MONTHLY COMMENTARY

Evolve E-Gaming Index ETF HERO invests in equity securities of companies listed domestically and globally with business activities in the electronic gaming industry.

As at February 26, 2021

TICKER: HERO (Hedged)

MACROECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS:

President Joe Biden signed an executive order in February ordering a 100-day review of supply chains for four critical products, including semiconductor chips. The ongoing pandemic-induced shortage of semiconductor chips has affected various industries reliant on the components, including the electronic gaming industry. The newest generation of game consoles from Playstation and , and high-end graphics cards used in PCs, are suffering in light of the shortage. Supply constraints with semiconductor chips have held back sales of both new PlayStation and Xbox consoles. As a result, neither is outpacing sales of the previous iterations of the consoles. Microsoft’s chief financial officer Amy Hood said the company expects Xbox sales to “still be constrained by supply” during the first quarter of 2021.

Nintendo announced in February that the Switch had passed the lifetime sales of the 3DS in less than four years. 79.87 million Switch devices have shipped worldwide, making the Switch Nintendo’s fifth best-selling machine of all time (behind the Nintendo DS, Nintendo , the , and the . The figures were released as part of the company’s latest financials for the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2020. These figures indicated that Nintendo has already hit its annual net sales target of $13.4 billion, representing a 37% increase over the year before. As a result, Nintendo raised its full-year revenue forecast to $15.3 billion and profit projections to $5.34 billion.

Electronic Arts, held by the Fund, had a busy February with two significant acquisitions.

On Feb. 8, EA announced the $2.4 billion acquisition of , the mobile games-focused studio behind hits like MLB Tap Sports Baseball and Design Home. With this addition, EA gains access to Glu Mobile’s 500 mobile-first developers and 15+ live services. EA’s global licensing expertise for sports content will allow them to bring MLB Tap Baseball to new geographies (most of Glu’s current sales are in North America). They can also leverage the development template of Tap Baseball to build premium mobile titles for EA’s own highly successful sports franchises, including FIFA and Madden NFL. The deal is expected to grow EA’s underlying profitability beginning in its first year.

Likewise, on Feb. 18, EA announced the acquisition of , publisher of critically acclaimed racing franchises Formula 1®, DIRT, DiRT Rally, and Project CARS. Combined with ’ own global franchise, , and its EA SPORTS brands (including FIFA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and others), the combination of EA and Codemasters will represent a new industry powerhouse for racing videogames and entertainment. The deal is valued at $1.2 billion US.

In its February earnings call, Ubisoft said that while it has three or four AAA games slated for release for fiscal 2022 (April 2021 through March 2022), its plan going forward is to rely less on AAA game releases to drive revenue. Instead, Ubisoft plans to combine more select AAA releases with greater reliance on

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free-to-play games, premium experiences, and Ubisoft’s back catalogue to make money. One such example is Ubisoft’s previously announced Assassin’s Creed mobile game for the Chinese market, planned with the help of Ubisoft investor . Mobile currently makes up about 9% of Ubisoft’s total business. As for reliance on back catalogue, Ubisoft cited as an example their six-year-old Rainbow Six Siege, which added 15 million new players in the last 12 months. With 70 million total players since launch, the game remains a major revenue driver for the publisher. PERFORMANCE ATTRIBUTION:

For the month, Sea Ltd made the biggest contribution to the Fund, followed by Bilibili Inc., and Nintendo. By weight, the Fund’s largest exposure was to Sea Ltd, followed by NetEase, Inc., and Blizzard Inc.

SOURCES:

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-02-25-president-biden-orders-review-of-semiconductor-shortage-amid-ps5-xbox-stock-problems https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-02-01-nintendo-switch-overtakes-3ds-as-nintendo-raises-forecasts-again https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/02/19/was-it-smart-for-electronic-arts-to-buy-glu-mobile/ https://news.ea.com/press-releases/press-releases-details/2021/Electronic-Arts-and-Codemasters-Establish-a-New-Global-Powerhouse-for-Racing- Videogames--Entertainment/default.aspx https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-moving-away-from-reliance-on-aaa-releases

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