NEW YORK, June 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wall Street Reporter, the trusted name in financial news since 1843, has published reports on the latest comments and insights from leaders at Electronic Arts (NYSE: EA), Snapchat (SNAP), ImagineAR (OTC: IPNFF) (CSE: IP), and Spotify (SPOT).

Accelerating Digital Transformation is driving new mega trends in consumer behavior - from streaming to esports, augmented reality and more. Wall Street Reporter highlights tech and gaming leaders comments and insights from recent earnings calls.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) Andrew Wilson, CEO: “Appetite for ESports Insatiable”

“..Esports TV broadcast hours in U.S. in April were up 250% over last year. And April alone was 30% bigger than all of calendar year 2019. So, we’re seeing tremendous engagement in the unbelievable creativity and innovation that our teams are delivering…we’ve been able to deliver hundreds and hundreds of hours of esports content completely remotely with hosts, broadcasters, players and fans all safely at home. I believe this will accelerate our ability to develop and deliver amazing esports content to a global audience and continue to fulfill the insatiable appetite that is absolutely there that we’re seeing right now.”

“EA SPORTS is a pillar of our portfolio and continues to bring more players together. FIFA is one of the biggest and most engaging entertainment franchises in the world. With approximately 100 million players engaging globally in our FIFA franchise, more than 25 million unique players have joined FIFA 20 so far, with VOLTA opening up an entirely new dimension to the game, and FIFA Ultimate Team continuing to grow as the most popular mode. FIFA Online in Asia also continues its momentum, significantly outperforming our expectations. Madden NFL is a cultural icon in football, gaming and entertainment, and it just had its biggest year ever. We took a new approach to launching and rolling out new modes of play in Madden NFL 20, and the result was the highest engagement levels in franchise history….Apex Legends was the most downloaded free-to-play game on PS4 in 2019, and continues to grow as an innovative, long-term service for players. Our Apex esports tournaments have generated approximately two times the average viewing audience of other top esports leagues.“

“Looking to FY21, we are growing our portfolio of high-quality and innovative new games. We are planning to launch 14 new titles to players this fiscal year. That includes four new EA SPORTS titles, FIFA, Madden, NHL and one more unannounced sports title, all of which deliver on the mix of creativity, authenticity and quality that sets EA SPORTS apart. EA SPORTS will also lead for us on the next-generation consoles this year….”

“Our ability to fulfill important motivations for players, inspiration, escape, social connection, competition, creation, and learning has brought more people to connect and spend time in our games in the recent weeks and months of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. We’ve seen games be a source of joy for hundreds of millions of players. We will now look to be delivering for these players for a long time to come…Our focus continues to be on delivering great games and content through the breadth and depth of our portfolio, in our ongoing live services, and by connecting more players through our games via more distribution channels and platforms.”

EA Earnings Conference Call Highlights: https://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2020/06/electronic-arts-inc-nasdaq-ea-q4-2020-earnings-conference-call-summary-highlights/

ImagineAR (OTC: IPNFF) (CSE: IP): AR Technology Driving New Entertainment & Consumer Engagement Experiences - From “Sports 2.0”, Celebrity TikTok videos, to Escape Rooms.

ImagineAR (OTC: IPNFF) (CSE: IP) a featured presenter at Wall Street Reporter’s “NEXT SUPER STOCK” investor conference series is making news today - selected as finalist to present at World Football Summit & Global Sports Innovation Center - Powered By Microsoft. This selection further demonstrates the recognition ImagineAR is gaining from the global sports industry as a disruptive technology capable of transforming the global football and sports industry.

Today, ImagineAR also announced signing Escape Room NJ, which will be first-ever Escape Room in North America to integrate immersive Augmented Reality within their three locations, as well as, offer AR Scavenger Hunts to their consumer and corporate clientele.  There are over 2,000 Escape Rooms around the world. Jeff Sherer, Owner of Escape Room NJ stated "We are very excited to announce a partnership with Imagine AR for the first ever AR Escape Rooms in the world. In this day and age where some people are not comfortable to be in large groups or even indoors with other people, we believe this will offer a whole new avenue to play Escape Rooms and Scavenger Hunts outdoors around our location or even remotely out doors in their own neighborhoods using only their mobile phone. ..We are also going to be the first company to introduce AR into Rage Rooms. Partnering with Imagine AR we look forward to taking the most Smashingly Good Times you can have with an assortment of weapons and make it even better!”

ImagineAR CEO  Alen Paul Silverrstieen stated "This partnership with Escape Room NJ demonstrates the limitless applications for ImagineAR in any industry and any location.  With respect to Escape Rooms specifically, Jeff is closely associated with Escape Room owners around the world and plans to present ImagineAR as an additional great product for their customers and revenue stream for owners."

In a recent presentation at Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK livestream investor conference, ImagineAR CEO  Alen Paul Silverrstieen, shared IPNFF’s latest progress, as the company’s Augmented Reality technology gains increasing traction. Casino’s, retail, and sports teams are now using IPNFF’s AR technologies to re-engage their customers as they re-open post-COVID, and it is expected to play an increasing role for driving their consumer engagement, going forward.

TikTok+AR
IPNFF’s AR technology is now being used in TiKTok videos, where it has the potential to go mainstream with millions of consumers. The Broward Florida school district recently deployed IPNFF’s AR technology, featuring celebrities Flo Rida and NBA start Dwayne Wade, in creating viral TikTok videos for the high school graduation class of 2020. In his investor presentation, IPNFF CEO Alen Paul Silverrstieen, hints at the massive potential for combining IPNFF’s AR tech with celebrities in TikTok videos.   

NEXT SUPER STOCK IPNFF Livestream Presentation: https://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2020/06/imaginear-otc-ipnff-ar-sports-2-0-tiktok-next-super-stock-livestream-6-10-20/

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) CEO Daniel Ek: “Billions of Linear Audio Users Shifting to Streaming - Trend Accelerating”

Spotify’s exclusive podcasting deals with Joe Rogan, and Kim Kardashian, position the company to be a dominant force in the popular culture. In a recent earnings call, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discusses new consumer megatrends, and shares his vision for Spotify’s role in the future of streaming entertainment.

“When I look ahead, both short and long term, I’m always thinking about what Spotify’s role within the larger ecosystem. And while most focus is on competition between streaming services, we continue to be focused on the billions of users that are listening to linear radio.The 20 year trend is that everything linear dies, and on-demand wins. This is a trend that we suspect will be accelerated by the COVID pandemic.”

“Time at home has moved people out of their cars, requiring them to shift their listening behavior and that’s when they discover streaming and Spotify is the best positioned to capitalize on this. And because we offer personalized and on-demand experience, they end up staying…Because we’re available on over 300 devices across 80 hardware brands, we’re accessible to users even after listening behaviors have changed. For example, while listening in the cars declined, listening on gaming consoles is exploding. And we continue to see increased listening on home speakers and through TDs.”

“…With 286 million monthly active users and 130 million subscribers, it’s clear that audio and Spotify continue to play an important role in our users’ lives. Our solid performance is the result of the audio-first strategy that we put in place just over a year ago. And we’re up 31% in both MAU and subs year-over-year…we will continue to be in a position of strength when this pandemic is behind us. And that’s because of our model, our scale and our superior user experience and of course, our content pipeline. These are the fundamentals that have fueled our success and will continue to do so in the future.”
Earnings Conference Call Highlights: https://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2020/06/spotify-technology-s-a-nysespot-q1-2020-earnings-conference-call-summary-highlights/

Snap, Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) CEO Evan Spiegel: “Millennials and Gen Z Driving Accelerating Digital Transformation Grew Up with Their Mobile Phones and Now Control over $1 trillion Spending Power”

“Augmented reality is continuing to play an important role in the lives of Snapchatters, with people now playing with lenses 85% more each day than they did last year. A lot of this behavior is driven by our growing community of lens creators using lens studio with lenses created by our community reaching 40% of our daily active users every day on average. We've also built new immersive lenses powered by machine learning to transform the ground into lava or water.”

“We believe that the recent acceleration in the adoption of communication technology and augmented reality during these travel restrictions will help support our longer term trends and engagement growth.”
Snap, Inc. conference call highlights available at: https://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2020/06/snap-inc-nysesnap-q1-2020-earnings-conference-call-summary-highlights/

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