This summer, the Switch 2 sold 10.36 million units in its first four months, making it Nintendo’s fastest-selling console in history.
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This year has been a monumental year for the video game industry, with new devices and multi-billion dollar deals highlighted.
A consortium led by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, in collaboration with Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake, electronic arts Private. The $55 billion deal includes $20 billion in debt financing, making it the most leveraged acquisition in Wall Street history.
The move could have a major impact on EA, according to Omdia analysts. They said the question now is whether PIF plans to run EA as a “PR project” or “to extract maximum benefit” from the company.
french game developer Ubisoft seemed to be turning its fortunes around this year, but 2025 has started with a second delay for Shadows, the latest installment in the company’s flagship Assassin’s Creed series.
Ubisoft stock rose in March after announcing the creation of a new gaming subsidiary with the Chinese tech giant tencent It’s called Vantage Studio. The new developer, part-owned by Tencent, will focus on Ubisoft’s major IPs: Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.
Despite Ubisoft’s efforts, the stock has lost just over half of its value since the beginning of the year, with shares down more than 90% from their 2021 highs.
in contrast, take-two interactiveAs expectations for the next “Grand Theft Auto” title increase, the stock price continued to rise throughout 2025. It’s been 12 years since the previous game, GTA 5, was released on Xbox 360 and PS3.
However, despite Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick telling CNBC in May that he had “very strong confidence” that the target date was achievable, GTA 6’s radio broadcast silence for much of the year led fans to speculate that the game could be pushed back further from its May 26, 2026 release date. In November of this year, the match was postponed to November 19, 2026, and Take-Two’s stock price plummeted on the news.
The game launches in a Twilight window on Sony’s PlayStation 5. microsoftXbox Series X and S — six years after both consoles were released. This past generation has seen a change in strategy for both brands as focus shifts to next-gen consoles.
Changes in console strategy
Xbox is moving away from exclusive games, releasing titles like Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon on PS5, while PlayStation continues to experiment further with releasing titles on PC.
Take-Two’s Zelnick argued that the change in strategy will make the video game industry more open. When asked if consoles will become a business in the next five to 10 years, he said, “The business is moving toward open rather than closed,” and that consoles will still exist and devices will migrate to PCs.
“But when you define a console as a property rather than a system, the idea of very rich games that you play for a long time and play on a big screen is never going to go away,” he told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in November.
Consoles still play a big role in the market, said George Ziziashvili, senior principal gaming analyst at Omdia. He told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that the device remains “the go-to place for premium gaming.”
According to Omdia data, consoles are the second largest category in total consumer spending, with mobile spending accounting for 60%, consoles reaching 23%, and PC reaching 16%.
Some have all but abandoned their exclusive titles; nintendo continued to pursue this strategy, releasing several exclusive titles for the new Switch 2 console, including an open-world re-imaging of Mario Kart and an all-new Donkey Kong game.
This summer, the Switch 2 sold 10.36 million units in its first four months of availability, making it the fastest-selling console in history.
Not everyone is convinced by Nintendo’s strategy. Christopher Dolling, founder and editor-in-chief of The Game Business, told CNBC’s “Built for Billions” in November that Nintendo faces challenges maintaining demand for its systems.
“Unlike PlayStation, Xbox, or other platforms, people who buy Nintendo machines are buying them for Nintendo games. That means you can’t rely on other developers to support your games if they aren’t ready for them.”
