[Kromm]

Any games company big enough to be publicly traded is about as good or as bad a risk as any other company of its size. Once you get away from outfits that deal in commodities (petroleum, minerals, agricultural products, lumber, etc.) and into producers of finished goods (soda pop, electric cars, trousers, self-sealing stem bolts, and yes, games), direction and management can be more important than sector, unless the sector is dying. Games aren't dying, just moving away from paper and toward digital. So, if you find a publicly traded games company, look at its executive and managerial track record rather than its popularity among gamers, and make sure that digital games are among the company's product offerings. Exclusively pen-and-paper games companies might be poor investments, but you'll discover that they aren't traded; the ones that trade all have some digital games in their lineup, meaning that what matters is who's running them and how they do business.