Business Corpus: 'Fortnite,' Esports Set To Rule E3 Video Game ShowEsports and battle royale video games are expected to be among the hot topics at the upcoming E3 interactive entertainment conference in Los Angeles. The three-day show officially kicks off on Tuesday. The post 'Fortnite,' Esports Set To Rule E3 Video Game Show appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Esports and battle royale video games are expected to be among the hot topics at the upcoming E3 interactive entertainment conference in Los Angeles.

The three-day show officially kicks off on Tuesday, but preshow events were scheduled to start Saturday.

Major video game publishers such as Activision Blizzard (ATVI), Sony (SNE), Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) and Ubisoft will be showing off their latest software titles at the show.

The annual E3, short for Electronic Entertainment Expo, is a place for die-hard gamers and the gaming press to try out new games and get previews of what's ahead.

One of the big trends at this year's show will be the explosion of games using the battle royale format. "Fortnite Battle Royale" from Epic Games and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" from Bluehole popularized the format. Battle royale games are multiplayer online fighting games where the last player standing wins.

E3 2018 also will be home to several esports competitions, including a major "Fortnite" tournament. Nintendo (NTDOY) will be hosting tournaments for its big games and ESL is setting up an esports arena in the Los Angeles Convention Center for the show.

Big Game Publishers At E3

Electronic Arts (EA) is hosting its own event in Los Angeles away from E3. Its three-day EA Play show starts Saturday. It will be touting such upcoming games as "Anthem" and "Battlefield 5."

Activision will be promoting combat game "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4," which will include a battle royale mode.

Take-Two is expected to chat up its Wild West action game "Red Dead Redemption 2" and other titles at the show.

E3 will give Wall Street a chance to evaluate a trio of high-profile games launching within two weeks of each other this fall, Cowen analyst Doug Creutz said in a report Thursday. Activision's "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" comes out on Oct. 12, followed by EA's "Battlefront 5" on Oct. 19 and "Red Dead Redemption 2" on Oct. 26.

"While the player bases of the titles are not identical, we still expect some cannibalization of demand among the three," Creutz said. "October is going to be brutally competitive."

The popularity of free-to-play game "Fortnite" could spoil the holiday season for Activision, EA and Take-Two, Jefferies analyst Timothy O'Shea said in an E3 preview report Wednesday. Epic makes money on "Fortnite" by selling digital extras that enhance the game experience.

"Epic could shatter streaming and viewership records at its ('Fortnite') event on Tuesday June 12, where it will certainly make several announcements," O'Shea said.

Personal computer and peripherals makers also will be at E3 in force to tout their latest gear for PC gamers. Hardware firms at the show include graphics-chip makers Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA) and PC giants Dell and Lenovo. Headset makers Logitech (LOGI) and Turtle Beach (HEAR) also will be showing their wares.

'Red Dead' Expectations 'Overly Optimistic'

Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets analyst Gerrick Johnson believes that investor expectations for "Red Dead Redemption 2" could be overly optimistic.

Wall Street is modeling for fiscal 2019 unit sales of 15 million to 18 million for the game, with 25 million units sold in the first 12 months.

"We expect a solid performance (15 million in fiscal 2019 and 17.5 million in the first 12 months) but are concerned about the risk of underperforming lofty expectations," Johnson said in a report.

Johnson downgraded Take-Two stock on Tuesday to market perform from outperform and cut his price target to 116 from 135. Take-Two shares ended the regular session flat at 113.42 on the stock market today.

In addition to concerns about "Red Dead" underperforming, he sees a potential slowdown in sales for the company's "NBA 2K" and "Grand Theft Auto" franchises.

Take-Two Outlook Seen Bright Thanks To 'Red Dead' Game

Video Game Stocks Rise, Shake Off 'Fortnite' Threat

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