Piper Jaffray says NPD video game software declined 32% year-over-year during May, worse than the consensus estimate of down 16% and its own estimate of down 10%. Piper believes the poor showing of Max Payne 3 bodes poorly for upcoming launches of Activision Blizzard's (ATVI) Call of Duty, Microsoft's (MSFT) Halo 4, and Take-Two's (TTWO) Grand Theft Auto V. The firm continues to favor game publishers with strategies to diversify beyond core console gaming, and keeps Overweight ratings on Electronic Arts (EA) and Zynga (ZNGA).
Markets fell sharply as investors piled back into safer assets, unnerved by unexpected weakness in China's economy …