[Source: Bloomberg]
03/06 20:51
Nintendo Rises on EA Plan to Make 20 GameCube Titles (Update1)
By Hiroshi Suzuki
Kyoto, Japan, March 7 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of Nintendo Co., the world's second-largest maker of video game consoles, rose as much as 4.8 percent after Electronic Arts Inc. said it will make 20 titles for the Japanese gamemaker's GameCube console.
The comments allayed concerns that Electronic Arts, the largest U.S. maker of video games, would make fewer titles for the GameCube after the machine failed to meet Nintendo's sales forecast. In January, Electronic Arts Chief Executive Lawrence Probst told analysts the company would review the number of sports games it designs for Nintendo's console.
``This is a bigger deal for Nintendo,'' said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at SWS Securities Inc., who rates Electronic Arts ``strong buy'' and doesn't own the shares. ``The GameCube console hasn't gotten as much traction as people were hoping for.''
Electronic Arts said it will also work with Nintendo to create games that share data between the GameCube and Nintendo's portable game player called Game Boy Advance, the companies said in a statement. Financial terms weren't disclosed, Electronic Arts spokeswoman Trudy Muller said.
Nintendo's shares rose as much as 420 yen to 9,160. They were up 4.1 percent at 9,100 as of 10:16 a.m. in Osaka. Shares of Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts rose $1.15 to $53.94 as of 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.
Electronic Arts makes titles tied to the ``Harry Potter'' and ``Lord of the Rings'' movies.
The 20 games the company will make for the GameCube will include the ``Madden NFL 2004'' football game, ``FIFA 2004'' soccer game, and ``Tiger Woods PGA TOUR'' golf game.
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