

This year has been pivotal for the gaming industry, highlighted by innovative devices and multi-billion dollar agreements.
The sector witnessed further consolidation as a consortium spearheaded by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, along with Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake, revealed intentions to privatize Electronic Arts. The $55 billion transaction, which encompasses $20 billion in debt financing, stands as the largest leveraged buyout in the history of Wall Street.
This development could significantly affect EA, according to analysts from Omdia. They stated that the immediate question is whether the PIF intends to manage EA as a “PR initiative” or “to maximize returns” from the enterprise.
The French game publisher Ubisoft aimed to improve its performance this year; however, it began 2025 with a second postponement of its prominent Assassin’s Creed entry, Shadows.
Ubisoft’s stock saw an uptick in March following the announcement of a new gaming subsidiary in collaboration with Chinese tech giant Tencent, named Vantage Studios. This new studio, partially owned by Tencent, will concentrate on Ubisoft’s major IPs — Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.
Despite Ubisoft’s attempts, its shares have slumped by just over half this year, and the stock has fallen more than 90% from its peak in 2021.
Conversely, Take-Two Interactive saw its shares rise steadily through 2025 as excitement grew for the next Grand Theft Auto installment. It has been 12 years since the previous release, GTA 5, debuted on Xbox 360 and PS3.
However, with little information on GTA 6 for the majority of the year, fans speculated about a potential delay beyond the May 26, 2026, release date, despite Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick asserting to CNBC in May that he was “very, very confident” the target date was feasible. By November of this year, the game was rescheduled for release on Nov. 19, 2026, causing Take-Two’s shares to plummet following the announcement.
The game will launch during the transitional period for Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft‘s Xbox Series X and S—six years post their launch. As attention shifts to the next generation of consoles, there has been a strategic shift for both brands during this previous generation.
Shifts in console strategies
Xbox has shifted away from exclusive games, permitting titles like Indiana Jones and Forza Horizon to release on PS5, while PlayStation is expanding its experiment with launching titles on PC.
Take-Two’s Zelnick contended that these changing strategies will open the gaming industry further. When queried about the future of consoles in the next five to ten years, he expressed that consoles will remain, evolving towards a PC model as “business transitions to open instead of closed.”
“But if you define a console by the property rather than the system, then the concept of an extensive game that engages players for numerous hours on a large screen is here to stay,” he articulated to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in November.
According to George Jijiashvili, senior principal analyst for Games at Omdia, consoles still maintain a vital presence in the marketplace. He mentioned in CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that these devices continue to be “the go-to place for premium games.”
Data from Omdia indicates that consoles represent the second-largest category in total consumer expenditure, with mobile contributing 60%, consoles at 23%, and PCs accounting for 16%.
While many have largely moved away from exclusive titles, Nintendo continues to embrace this strategy, rolling out several exclusive games for its new Switch 2 console—including a reimagined open-world Mario Kart and a brand-new Donkey Kong title.
This summer, the Switch 2 set a record as the fastest-selling console ever, selling 10.36 million units within just the first four months.
However, not everyone is convinced by Nintendo’s approach. Christopher Dring, founder and editor-in-chief of The Game Business, told CNBC’s “Built for Billions” in November that Nintendo must overcome challenges in sustaining demand for its hardware.
“Unlike PlayStation and Xbox and other platforms, consumers purchasing Nintendo consoles primarily do so for Nintendo titles. This indicates that if they lack a game ready, they can’t depend on external developers to sustain them.”





















