Craig Robinson is an experienced gaming and esports writer with nearly a decade of coverage experience since 2015. With a background in software engineering, he combines his journalistic expertise with a strong understanding of technical SEO and web development fundamentals. He’s passionate about covering MMO games, competitive esports, and crafting guides that help players get the most out of their favorite titles. He's been writing about gaming and esports for over 10 years, which started as for fun project during university. He has since developed his skill set, contributing to newsrooms coverage of key games and event, and blending evergreen content strategy and a solid grasp of content marketing fundamentals. His work has appeared in Esports News UK, Gamer Guides, The Escapist, and VideoGamer, and he now contributes to Gamehub's team. When he’s not writing, Craig can usually be found running, at the gym, or tinkering with coding projects to keep his GitHub active.
Gaming stocks of the Week: The Gamescom one
I’m back with a new edition of Gaming Stocks of the Week. This week we’ve had some pretty big news from esports, alongside Gamescom helping to drive hype to various major stock tickers. Let’s take a look.
Last week we covered AI, Samsung and tech and more other niche areas around gaming.
Take-Two stocks barely affected by the Extended Look
The Extended Look of GTA VI certainly brought a lot of attention to Netflix and Rockstar Games. Based on trading at the start of the day, Take-Two was at $228 per share, rising 2.33% at the time of writing. There was a noticeable dip before the Extended Look, so the reveal seems to have done rather well in terms of short-term excitement.
However, Take-Two is actually only up 0.15% this week and is technically down compared to the high it hit on August 21st. Swings and roundabouts. It looks like the leaks did a bit of damage overall, which the Extended Look will likely need to help heal alongside other GTA marketing over the coming weeks.
The stock itself is relatively stable and even increasing over a six-month window. Odds are it is poised to do well for the later earnings reports this year and beyond. The only thing that could damage it is the multiplayer still being absent from all marketing campaigns, but that is a problem further down the line. I mean, 6 million people have watched the YouTube reupload after all. Never mind all those who watched it on Netflix. This game will be massive beyond anything else seen in gaming if it is as remotely good as it looks.
Netflix had a sizeable spike around August 26th, declining slightly on August 27th after the Extended Look, and has since settled into a more natural curve. It is technically up this week. The Extended Look and other activity appears to have helped it out considerably. Netflix itself seems to be recovering from its slump earlier in the year, but it is by no means close to its 2026 peak.
Gamescom doesn’t seem to move the needle
To no surprise, CD Projekt Red is actually down, continuing its larger trend over the last few weeks and months. It did get some excitement from Gamescom, with a massive free enhancement of its ten-year-old game alongside more reveals for its big expansion due next year.
I do not see CD Projekt Red stock bouncing up anytime soon, rather staying stable for a good while until the Witcher 3 DLC lands. Then, of course, there is Witcher 4 in 2028 and whenever the next Cyberpunk title comes out. If you go for it, it is a very long hold.
Meanwhile, Paradox also announced its next major game after largely relying on its back catalogue to restabilise the company. The new game, Afterworld, takes an entirely new alt-fiction approach set in an Americas rebuilding itself after an apocalypse.
Gamescom seems to be there to drill excitement as part of a longer or shorter term encouragement to get fans invested in products, which will later translate to sales and earnings reports. And sometimes, it does seem to give a temporary boost on the day, with the Paradox scenario. But, it does seem to level out a bit. Maybe this will reflect Take-Two next week too?
AI cycle on the mend
The AI cycle is on the mend, thanks to Nvidia posting some enormous earnings yet again. Nvidia had become less popular thanks to a focus on RAM and its GPU market appearing stagnant as the data centre phase started looking more toward memory. Yet GPUs still remain extremely valuable in the expansion wave of data centres, and as a result Nvidia has skyrocketed.
Again, this has nothing to do with gaming directly. But it is doing decent work for GeForce streaming and other GPU-related products for gamers too.
We also saw Microsoft spike, thanks to the safety of western AI business still looking healthy. It has nothing to do with Xbox really, as that is still looking precarious.
G2 Esports goes green, technically
The company posted its 2024 earnings report earlier in the week. G2 actually made a profit, though it largely comes from selling Solana tokens. Its core business model is still making a loss, even with cost cutting and other measures. Merchandising and player sales to teams willing to pay the price are helping keep operational costs down.
It will be interesting to see how other partnerships work for the company going forward. It has partnered with McDonald’s, Winamax for gambling and even run a promotion with Wizards of the Coast. Is this, alongside more profitable crypto, the key to turning the organisation’s financials around while esports itself remains unprofitable, with merchandising, prize talent development and player sales keeping its core esports costs in check?
Also, G2’s star LoL player made it to the League of Legends Hall of Legends, where he is getting his own prestigious skin in game. That also might help the brand in 2026 too. That will probably help out too in some brand recognition or other.
