Electronic Arts
’
EA
studio, Respawn Entertainment, recently partnered with
Facebook
FB
Reality Labs’ Oculus Studios team to unveil the highly-anticipated
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond
.
The new virtual reality (VR) title in the
Medal of Honor
franchise provides the players with twelve maps and five multiplayer modes built for VR. Further, the game’s single-player campaign is expected to enhance user experience with the captivating setting of World War II.
Moreover, with the Steam Platform, the players have access to cross-platform play across multiple different devices. The title is available for $59.99 in Oculus Store for Oculus Rift and Steam, with OpenVR support.
Expanding Franchise Portfolio Drives Growth
Notably, Electronic Arts’ shares have increased 26.5% year to date compared with the Zacks
Toys – Games – Hobbies
industry’s growth of 29.7%.
Electronic Arts benefits from the growing popularity of its well-known franchises, such as
FIFA, Battlefield
,
Star Wars
and
The Sims
. Further, the company continues to expand its franchise portfolio to boost player engagement on its platform.
The company recently announced the launch of
It Takes Two
, a co-op gender-bending gameplay, in collaboration with Hazelight Studios. The game will be available on consoles and PC from Mar 26, 2021. Additionally, earlier this month, the company introduced
Madden NFL 21
and
FIFA 21
on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 worldwide.
Moreover, EA launched
UFC 4
,
Madden NFL 21
,
Rocket Arena
and
Star Wars: Squadrons
during the second quarter of fiscal 2021. Further, it introduced
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered
on PS4, Xbox One and PC as well as EA SPORTS
NHL 21
, which delivers an authentic Be A Pro career experience.
Notably, these launches bode well for the company’s gaming portfolio and drive player base expansion. Additionally, EA benefits from accelerated demand for video games owing to the coronavirus-led shelter in place guidelines, which have confined people to their homes.
Intense Competition to Hurt Prospects
However, this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company faces strong competition from the likes of
Take Two Interactive Software
TTWO
and
Activision Blizzard
ATVI
in the gaming industry, which might hurt its growth prospects in the near term.
Take Two’s second-quarter fiscal 2021 results were largely benefited by significant contributions from
Grand Theft Auto (GTA)
Online
and
GTA V
,
NBA 2K20
and
NBA 2K21
,
Red Dead Redemption 2
and
Red Dead Online
. Moreover, net bookings from recurrent consumer spending (64% of net bookings) soared 43% year over year in the September-end quarter.
Furthermore, Activision’s
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
and the
Call of Duty
franchise have been huge successes.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
, which was launched on Nov 23, sold 3.7 million units globally and became the fastest-selling PC game as of Dec 8.
Nevertheless, Electronic Art’s continuous efforts to attract gamers with new additions to its robust product portfolio are expected to aid player acquisition and drive top-line growth.
You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All
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