Piper Jaffray Comments On November Video Game Sales (ATVI, THQI)

November video game software sales rose 3.8% Y/Y on a -3% comp. Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Madden NFL 11 and Fable III were leading titles in the month. For December, Piper Jaffray is forecasting video game software sales will decline near 5% Y/Y. From a stock perspective, the success of Black Ops should provide temporary support to Activision ATVI, while Piper expects THQ Interactive THQI shares to be pressured given softer-than-expected sales of uDraw. Piper continues to believe the current games cycle has little growth left and its outlook on CY11 and CY12 is Neutral. Piper does not recommend any investments in the U.S. games sector. ATVI closed Thursday at $12.17 THQI closed Thursday at $5.82