Nintendo's share price has tanked by more than 15% on Monday morning amid global fears of a US recession and rising tensions in the Middle East.
As highlighted by Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of industry consultancy Kantan Games, almost every major Japanese gaming company saw a drop in share price as Japan's Nikkei fell by more than 12%, its biggest drop since the so-called 'Black Monday crash' of 1987.
At the time of writing, Nintendo's share price sits at 6,607 JPY, a sharp drop from the 7,915 JPY it was enjoying last Friday. Capcom, meanwhile, saw a drop of more than 16% and is currently valued at 2.356 JPY, while Sega's dropped by just over 13% to land at 1,884 JPY.
When pressed for a reasoning behind the drop, Toto simply stated "rich people operate off vibes mostly, so sometimes it is for not much reason". However, it seems global investors are in full-blown panic mode after the US posted weak jobs data that has prompted fears of a recession. As pointed out by The Guardian, "A US recession would hurt economies around the world".
In London, the FTSE 100 index opened at around 2.3% lower on Monday morning, while the Euronext 100 opened at around 3.5% lower. Meanwhile, stock markets in Taiwan, South Korea, India, Australia, and Hong Kong all suffered similar losses.
it's also been reported by the BBC that since the Bank of Japan raised interest rates last week, this has made the purchase of stocks from foreign investors more difficult, thus further exacerbating the overall stock market drop.