Game enthusiasts and industry personnel line up to test 'Anthem' during the Electronic Arts EA Play event at the Hollywood Palladium on June 9, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. Christian Petersen | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Hot off the heels of the success of its viral hit "Apex Legends," video gaming giant Electronic Arts released a highly anticipated new game last Friday, "Anthem." Initial reviews for the game were hardly enthusiastic. As of Feb. 25, the PC version of "Anthem" had an average critic score of 61 out of 100 on reviews aggregation site Metacritic. In comparison, the PC version for "Apex Legends" sat on a mean score of 88 on the same website. Analysts appeared divided on what that performance means for investors in EA. "For investors, this doesn't need to be a source of concern," Guilherme Fernandes, market consultant at video game market research firm Newzoo, said Friday in a note, adding that EA is a "highly successful company" overall. "Investors should keep in mind that not every game will be a record-breaking hit, despite Apex Legends' very promising initial weeks. That said, their expectations will need to be shaped accordingly, bearing in mind that many of EA's revenues are generated by extremely popular yearly iterations such as its sports titles. Naturally, this is not a fool-proof guarantee of the company's future performance but there are no immediate signs of concern," Fernandes said.

Meanwhile, another analyst said the "poor" reviews for Anthem have already been priced into EA's stock. "The chatter on issues with the game surfaced over the weekend, so the review scores are consistent with that," Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, said last Friday. "EA has executed poorly all year (they expect $4.75 billion in revenue now and guided to $5.55 billion 9 months ago). Poor reviews for Anthem are consistent with their poor execution all year," Pachter said. He did, however, acknowledge that "Apex Legends" "is working phenomenally well." EA did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by CNBC outside regular office hours. The "Anthem" release comes on the back of a rocky February for EA's stock, which was sent plummeting to an intra-month low of $80.21 per share early in the month after the company said it "did not perform" to expectations in its third quarter. It then bounced back days later to $106.84 per share off the success of "Apex Legends." The stock finished its trading day stateside on Friday at $95.92 per share.

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