Midway | MWY |
| Namco | NCBDF |
| NCSoft | NCSCF.PK |
| Nintendo | NTDOY |
| Red Mile Entertainment | RDML.OB |
| SCI Entertainment | SEG.L |
| Sega Sammy Holdings | 6460:TSE |
| Shanda Interactive | SNDA UQ |
| Silverstar Holdings (Empire, StrategyFirst) | SSTR |
| Sony | SNE |
| Southpeak | GSPA.OB |
| Square Enix | 9684:TSE |
| Take Two | TTWO |
| Tecmo | 9650:TSE |
| The9 Ltd | NCTY |
| THQ | THQI |
| Ubisoft | UBI.PA |
| Vivendi | VIV.PA |
| Webzen | WZEN |
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
This is a great article for gamers who are interested in investing but can't find the time to do the research. I use Microsoft Money myself and about half of these companies were on the list with surprising results in the stock market. Going to enjoy watching the companies stock for a bit before I decide to invest, but I'm glad I know the symbol for each game company to properly invest in.