The Console War returns - The Game Business Micro

Hello and welcome to the Game Business Micro with me, Christopher Dring. The Game Business Micro is normally a paid-for service. We give it to paid-for subscribers of the Game Business, but for today and for today only, we're making it available for free for everybody. And it's because it's the Summer Game Fest week. We've been out here in the sun in Los Angeles. We've played lots of games. We've spoken to lots of people. And we've got a lot of news to talk about. And so, let's just crack on with that news. And if you if you enjoy this, by the way, if you are not a normal paid subscriber of the Game Business, and you would like to get access to this every week, you can become one by just going to the gamebusiness.com and subscribing to us all there. So, lots of news this week. And let's begin with the big one. Xbox has reignited the console war by making games exclusive, at least console exclusive, to the Xbox platform. The big one is Gears of War Gears of War E-Day. It's coming out on October 6th on Xbox and PC, but not PlayStation 5. It also announced the upcoming new IP Clockwork Revolution is also only coming to Xbox and PC in 2027. Um obviously, Xbox has been releasing all of its games on PC,

most of its games on PS5, and some of its games on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 in an effort to improve the profitability of its games and become the biggest gaming company in the world. That's their goal. However, it was negatively impacting sales and engagement of its Xbox Series S and X platform. Vocal fans have been calling for Xbox to go multi-platform. Gears of War is an interesting one to do. It's fairly big in North America. It it does have a global audience. The last game, Gears 5, did about 750,000 copies in Europe. Um it's a very Xbox associated game. Gears of War Reloaded, which is the it's a remake of the original Gears of War, the remake rather, the original Gears of War, came out on PS5 last year, the first time it come to PS5. Um 580,000 players bought the game on PS5, according to Ampere Analysis, which is not insignificant. It's quite a big number. But it actually only represents just 27% of the game's console install base, console player base. So, of course, the game on Xbox was on Game Pass, so that boosted that a little bit. Xbox says there will be more exclusive games in the future, but just not live service titles. Those games will remain multi-platform in going forward, including Call of Duty. Now, there've been rumblings about Xbox potentially

dropping the exclusives for a while. The company's been hinting at it for some time. Gears of War E-Day is a logical choice. It's a sizable IP but one closely associated with the Xbox brand and the type of games the Xbox is known for. But it's also one that has potential on PlayStation. I you have to imagine they're losing about a million players here by not putting the game on PS5. And will it make a difference? Are people really rushing out to pick up a new Xbox to play Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution? I find that hard to imagine but it's clear that there will be more exclusives over time and as more and more games become available only on Xbox, it might become a very compelling proposition. And look, it comes at an interesting time for the console sector. GTA 6 is likely to bring in new players and Xbox will want them to consider their platform as the one to play it on. But it also arrives at a moment when consoles are more expensive than ever. Regardless, Xbox is being more competitive. There's lots of gossip here about PlayStation State of Play was supposed to have an Xbox game during it but it was pulled at the last minute. So, you know, if that's true, there is certainly more competition here going on from from Xbox is good for the console sector. It's good for the entire market. Competition generates excitement amongst

audiences and encourages innovation and investment from the platform holders. I've said that before. But what about the long game? CEO Asha Sharma summed up the contradiction at the heart of Xbox right now. She said on stage at a recent Bloomberg event, "We're the number two publisher in the world and in order to be a great publisher, you must have your games reach large audiences to play. At the same time, we're increasingly becoming a platform. In order to become a platform, you must have exclusive content and services." Will Gears of War and Clockwork Revolution being a console exclusive help them work out how to overcome that contradiction? Can there be a giant games publisher and a strong platform simultaneously? And will it be enough to satisfy the leaders of Microsoft? Well, you just have to hope so, don't you? I'll be talking to Matthew Ball in just a few moments on stage at the Game Business Live and you can check out the gamebusiness.com for that interview. Now, we're at Summer Game Fest, obviously, and it's been very, very successful. The Summer Game Fest stream, that's where they loads of games were announced including Resident Evil Veronica and Final Fantasy 7 Revelations. As a result of those two games and lots and lots of excitement around Summer Game Fest, it had a record peak viewers of 3.6 million during its Friday live stream. That's according to

Level Up Analytics. That's a rise of 20% year-on-year. 2025's event was the previous best with 3 million. So, it's a big jump on that one. There were over 8,000 co-streams, which is up 25% year-on-year with 7.3 million hours watched, which is up 30%. The event was, as I say, headlined by the likes of Resident Evil Veronica, Final Fantasy VII Revelations. There was games such as 1666 Amsterdam from Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets has come back. That game was in the works at THQ a long time ago. Gears of War 3, there was a major Monster Hunter World's expansion, a new shooter called Crossfire. It's in the Crossfire universe. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, you'll hear more about that tomorrow from us. There was an indie Sonic game called Sonic Pico Park. There's a Saw game, Hot Wheels game, two new Cuphead titles. There was trailers for Virtual Fighter, Alien Isolation 2, Stranger than Heaven, Gen Atlas, Star Wars 0 Company, The Wolf Among Us 2, Wars Galactic Racer, Control, Resonant Clutch, Blood of the Dorm Walker. Yeah, absolutely loads across Summer Game Fest announcements. There were 5,071 editorial articles that used the term Summer Game Fest or Summer Games Fest. And that was just in less than a day. Last year, there was 3,747 articles that was produced over two days. So, that's a

real big jump there for of articles written about Summer Game Fest. There was also a 37.9 increase in publications covering the event within a day versus two days last year. So, that's a big success. Summer Game Fest grew, but so did Sony's State of Play event. That sort of kickstarted this announcement period. According to Level Up, 2.9 million viewers watched Sony's State of Play. That's up 38% over the year before. And of course, the key games there were Marvel's Wolverine and God of War: Ragnarök. We've just had the Xbox event. It's too early, we don't have the data in for Xbox yet, but it was a busy one. There was a new Spyro game. There was a hell basic called Senua. Crazy Taxi World Tour, Persona 6, as I say. And there was Gears of War and Fable, State of Play 2, K3, Halo Campaign Evolved, Minecraft Dungeons, Clock Operation lots and lots of stuff. This was a real step up for Summer Game Fest. Of course, it's worth noting that part of the same family, and we have our own conference during this period. We're just about to do it. So I am biased, but I felt last year, although the SGF showcase itself was strong, the announcements from Xbox, Sony, and the rest were relatively weak. And the physical in-person event, I mean, I'm at one right now, um was was quite quiet.

This year that really hasn't been the case. All the showcases are strong, well, so far. Nintendo hasn't gone yet. Uh the Play Days physical event that say I'm sitting in right now is bustling. You can see it's noisy with loads of exhibitors, games, press, and creators. There was a lot going on. I think it's the closest we've had since the E3 went away to those E3s of old. Part of this will be due to GTA 6 and the need from publishers and developers to work harder and smarter in the face of increased competition. GTA 6 is impacting the release schedule in such a way that months like September and October just jam-packed with new titles, and companies are desperate to make sure their one doesn't get drowned out. 2027 is also really shaping up to be a noisy year, too. So lots of things that, you know, requires that investment, it requires that effort. But beyond the ROI marketing metrics, this feels like a positive morale boost for the industry in the face of constant cuts and studio closures. It's nice to have a week that reminds us that video games is fun, it's a strong medium, it's full of impressive games made by talented people. I hope I hope this continues. I hope we get this again in 12 months' time. I actually have an exclusive story for you. I interviewed Hakan Abrak again, the CEO of IO Interactive, about 007

First Light. You may have seen the news that 007 First Light has sold 2.7 million units worldwide. In fact, he told the Game Business that he thinks it would have hit 3 million by now. Uh he said to us, "This went above and beyond our expectations. It is very, very well-received game. It's a Bond game, and the best Bond on PlayStation and PC seems to be working really well." He says that we're really getting close to profitability. The trajectory looks really, really good. There is obviously some royalties and models and things that are that are involved in this, but it is looking like this is going to be a very solid scenario. It's going to be profitable faster than they thought it was going to be. And as I say, um it's it's approaching 3 million units. Now, obviously has a Metacritic score of 88, which is the highest James Bond score outside of GoldenEye. They have a roadmap of three updates and additions to the game that's going to be released over the next 12 months. You know, it's how IO does things. Abrak said to me, "We're not one to do a big blockbuster release and then it cools off. We're going to massively support this and keep the content going and the world expanding just like they do with the Hitman series." There is a question whether Amazon, which took over complete ownership of the Bond IP midway through the development of 007 First Light, will continue to work with IO or whether they're heading in a different direction. Um Abrak says, you know,

"There will be some news soon about that." I think Amazon would be mad not to continue work with IO. They've got a hit game, it sold very well, it's reviewed very well. They'll want to continue doing that. Um I asked Hakan about GTA 6 coming up cuz I thought to myself that maybe GTA 6 could be a good thing for this James Bond game. Maybe when people put down GTA they might want to play a game like 007 First Light and he agrees. We're definitely thinking about the opportunity because we know there's going to be a lot of lapsed players buying a PlayStation again because of GTA. It's a third-person narrative experience and people looking at other blockbusters like that after having played the GTA campaign. I'm sure Bond would be a candidate for them to play afterwards. So, yeah, I agree with him. Behind me there is a there's a room for Saber Interactive and they were at the IO event on uh on on Friday to announce them well they're remaking the original Hitman games. Abrak said Saber approached them with the idea of doing it and then they were very excited to be involved. Um IO Interactive have a lot of worked on lots of games over the years. Some of them are still owned by their former owner Square Enix as Mini Ninjas and Kane & Lynch, but they do still own Freedom Fighters. So, I joked whether or not Freedom Fighters might be the next game to be remastered and he

said, "IO has done many different IPs and IPs with prototypes not seen the light of day. So, we like to fool around with things and we've been fooling around with some Freedom Fighters stuff, but right now it's Hitman, Bond, and then new IP. And then new IP is called Project Fantasy. But really great news there for James Bond. I've been playing the game, it's just absolutely brilliant. I'm going to quickly wrap up with a few other stories because it is supposed to be a micro and we've had a lot of news this week. And one of the probably biggest business stories is Paramount Games has formed. They're bringing together the Skydance team with the Paramount Games and I've seen the vision of course Paramount Skydance teams includes the studios that Amy Hennig was launching, includes the Star Wars game they're working on, Marvel title as well. And the The has just announced two new projects. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Last Ronin by Platinum Games and Star Trek Shadow Frontier by Bloober Team. Look, we're going to have a full interview tomorrow on the Game Business Show with Platinum Games going through all of this. Tomorrow is Tuesday, June 9th, depending on when you're listening to it. So, check out for that. It's I think it's going to be a really, really good episode. I was really pleased with it. Also in the news this week, Merge Mansion creator Metacore is cutting 159 jobs in Finland and closing its offices in Germany and Sweden ahead of an acquisition by Supercell. Supercell was

already the largest shareholder in the mobile developer. Metacore CEO Mika Tamonen Koski said, "We have built an organization with great growth ambitions that have not materialized as expected." Now, Supercell they believes it can turn the game around and the studio around and that its best years are ahead of it. So, good luck for those folks and and obviously a miserable time there for the the people that are losing their jobs. Couple of tiny little stories here. UK publisher Secret Mode has acquired Chain together from Anaglyph Games. The co-op platform was released in June 2024 and has sold more than 10 million copies. That's an interesting acquisition. And this is really because I like these games. Playtonic has announced Super Ukulele car, an arcade racing event to which two of the leading creators of Diddy Kong Racing, Martin Wakeley and Kevin Bayliss but behind it. It's only coming to PC so far. I get it. There's lots of games announced this week. Why did I pick on that one? I just love Ukulele. That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed that. If you would like to get these every Monday, they're not normally quite so noisy, but you're more than welcome to become a paid subscriber to the Game Business. We'd love to have you in fact. And you can go to the Game Business Tom and you'll get not only do you get this

micro, we do give a monthly market report as well. And you also you can come along to our events at the Game Business Live for no extra cost. Let's say tomorrow we have a bumper extended interview with the new Paramount Games team. And on Thursday you can watch one of our on-stage interviews, the one with Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball. That'll be available on Thursday. But until those, thank you for tuning in.