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Nintendo, Take-Two, & other game stocks drop on news of COVID-19 vaccine

As various drug companies signaled a nearing finish line on a COVID-19 vaccine, the stock prices of various video game companies took a dip.

TJ Denzer

November 9, 2020 10:41 AM

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It’s been a very strange year in gaming. There is little doubt that while the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to nearly all major events shutting down, it has also had a hand in keeping many folks at home to play more video game - a factor that can arguably be credited for the stellar performance of various video game consoles and title sales. It’s been a stellar year for the likes of Nintendo, Activision, and more, but it looks like drug companies are closing in on a vaccine to the coronavirus, and that caused major video game company stock prices to take a dip today.

The trend in the video game corner of the stock market was noticed on November 9, 2020. Following reports that pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and BioNTech claimed their current COVID-19 vaccine tests were returning success rates of around 90% (as reported by Reuters), various video game company stock prices also took a dip, as noted by stock market analysis group Briefing.com. Among those that took a dip were Nintendo ($NTDOY), Take-Two Interactive ($TTWO), Ubisoft ($UBSFY), and Activision ($ATVI).

Gaming/video game software names lower following $PFE #vaccine news: $TTWO (-9.38%), $SE (-6.86%), $UBSFY (-7.25%), $NTDOY (-7.10%), $ATVI (-5.94%)

— Briefing.com (@Briefingcom) November 9, 2020

It’s really no secret why these groups would be hurt by the news of a COVID-19 vaccine. A solution to the ongoing global pandemic would mean humanity wasn’t stuck at home as much. Not being stuck at home means less need to invest in socially-distanced activities such as video games, home exercise, home technology, and more. In fact, groups like the exercise equipment group Pelaton and the conference call group Zoom also took dips today on the vaccine news. Pretty much all of these stocks have since recovered a little bit from their daily lows, but the vaccine news definitely dealt a market wide blow to home and socially-distanced industries.

Groups like Nintendo have reported massive success this year in sales quarter-to-quarter, with the Switch achieving over 68 million units sold and Animal Crossing: New Horizons quickly skyrocketing to one of Nintendo’s top-selling games. As we near a vaccine, continue to stay tuned to Shacknews for more information and updates on how it affects the video games industry.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.