Cramer's Way Late To The Nintendo, EA Stories

It's great to have a bully pulpit, Jimmy. Especially when you can duke it out with an analyst on TheStreetTV and let him do the heavy lifting for you (except he did rough you up in the ring - and bad).

The Wii has been red hot ever since E3 2006, and the Internet was all over it way before mainstream media got into the act. Myself and others began covering this pretty aggressively throughout Q3-Q4 2006 leading up to its launch, after which strong demand was seen in the offline world just as it had been foreshadowed in the online world. This is old news.

The EA story is also old news. They rested on their laurels during much of 2006, harvesting their legacy franchise on the PS2 console and not placing bets on new and untested platforms like the Wii, notwithstanding evidence that it was likely to do pretty well. As a result, they fell from on high, seeing their 43x PE get whacked and dropping from nearly $60 to $46 on concerns it had lost its edge and its mojo.

They reacted by purchasing a Wii game development shop and shaking up their senior management ranks. They have since recovered much of the lost ground, printing at above $56 today. That said, your commentary during your Wii boxing beating seemed to indicate that you are living in the past, neither understanding the rocket ship that are Wii console sales nor EA's rapid redeployment of resources to take advantage of the surge in casual gaming. This is all old news, pal. Go on your favorite RSS reader and check it out.

Anyway, good luck in future boxing endeavors, Jim. Because that left jab needs some serious help.

Comments

[lowellfield]

Link goes to a fake Andy Rooney bit on Street.tv, not Cramer vs. an analyst.

[skercrazy]

Cramer's a smart guy but he just covers way too many stocks/sectors (i.e., the whole market). He and others were way late to Nintendo. I'm a casual gamer and it wasn't rocket science to predict the Wii would sell consoles cuz it was cheap and different. Cheap enough that cheap parents bought it for their kids and hardcore gamers bought it along w/ their xbox/ps3. Is it a fad? Possibly...the controls and graphics are subpar. But this fad will last long enough to make investors some serious coin. and ERTS..I made easy money on it last summer and have stayed away since. As they say, invest in what you know. :)