Shares of EA and other game publishers fell after Trump's statement about the connection between video games and mass shootings
The reason for mass shootings is again being sought in video games. This time, US President Donald Trump saw a connection between the games and two terrorist acts in the country. After that, the shares of the largest game publishers sank sharply.
According to CNBC, the head of the White House accused “a number of horrific video games” of glorifying violence. “Such games have become commonplace,” he added. Trump expressed his opinion after two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, which killed 31 people.
Trump’s statement led to an instant drop in shares of gaming companies:
- Activision Blizzard — by 6%;
- Zynga — by 5%;
- Electronic Arts and Take-Two — by 4%.
Mobile Zynga stands out somewhat from this list compared to the publishers of Call of Duty and Battlefield. The fact is that Zynga is known for its rather innocent titles – casual simulators and merge games. Although she recently released the “battle royale” Tiny Royale, featuring a cartoon style.
Note that the American Association of Software and Video Game Manufacturers (ESA) has already objected to Trump. ESA pointed out that the connection between video games and tragic cases of violence has not been proven.
“We have already noted at a meeting on video games at the White House in March 2018 that numerous studies have not revealed a causal relationship between video games and violence. More than 165 million Americans — and billions of people around the world — play video games. And other countries where games are also popular do not face the same level of violence as in the United States,” the association’s experts noted.
By the way, the last phrase in the ESA statement is confirmed by an infographic from Vox, which compares the income from video games (per person) and the number of deaths from firearms in different countries. In the second parameter, the USA is ahead of everyone.
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