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[mrfredman]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge when it comes to investing in publicly traded video game companies? I have come into a few hundred dollars and my financial advisor (aka my father) has persuaded me to try and invest it instead of spending it frivolously or having it sit in my bank account.

I might just put it in good old mutual funds, but seeing as the stock market is in the toilet, this might be a good time to try and get some cool stock while prices are relatively low.

I was thinking it would be interesting to try and invest in some sort of video-game related company. After a tiny bit of research, the publicly traded companies that could potentially be invested in that I could find are:

Activision-Blizzard
EA
Take Two
Nintendo
Konami
Capcom
and Microsoft and Sony to a lesser extent.

Are there other obvious companies that I'm overlooking? Also, do people have any experience investing in any of these companies?

I'm sorta thinking about putting my money on activision-blizzard, I know they're the biggest fish in the pond at the moment and unhip as can be. But somehow I feel like the 20 new guitar heros and call of duty's coming out this year are bound to make them truckloads of money. Not to mention Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.

Thoughts? Opinions? I know very little about investment in general, so any sort of advice is welcome.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I invested in Nintendo about 5 years ago with $100, then sold it a few years later for about $400 (this was right before the recession and right when the Wii was doing very well). I wouldn't put a huge amount of money in stocks though, since it's quite risky, especially in the current economic crisis. Some people think the stock market is at its low, but I personally think into go a lot lower and it hasn't reached the bottom yet.

[Snakey]

  I'd buy a few hundred cups of coffee.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Another thing is that inflation of the US dollar is probably going to go up, so it's not good to put it into pure savings either. I recommend buying commodities that could later be resold if needed, or just buying stuff which is inexpensive now but may be more expensive later and will last a long time, like socks, underwear, soap, blankets, tissue paper, light bulbs, that kind of stuff.

E.g. if you know that the price if soap in 20 years may be several times higher than it is now, and if you know that soap lasts that long, an excellent way to save money would be to buy a lifetime supply of soap right now and just store it. This is assuming you have a safe storage area, such as a basement, available. Another consideration is that buying stuff in bulk / wholesale is often cheaper than buying it on the store shelf, so that's another reason to buy personal commodities ahead of time.

[moi]

buy guns

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

He only has a few hundred -- I think guns cost more than that, at least good ones. They seem to be amazingly expensive last I looked into them. Here's an auction site, which has lower than average prices, and $1000 for a pistol isn't uncommon: http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Browse.asp?Cat=978

EDIT: Surprisingly I recognize a ton of them from Resident Evil games.

[Movius]

I was thinking it would be interesting to try and invest in some sort of video-game related company.

THEN THROW YOUR MONEY AWAY!

Seriously... If you are held at gunpoint and forced to invest in video games, why not favour one of your prefered independent developers with a $100 donation/investment/loan, (Preferably someone reliable.) They'll probably remember the help it for the future and ensuring the completion of a game that you will enjoy is almost definitely more of a return than you'll get from video game companies on the stockmarket.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Maybe, but what could an indie dev do with a $100 loan that would significantly or even slightly improve their game? The biggest limiting resource for indie game development is often free time, not money.

[Movius]

Maybe, but what could an indie dev do with a $100 loan that would significantly or even slightly improve their game? The biggest limiting resource for indie game development is often free time, not money.

I was making a point about the idiocy of investing in video game companies on the stock market.

Video games are luxury items. recession = more unemployed/underemployed. more unemployed/underemployed = less money for luxury items. less money for luxury items = less video game sales.

[Eclipse]

Maybe, but what could an indie dev do with a $100 loan that would significantly or even slightly improve their game? The biggest limiting resource for indie game development is often free time, not money.

my biggest limiting resource is money, but sadly i need more than $100

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Not necessarily true, some luxuries go up in recessions and depressions. For instance, in January game sales had a very good month.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10164633-62.html

"Game sales buck the recession with 13% growth in January"

Also, remember that in the great depression, sales of toys, alcohol, and other similar luxuries skyrocketed. It seems people like distracting themselves from their problems, and games are often a way to do that.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

And yes, I agree, Eclipse. There's a lot more that I could do with $1000 or more than I could with $100, such as buying a better computer, buying some nice programs, and so on. $100 could buy me some royalty-free sound effects (I'm always in need of those) but that's about it.

[2beegames]

I find that video game stocks only really move upwards significantly during M&A talks. I think there are much better places to put your money in as the industry has been pretty volatile of late.

[Movius]

Not necessarily true, some luxuries go up in recessions and depressions. For instance, in January game sales had a very good month.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10164633-62.html

"Game sales buck the recession with 13% growth in January"

Also, remember that in the great depression, sales of toys, alcohol, and other similar luxuries skyrocketed. It seems people like distracting themselves from their problems, and games are often a way to do that.

I have heard this said about the great depression, but only as an anecdote. So I have no reason to believe or disbelieve.

Regardless: those industries were not ultra-competitive in the same way as the video game industry. Which is...

 a) Reliant on sources of credit to fund new projects (very difficult to obtain now.)

 b) in many cases reliant on aid from THE MAN to survive (see Montreal.) THE MAN is stretched very thin at the moment due to handing out trillions to dig holes and fill them back in again. When it comes time to recover said trillions, funding video games is going to be top of the list of things to cut.

Also, an increase in sales isn't necessarily the whole story. The increase could be less than expected (Share price will most-likely drop as a result,) or it may be insufficient to cover other increases in the cost of doing businness.

The general gist of my first post was that you should avoid investing in games unless it is something that you have an interest in seeing finished. If it were my $100, I would avoid stocks completely, give it to someone knowledgable to invest on my behalf or just pocket it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Another example of an industry that did well in the great depression is the movie industry -- it too is somewhat diversionary, and the great depression was actually a kind of golden age for the movie industry.

Also, do game companies even take out loans in order to fund games? I haven't heard of that. I've heard Nintendo has like two billion in the bank, in cash, just sitting there waiting for when they need it, and that's probably its source of funding for new games, rather than loans.

But I also think $100 is way too little to invest, it's pocket change when it comes to investing, really. The fee required to invest is often $10-$20 per transaction, so you'd lose a good deal of that just for the fee of investing it. As I said, I recommend just buying some extra socks and underwear etc. to last you for another 10-20 years, since it's cheaper to buy it now than it will be in 10-20 years after inflation increases its price. At three pairs of good socks for $10 (don't get the cheap cotton kinds as they wear out more easily), you can get 30 pairs of socks for $100.

[Movius]

But I also think $100 is way too little to invest, it's pocket change when it comes to investing, really. The fee required to invest is often $10-$20 per transaction, so you'd lose a good deal of that just for the fee of investing it.

Also, all people that are succesful (consistently) on the stock market will have many backup plans in the form of hedges and the like to cover their arses if something bad happens. They don't just point at a stock on a list and say "hurrrr, i like that one" and dump all their money into it.

Another option in the video game market might be to invest in games themselves. Buy a limited edition version of something or a game(s) you can sell later and that you expect to increase in value. If things turn out badly you can always play and enjoy the game.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Yeah, although another point is that my suspicion is just that the father wants to get his son into investing and is using this as an opportunity to teach him how it works. In that sense it might be successful even if he loses it all.

Also, not all investors are that sane -- some are far more risky and put their entire life savings in a single company on the suspicion it'll go up. That's not recommended, but it does happen pretty often, so I wouldn't say that the only kinds of investors are sane ones. A lot of investing is like legalized gambling, with the same type of addiction problems.

[mrfredman]

I'm going to pull a hardcore necrobump here because I recently became curious about this again (completely forgetting I had ever made this thread), and did some fresh hunting around.

I was simply googling 'Publicly Traded Game Companies' and this thread came up as the second result, so I figured I'd resurrect it to share some findings I've made (in the past 3 years).

First of all, as people pointed out back in 2009, investing in publicly traded game companies is a terrible idea, now moreso than ever, but I was still curious so I put together a list of what was out there.

Consoles
Nintendo - NTDOY
Sony - SNE
Microsoft - MSFT

Publishers
EA - EA
Activision/Blizzard - ATVI
Take Two - TTWO
Atari - ATA
Square Enix - SQNF
Capcom - CCOEF

Social/Mobile
Glu Mobile - GLUU
Gameloft - GLOFF
Zynga - ZNGA
Gree - GREZF


I've taken all of these and plugged them into a fancy stock visualizer so now I can watch a lot of red lines get closer and closer to the x-axis.

...and that's kinda it. I just wanted to get this documented so the next person who googles 'publicly traded game companies' can have a decent list as a first result instead of having to dig around for 3 years.

If you've got any suggestions for my collection, please let me know as I'm eager to make it as comprehensive as I can.

[moi]

there is this new kickstarter-like website that lets you invest on games and get a percentage on the game's revenue as a reward, forgot the name

[Mister Dave]

I might just put it in good old mutual funds.....

If you know nothing about investing, then this is the best choice if you'd like to keep your money. Managed funds usually have the highest returns, but also have recurring fees. Be sure the gains more than cover the fees.

Investing in publisher stock? This wouldn't be a good time for that unless you have some insider information (but that would be illegal). And, you'll piss off your advisor won't you?

Stay away from funds that hold Apple stock. That dog won't hunt right now.