Sony and Nintendo shares tumble following Google Stadia announcement

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Sony Corp. PlayStation and Nintendo Co. Switch game console signage is displayed during the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Wednesday, June 14, 2017.

Shares of Japanese video gaming heavyweights Nintendo and Sony tumbled in Wednesday morning trade following Google’s unveiling on Tuesday of its game streaming platform.

Nintendo, the storied game maker behind popular franchises such as “Pokemon” and “Super Mario,” saw its stock drop 2.99 percent. Meanwhile, Japanese shares of PlayStation-maker Sony also fell 3.01 percent.

On Tuesday stateside, Google showed off its new game streaming platform, Stadia, which it claimed would allow people to play high-end games without shelling out hundreds of dollars for consoles or computers. Instead, all of the legwork to render those games will be handled by Google’s cloud, the company said.

Google’s entrance into the gaming sector has raised questions about the future of companies such as Sony and Nintendo, which have long dominated the space along with Microsoft. In particular, Sony and Microsoft are expected to announce more details about their next generation consoles in the coming months, with their current generation of consoles approaching the six-year-old mark.