Activision shares tank after split with Bungie, the game studio behind Destiny

• Video games publisher Activision saw its stock fall around 7 percent in after-market hours on Thursday from a closing price of $51.35 below $48.
• The game publisher split with Bungie, the studio that developed Destiny, one of its popular game franchises.
• While Activision is best-known for its success with Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, its dominance was challenged by competitors in 2018, including Epic's wildly popular Fortnite.

Gamers play the video game 'Destiny 2' developed by Bungie Studios and published by Activision during the 'Paris Games Week' on October 31, 2017 in Paris, France.

Chesnot | Getty Images

Video games publisher Activision saw its stock fall around 7 percent in after-market hours on Thursday after the company announced a split from game studio Bungie, which developed the online only Destiny game franchise.

In Destiny, a first-person shooter online game, players protect the Earth from an alien takeover. Activision has agreed to transfer all publishing rights for Destiny back to Bungie.

Activision is also defending itself this week against accusations of a former employee who says he was bullied and experienced discrimination during his tenure there, Variety reported. And it has shuffled executives, after losing its chief financial officer, Spencer Neumann, to Netflix.

Activision's stock closed at $51.35 on Thursday, but fell below $48 in after-market trading following the announcement about its split with Bungie.

The dip extends a negative trend for Activision from the fourth-quarter of 2018 into the new year. Best-known as the publisher of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, Activision's shares performed poorly in the last quarter of 2018 as competitors, especially Epic's Fortnite franchise, attracted massive audiences, and the market, overall, grew rocky.