What will be the biggest video games of 2026 (not called Grand Theft Auto 6)

This week, Sony, Nintendo, and Take 2 reveal some big numbers. Valve delays its Steam Machine announcement. Epic gives an update on its store. And we reveal the biggest video games of 2026 that are not called GTA 6. Hello and welcome to the Game Business Show. In a moment, I'll be joined by US data expert and Sakana game boss Matt Piscatella. Matt and I will be reviewing the US market performance in 2025 and also give our thoughts on the big games of the year. But before I get to Matt, let's run through some of the big stories of the week. And let's start with Nintendo. Um, uh, Nintendo hit 1.9 trillion yen for the 9 months ending December 31st. 12.3 billion. That is, uh, some rise of 99% compared with the year before. Profit is up a smaller but still good 21.3% to 1.9 billion. Um, console sales for Switch 2 are on track to hit their target for the year, which is 9 million shipments. Um, 17.37

million Switch 2 shipments have been sold so far. It is selling faster than Switch One overall, although things did slow down mostly in the Western markets towards the latter half of the year. That and a few other things have spooked investors around Nintendo. Uh, their share price dropped 11% following their financials. Um, this is partially due to concerns of slowing momentum for Switch 2, a relatively slow uptake of new Switch 2 games and concerns around rising chip prices and how that might impact Nintendo's profit margins. Those are all legitimate concerns. I mean, I'm also concerned about those things, but these are really sort of short-term challenges. And it's really you should think about Nintendo's franchises and how they've grown and some of the some of the numbers around their software, particularly their big IPs doing really well. Mario Kart World is now on 14 million sales. That's a mega number for any game anywhere. Uh the Pokemon Legends ZA across Switch One and Switch 2 is on well over 12 million copies. I think 12.3 million that number. Donkey Kilm Bonanza is doing solidly. Well over 4 million units now sold. And even Kirby Air Rididers 1.8 million units. That's

not too bad for a Kirby racing game. So lots of good numbers there. Um Metroid Prime 4 not so well. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond is on 1 million sales across Switch One and Switch 2. A million sales is something to be sniffed at, but obviously that was a big budget title. A lot of development time spent on it. didn't overly win over critics. Um, but overall Nintendo still remains a strong company. It's easy get to get lost in the slowing sales and how Switch One is doing versus Switch 2 and what the smaller profit margin means for shareholders. I tend to look at the big picture and Switch 2 is already going to be on 20 million install base within the first 12 months of the launch that there's some big games coming. Hopefully, we'll hear about them pretty soon. Um, there's a new Mario movie coming that generate a lot of buzz. I think big game or two and we might be feeling a little bit more confident around Nintendo going forward. And one obviously positive side note, Switch One has now become the bestselling Nintendo console ever. It's close to PS2. It probably won't get there now. It's a fun stat that, but ultimately meaningless. Comparing a modern games console to one sort of the premo eras or the early

internet era is somewhat redundant, but we love these headlines and obviously it's the most successful handheld of all time. I'm going to stick with financials. Sony have just released its financials just as I was recording this. Um they've sold now over 8 million units of its PlayStation 5 console. That's for the October December period. 8 million. Um it's a 16% decline over the quarter uh a year earlier, but then it's in its sixth year. It was a bit of a weaker release overall for the games industry over Q4 as people moved out for GTA um which didn't end up arriving. It does mean PS5 has now sold 92.2 million consoles. It's basically neck andneck now with with the PS4. Also, PS5 was the best selling console of the quarter, outperforming Switch, too. Um, so really good numbers. You know, a little bit down. Profit's up though. PlayStation profits up 19% to 140.8 billion yen, so about $897 million. Uh, that's again helped by higher software sales and weaker yen. Particularly software sales to get called out. And I love this because the haters around this game upset me. Ghost of Yoai exceeded sales

of its predecessor during the same period and significantly contributed to Sony's results. Uh Sony also cited Hell Divers 2 and MLB the show as strong contributors to their numbers as well. Obviously Sony has the same issue as Nintendo which is around these rising hardware costs and component costs. It's a concern. Could we see prices rise? Nintendo hinted they might not raise prices. I'm hoping perhaps it's it's a short-term issue, but it is certainly a concern. Speaking of someone else concerned about the rapidly increasing price of PC components, another story this week is Valve is delaying the announcement of well has delay the announcement of his Steam Machine and Steam frame release date and pricing because of those rising component costs. They said in the blog post, "When we announced these products in November, we planned on being able to share specific pricing and launch dates by now. But the memory and stock storage shortages you've likely heard about across the industry have rapidly increased since then. The limited availability and growing prices of these critical components mean we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing particularly around the machine and the steam frame less about that new

controller they're doing. Our goal of shipping all three products in the first half the year has not changed. They're still coming for H1 but we have work to do to land on concrete pricing and launch dates that we can confidently announce being mindful of how quickly the circumstance around both of those can change. We will keep you updated as much as we can as we finalize those plans as soon as possible. It's a real challenge and a real problem for the hardware space and obviously by extension the whole game industry. There's a few stories that you we actually already reported on. If you read the newsletter, you'll know this. So I'll do these a little bit quickly. Take 2 delivered impressive results. 1.76 billion in net bookings for the quarter ending December 31st. It's the highest guy well it's high guidance 1.6 billion. It's incredible. Everything they did grew. Zinga's mobile games grew 19% bookings. Rockstars GTA online increased 277%. NBA 2K big hit NBA 2K 30% jump really surprised with that you know who needs GTA 6 well obviously we all do don't take that back and in fact take 2 has reiterated the G game is coming November 19th still and ST even took the unusual step of saying there's going to be marketing happening in the summer to try

and reassure us it's definitely coming obviously take two share price took a bit of a dip around this project genie AI from Google that was shown where people can make virtual worlds via prompts I think shareholders somehow think that everyone could just make their own GTA now which is going to be a big big problem for take 2. Strauss doesn't say that. In fact, I spoke to him earlier in the week and he said from one point of view I'm surprised about the market reaction because I've been optimistic about all things AI since this question came up a couple of years ago. That is how we're built. That's where we started. Innovation is one of our core tenants. Our three-part strategy and you heard this before is most creative, most innovative and most efficient company in the business. And the innovation surrounding AI is definitely driving efficiencies and we think can also drive creativity because as tools get better, our teams can do cooler and cooler things. I am more optimistic than I ever been and I thought the release, the project GI AI release was a great sign of things to come. So there you have it. It is a thing. Um he wanted to stress though the new technology and the new tools will not become entertainment experiences by themselves. He says tools are not entertainment experiences. Creators use tools to create entertainment. It's a

strange world we find ourselves in, isn't it? when uh when we were getting these uh tools that apparently can do something. I don't think he really can do these things, but um Strauss didn't dismiss it as I thought he might. A couple of other stories. Um this is Epic Store released some numbers. Again, we did this story earlier in the week in the newsletter. If you've read it, you'll know this. Their big number is that um this is for Epic Store. Player spending on third party PC games grew 57% reaching an all-time record of $400 million. Another stat that's sort of tied to this is that 35% of the player hours spent on the Epic Game Store. So that's 2.78 billion hours, this is on third party games only, doesn't include Fortnite, were games where developers use their own payment solutions for inapp purchases. That's not trapped in that 400 million. And so it's potentially even more lucrative for the developers. Epic Store reached an all-time record of 78 million monthly active users. Um players logged 6.65 billion total gameplay hours. Third parties hours increased by 4%. It's a slight decline overall those gameplay

hours, but that's because of declines on games like Fortnite. Players spent 1.16 billion on the Epic Game Store. It's up 6% yearon year. Their free games programs doing really well. 662 million titles were claimed during 2025. And over 77% of those games set an all-time peak concurrent user record on the store during the week of their free offer. This even drove an uplift in player people playing the game on Steam as well. So, it wasn't you had a halo effect. they're trying to point out. This is these are some choice quotes. Obviously, they picked some things that make them look good. And overall, it's getting they're still moving quite slowly and they're still way off from hitting their target of being between 25 to 35% of the PC sort of game store market. They're probably still looking in high single digits there for the Epic Store, but they're doing some things, you know, they're adding party chat, community features, uh a forum style concept. We're going to see multiplatform store soon. And I think that's important, the multiplatform store, because um it allows them to sort of highlight why they're different. Um a lot of stuff of Epic Store at the moment is it's like Steam but not quite as good from a consumer point of view. From a

developer point of view, obviously it's great. One of the other things they're doing that I think is interesting that will be different is they're trying to partner with Fortnite or they are partnering Fortnite to try and boost sales of games on the Epic Store. So the idea is if you buy a game on the Epic Store, you can get a cosmetic related to that game in Fortnite. Um they've done this a couple of times in the past, not very much. city with Borderlands and Alan Wake. Not not massively, but they're planning to do it to 40 games this year, starting with Resident Evil Reququum, which is a big big game as you'll hear later on on the show. And the aim is to do it to over 100 games a year in the next sort of 18 to 24 months. That's that's quite that's quite cool. Um that might have a positive effect. Matt Piscatella on Blue Sky sort of pointed out that we're leaning on a big live service game that's soaking up all the hours to try and boost sales of of other games. I don't know. I'm I'm sort of think that people play Fortnite for different reasons than they play in Resident Evil. You know, people aren't go choosing between the two experiences. They're not like for like and I think getting people to come from Fortnite saying, "Hey, you like [clears throat] for you? You want to play a single player horror story game?" I think it's a good bit of promotion. It's no different in my mind as marketing your

game on a on a social platform really. Epic boss saw Alice Epic Store boss Steve Allison told me earlier this week um that they also want to see developers think of Epic as the same time as they think of Steam. It's gotten so much better. But the cohort I cover the most from the my position is the small developer who's launching their first game that blows up. Whether that's friends or schedule one or the two person team that just builds the thing that they love. They don't have to lot of exposure to industry. They don't know how it works. They just build a PC game that they love and they're going to go to Steam. That is just all they know. We've got to get in their ear. We've got to find them and got to get them to come to us at the same time. Look, we do need stronger competition to Valve. Epic is probably the best pos positioned one to do that. Gog's good as well, but it's not quite it doesn't have quite the backing to it. Epic adding community features is long overdue. They've still got a long way to go, but I'm sort of reassured of this. You know, trying to make themselves seem different as well as um as well as, you know, catching up with Steam on some of those features. Keep an eye on it. And before I wrap up, I'll run over some two other really quick quick stories. Um Aries

Interactive, you may not have heard of them. They are a cross-platform free-to-play games sort of company. Has raised $70 million in series A funding. And this is a this is an Austin, Texas based company. It's led by Mike Deate and Nicola Damasi. They've seen they've been busy acquiring studios and games for a little while now. This new funding is going to help them build a next generation crossplatform free-to-play game company. That's a big chunk that's a big chunk of funding there, especially 2026. That's that's interesting to see. And last one, Obsidian Entertainment says, "The Outerorlds 2 and Avowed, two of their big games of 2025, missed sales forecasts." I obviously don't know what the expectations were, but I'm not surprised by that. They didn't really chart at all. Um, there's no plans for an Outwards 3 sort of as a result of that. Although the second one was a good game, and I'd personally point that team towards maybe a Fallout game. Don't know, just saying. Quite similar. Um, uh, all part of the same family, Fallout and Outer Worlds. Anyway, there are plans to do more in the Avowed world, however. So, that's good news. In an interview with Bloomberg, Obsidian boss Fergusard said that while Grounded 2,

which was also released last year, they did that partnered with Idols Montreal on that was a hit. Missing targets in the Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed, led the studio to think a lot about how much we put into the games, how much we spend on them, and how long they take. Uh, they're not disasters, he said. I'm not going to say this was this was a kick in the teeth. It was more like that sucks. What are we learning? It's interesting. There's two different ports here. do Obsidian go down the double A route and become a really strong AA RPG studio doing interesting weird stuff grounded two sort of grounded success sort of points to that or do they go down the AAA route and become sort of like a mini Bethesda don't know I'd have to make that decision that's up to Ferguson the Xbox folks anyway speaking of uh of learning things that's it for our news segment now let's move on to our next topics the first is about the US games market the second is on the biggest games coming out of 2026 and biggest games coming out 226 that are not Grand Theft Auto 6. And to help me navigate those topics, I am pleased to welcome my guest today. He is the boss of games at data firm, Sakana, the man behind the US video games charts. It is Matt

Piscatella. Hello, Matt. Welcome to the show.
What is going on, Chris? Thanks for having me back to talk video game sales stuff and this wacky world we're living in.
Yeah. Yeah, it's certainly tense times everywhere. Uh, I've just done an interview with the GDC people talking to them about these wacky times and um trying to entice international attendees to their event.
Yeah, I cannot blame the international attendees. That's for sure. It's uh stressful.
Yeah. Well, let let's talk about something less stressful. Video game sales data.
Uh this part of the year must be really busy with all your reports and annual data and requests to appear on podcasts and things like that. Yeah, we have all of the end ofear reporting, but it's also the time when I go out and talk to all the publishers and retailers about, you know, what we're expecting in the year coming up. So, that takes up the next like two and a half months for me.
It's just going out and laying out not only video game stuff, but you know, sir kind of tracks,

you know, over, you know, what is it? $3 trillion in spending on, you know, discretionary spending in the US. So, I'm out there talking about what's going on in auto parts and prestige beauty, which apparently is still pretty hot. So, anyways, yeah, we we like to prevent like present like a entire kind of look at what's going on with the US consumer.
I want to know what's going on prestige beauty now. I'm not into what is pre you know what I'm not going to ask that question. [laughter]
Fair enough.
I have to say when I saw the November numbers and we spoke last October data, I was uh uh concerned.
You were the only one. Yeah,
I was stunned. I think actually, you know, um I know we've been expecting some form of um the you know, the consumer market to pull back at some point and but that was stunning. But December seemed a lot better.
Yeah, it was. December was better, but up until like the third or fourth week of December, it really wasn't. Video game consumers in particular, in the US in particular, showed up extremely late

this year. like uh you know the results that November showed were not looking all that different in the first and second week of December. It was only at the very end where we saw people uh show up
really. I mean there's just you know fortunately they did and you know we have another year of basically treading water um in the US market that we've been in in this kind of phase now since 2022 of just you know up and down a point or two um and just
the mature market has matured.
Yeah.
But this year there was I was a little worried um but we did come in ultimately spending came in ahead of our you know early year forecast.
Yeah. people kept spending, especially higher income and uh more affluent consumers kept spending while the lower income and less affluent consumers didn't. So, there's all kinds of warning signs uh in this market, but just looking at the 2025 window, it held up barely.
Yeah. What what what why do you think

they came in so late?
Well, a couple of things. Um people were in the US really looking for the best possible deal. They were looking for some relief in terms of pricing compared to everything else that's hitting the US consumer right now. I mean, if you look at everything from pricing from housing to insurance, it's it's escalated rather dramatically. And so for discretionary categories that would include things like games, people are waiting and waiting and waiting trying to find the best deal. um you know Sony was out there with it PlayStation 5 discounting and really benefited from that discounting where whereas something like Xbox Series did not discount at all. In fact raised prices a couple times during the year uh and really suffered in the holiday window because of that. So it it was a lot of waiting and hoping to get the best deal possible and then you know ultimately you run out of time and you still need something under the tree.
Oh okay that makes sense. I have to say it was an unusual top end of year chart not seeing Call of Duty in the top four

top two. I mean occasionally you get a Hogwarts Legacy or Red Dead Redemption 2 I guess but I I was a bit surprised by that. But it's interesting because I've always I always find it funny because the people talk about oh it came number one in the charts but Battlefield 6, NBA 2K26, Borderlands 4, Monster Hunter Wilds and Call of Duty Black Ops 7. If you went to all the publishers of all those games and said were you satisfied with those results? I think you'd only get 2K with NBA 2K26 saying, "Yeah, I'm pleased with that." Because, but I think Battlefield 6 is sort of uh had a bit of a, you know, the Battle Royale didn't do quite as well as I think they wanted to do. Borderlands 4 Take 2 came out on record saying the PC version underperformed and overall was a little softer than they'd liked. Once Hunter Wilds flew out of the gate and then sort of ground to a halt and obviously Call of Duty struggled just but it was a really it was a difference just I say it's been to you since 2008 or something since Call of Duty wasn't in that either top spot or second spot. It was
Yeah. And as a franchise it had been the bestselling franchise for over a decade.

Uh and that stopped this year. In fact both Battlefield and NBA 2K as franchises outsold Call of Duty this year. So yeah, it was definitely a bit of a a change at the top. U but you know, really not much of one. I mean, Call of Duty was still there.
Yeah.
But, you know, NBA 2K in particular had an outstanding year. Um significantly above last year.
Uh one of the best years in franchise history. So, um in that respect, really well. But like you said, you know, even when you're at the top of the charts, it doesn't mean that you're as profitable as you want to be. uh and a lot of games that aren't even on the chart were,
you know, very positive uh profit surprises. So, yeah, that the chart positioning is kind of interesting from a popularity perspective, but it doesn't really tell you much about
just how well the game did according to its development and all that stuff. You know, that
Yeah, I thought it was interesting with I I find it interesting obviously. Actually, Call of Duty has always had a third game problem in a way. The Black

Ops series always very popular, the Modern Warfare series. And they've been sort of looking for that f that game just that third game I guess. And then with Advanced Warfare, Infinite Warfare, Ghosts, and I think one of the World War the World War II one is that is that have I got that got that war the right war there? That did that did all right, I think. But um um they've had that sort of trying to find it and their effort of having Modern Warfare 2 followed directly by Modern Warfare 3 and a Black Ops Black Ops 7 that doesn't seem to have worked. they've actually gone on record saying they're not doing that anymore. Um,
and you have War Zone in the mix and you had mobile for a while uh in the mix. And so, you know, um, they have the combined launcher now, which used to be called Call of Duty HQ, that's now just Call of Duty, which isn't at all confusing uh, for the best sellers charts as those all kind of or the engagement charts as those kind of roll up together. So, you know, it's like they've um they've tried to make an offering for everybody. And in a sense, perhaps maybe they've uh I don't know, um

made it not I don't know, not as special or not as uh one area for people to really focus on in terms of the gameplay. Like
they've kind of I don't know, in my opinion, maybe diffused it a little bit, but who knows?
Yeah. Well, they're now part of Microsoft. I always think I know they separate these things in different silos. when you've got games like Halo and all these other first person shooters, there's a different there are different approaches you can cut this. Yeah. Well, um I want to um Matt, I want you to challenge me on this. I I want to talk Switch 2 quickly because when we were when you were last on, we spoke about how Switch 2 sort of next big test was going to be Christmas
and and looking at the figures across the industry, not just the US, I was a bit I I'm a bit of a Switch to fanboy. So, I was really really hoping to see really great results. I was a little disappointed. Now, I did compare the Switch 2's first Christmas to the Switch 1's first Christmas, which might have been a bit unfair cuz Switch One had Mario around that that time and supply was obviously improving. The supply situation was completely different with Switch One to Switch 2. Um, but what's

your review of it? Was I wrong?
Well, uh, so it came in at 4.4 million US. Uh, we had a initial forecast of 4.3 million.
I had revised that up to 4.5 million. Uh, so the early sales were so strong that I did bump up our outlook a little bit, but ultimately we're kind of, you know, right in the middle of that in terms of the results. I I always thought that because the supply was so strong at launch that we'd pull forward some demand uh just because the people that wanted, you know, that first year early adopter, the people that wanted one could get one basically anytime they wanted to throughout the year. And so there wasn't that lateear inventory inflow that we may have seen in prior generations including like Switch.
So I was assuming we'd get some pull forward. So ultimately it it kind of did what I expected it to in terms of that pull forward holiday not being quite as strong in terms of a decay cur. Oh, okay. Well, I'm going to get technical.

the [laughter] because inventory was so available early. I just thought we wouldn't see the holiday bump that we may have had in previous generations. That kind of worked out okay. I don't know. It's fine. It's not uh amazing considering the launch, but I I wasn't uh super bummed by the holiday performance from the launch. It was just fine. But yeah, we'll we'll have to see what happens when they actually start getting, you know, more games and try to really emphasize and get that mass market adopting.
I know we we talk about this quite a bit console space and um you're understandably concerned about the economic situation, but I think I often say before you get to the point where people say they I they can't afford this because the costs are so high, first of all, you have to get people to want the machine. And I'm not talking [clears throat] and I and I and I and I think people I I really wanted to switch too because I've got a load of Switch One games. I'd love them to run better and look better and I'm play it all the time. I want to get the next device. And I think we're seeing a lot of that. And yes, there's Mario Kart and Donkey Kong Bonanza, but that last one's quite

niche. I I don't feel they they've delivered a compelling one of their big games yet. And I actually think the same is true particularly at the moment, probably not over the course of the whole generation, but the moment of PlayStation, Xbox as well. Like I I don't you know, we talk about, you know, the economic situation, but November and December for for consoles was really quiet. there was no Call of Duty didn't underperformed and so there was no there was nothing else because I think everyone would run away from GTA because they expected it into that slot. Um so I'm for me I I really want to see something what might happen when Nintendo drop a a Mario or a Zelda or a Pokémon one of those big big big titles. I I I I'm sure that will that will cause another surge of interest. But yeah, I'm for me I'm I'm I'm worried about the console space not just because of the the costs and all that kind. I'm not seeing the games. This year looks better. 2026 looks better, I think. But yeah, I waffle.
Yeah. I mean, it looks better in particular for the the enthusiast audience, but I don't know if it looks particularly better for the the mass market general audience that, you know,

has their big game, their Fortnite, their Minecraft, their Roblox, their whatever that they'll just keep on playing. I I don't know. I look at the slate and I go, okay, for the enthusiasts, they've got a bunch of stuff. for everybody else. It's kind of like, all right, whatever. Um, but we'll have to wait and see. Like maybe a and I know we're gonna get into it, but maybe like a Marvel's Wolverine or something can get some mass market attention, but a lot of the games on the slate that I'm looking at, they're they're very targeted towards that hyperenthusiast audience, but you know, I'm I'm sure we'll chat more on that.
Yeah, we'll talk about So, the second part of this we'll talk about um 2026 because I do we've got Well, it's an interesting one. Um, but I'll quickly end I'll talk subscriptions was another bit brought up and it did well last year and one thing I keep meaning to ask you how much of this is down to the price rises on subscriptions or are we actually seeing an increase in people subscribing?
Well, we're so what's interesting is yeah, a lot of it's because of the price increase. A lot of it's because of

Nintendo Switch online adoption with Switch buyers,
but we also have like the MMOs like the the old school MMOs. Um, Star Wars, the Star Wars MMO had a nice surge there during the early part of the year.
Um, we've had other, it's pretty widpread gains in subscription adoption. And I think a little bit of that is people looking for value. They're like, "All right, well, you know, I'm going to try to be smarter. I'm not going to buy this 70, 60, $80 game or whatever. I'll just sub up to this old favorite of mine for a couple months. See what happens." Um but the subscription services overall are starting to see more and more adoption and it was one of the bigger drivers of the performance and the content space in the US which was a little bit surprising because subscription had been flat for so many years coming into last year.
Uh but since 2024 2025 we continue to see subscription gaining momentum which is a little surprising to me.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, um I'm still skeptical it can there's there's much growth in

it, but I I I I'd love to be wrong. Anything that surprised you from the year apart apart from November?
Well, I mean, the NEX playground, we've you know, people we've talked about that to death, but that was uh that was probably the biggest shocker uh in terms of just what it did over such a short window because they had stock. Now, we'll have to see when units start flowing again. are people going to show up again or was that like a flash in the pan? Really tough to say uh what's going to happen there? But I did think it showed that there is still an appetite for familyfriendly gaming content which as an industry especially in the console space um it's moved away from quite dramatically [clears throat] compared to say uh the mid 2000s or even the early 2010s. So that's interesting and hopefully some additional companies start latching on to that you know that would be great to see.
Have you played one Matt? I have I was not able to get one.
I I have an explayground. Um it's not out in the UK yet. It's now out in springtime, I think. Um but um they sent

me one after I spoke to the CEO in the last year. And um I have to say it was it was the per it's the perfect like it's like it was like that Wii Christmas again where you stuck it under the TV and the kids were playing it all Christmas day and all Boxing Day and um it was great. But um I don't know. I don't know how much longevity is in it. It's a diff they've got a subscription service now. So, the idea of just having one game and eventually getting bored with it, there's always going to be a variety of games, but even then, like half the kids games that were on there, like some of it's just musical statues and and things like, but I don't know. It It's a cute little product though, I have to say.
Yeah. And Yeah. And the other thing that surprised me last year, and maybe I shouldn't have, but the um the real boom in the the the PC games that are designed to be played with friends, the RV there yet and section ones and peaks and all these games like that. Um that was the steady stream we saw last year of small successes were these games that would show up for two or three months but really drive big audiences in a short

time window, particularly on PC. Uh that was fun to see um and really interesting to kind of watch which was going to be the next game of those to really pop and that's you know it's a fun lowcost high churn space but if you hit you hit and uh
that was kind of surprising kind of fun to see.
Yeah it was fun to see.
Well shall we talk about 2026? Um I mean obviously we obviously we know what we know what the biggest game if it comes out assuming it hits its target GTA 6. know what the biggest game would be
one of these years, right? It has to come out eventually, right?
I was just thinking it's out November 19th, I think. And which would that should lead to a pretty good
theoretically um we have to go back and edit this after before recording, but um that should lead to a pretty good Black Friday, right? That's what I'm thinking for Xbox and PlayStation. Anyway, that you'd hope
you'd hope. Um, the LA I mean, so the only thing you really have to go back and look at in terms of benchmarks is GTA 5's launch in 2013 and then the launch of the remasters, uh, and then

maybe like a Red Dead 2 or something to try to see the impact on the total market. And you do see an impact. I think it's a lot lighter than people assume in terms of the number of consoles and accessories that are sold directly as a result of a new GTA coming out. [clears throat]
Um, but there's still a noticeable impact. Then yeah, I mean, anytime you have what's expected to be the biggest entertainment launch in world history shows up, you'd assume you'd have a good holiday. Um, and if Call of Duty could rebound a little bit, if we still get a strong NBA 2K and um, you know, yeah, it should be uh, and if we get it and if, like you said, we get something crazy out of Nintendo in the holiday window, then hey, uh, great. I mean, the only thing coming on the other side of that which could really hinder things is if we start getting some massive price increases on console or PC products because of what's going on with RAM and storage and all that. So, it's
it's uh there's a lot of reasons for optimism and there's a lot of reasons to be very cautious.

You you have to somehow tread that line, your predictions. GTA V, I went back and looked at GTA V because obviously it launched like two months before the PS4. This is how upsetting it is. It launched two months before the PS4 and the Xbox One. But um uh and but what's interesting is I'd be interested. There is so I I'm this is pure anecdotal, but I've got so many friends that haven't actually owned a PlayStation or Xbox since GTA 5, right? And GTA V also wasn't the only wasn't the first GTA on that platform. It was the second GTA on that platform. And they're now talking about this and they're excited about it. So I really I mean it's I don't think there's actually any historical data to be able to actually draw any conclusions on benchmarks are garbage when you're looking that far back in time, right?
So, you never know. Like, the only recent example we have of something like that in the US is the launch of EA Sports College Football 25,
uh, which came out last year, of course, it was the bestselling sports game in US history. Um, for the UK folks, it's a it's football, but you use your hands a lot. Um, anyways, uh, that actually had

a pretty strong impact on hardware sales. We did see a pop because of EA Sports College football. So if you use that as a guidance then and you expect GTA to be a bigger deal then yeah it should have a bigger impact but yeah when you're just looking at historical benchmarks there's all kinds of reasons why you shouldn't small sample uh long time ago things have changed blah blah blah um but we'll see but yeah you're right it should be it should be a really good holiday pending everything else in the world working out okay and we'll have to see about that.
Yeah. Well, I asked Level Up um before uh what were the biggest games based on. They do things like, you know, social media posts, influencers, what influencers talking about, what coming out of official channels, what's what have views on Tik Tok, views on YouTube, um uh engagement numbers, how many likes and shares, and they do all these sort of metrics so you can decide which games are going to be the biggest games of the year or some of the most talked about

games of the year. So, I asked them uh for a list. I know that you do you you've got similar um consumer sentiment stuff and um and I thought okay I asked them what are the biggest games according to your data of 2026 that isn't GTA and number one by I mean an absolute mile was Resident Evil Recreum and it's not it's also number one in on Steam wish lists as well. So, even if you get into that sort of sector of the thing, um it's number one on everything. Um engagement, views, publications, creators, every every metric they've got. And look, I've I love Resident Evil. It's one of my favorite non- Nintendo franchises. It probably is actually. Um and I'm very excited for Recquum, but I'm so surprised at how well that how Capcom have maintained that series and just kept that so vibrant. Um and this one seems to be a level above. I don't know what you've seen, Matt.
Yeah. So, we do uh purchase intent tracking as well, and that aligns with what we're showing. I mean, Grand Theft Auto 6 is off the charts in terms of purchase intent, and our historical

track against the best ever.
Uh, but right now, in terms of upcoming releases, Resident Evil Reququum is number two.
So, yeah, our data supports that as well, that this is just a very highly anticipated game. And I mean, coming off of, you know, Village and some of the other things Resident Evil has done, I I get it. like the brand strength has definitely been improving. Um, but yeah, this is a little bit stronger than I had anticipated, too. So, we'll have to see. And, you know, that ultimately means a bigger day one. Um, and pending the game's success and how well it's received. You know, it could lean to a longer tale as well. Um, but yeah, it's exciting to see people so hyped up for it. Um,
interested to see if it can really break out into the mass market. Um,
yeah,
more. Well, yeah. I I find it I find it a really fascinating series. I really do. I mean, it it's Resident Evil Recrim. I'm a big Resident Evil fan. It seems to have combined, if you played Resident Evil Village, there's a level which is like a doll's house level, which is where you don't really have any

weapons and it's terrifying. Resident Evil Requum seems to be part that and then the part Resident Evil 2 remake where it's a lot more action packed in Resident Evil 4 as well. Um, uh, which I mean, which I think obvious evolution for it. I don't doesn't feel radically different to other Resident Evil games. It looks great. But I but anyway, it's doing very well. Dominated Summer Game Fest. It dominated Game Wars. One thing I want to say actually all this data was based on on 2025 numbers. So there's a few things missing from this. Like Tomb Raider is not on my list and I don't know if it would have been otherwise, but Tomb Raider obviously got announced Tomb Raider Legacy Atlantis or whatever got announced quite late in the year last year. Um Forsa and Fable aren't on this list either. And know Fors was announced at um Tokyo Games Show last year. it wasn't properly revealed um until well a couple of weeks ago. Same with Fable. So those games are missing and maybe they'd have they'd have charted somewhere in this um if otherwise. So people wondering where they are. It's just might be the element of the data. Um and actually everything else on this list you it largely depends on how you track it. I'm tracking this by engagement which is like shares,

likes, comments, and that kind of stuff rather than but you could if you do this. But number two in terms of engagement was Lego Batman. Um, it's not necessarily getting a lot of coverage from the media. Well, it's getting some. It's number nine in terms of creator media, number 10 in terms of publication coverage, but um, number two in terms of engagement, number two in terms of video views. It did very well at Gamescom. Um, uh, it's it's which is good. I mean, GTA and Lego Batman are both British made games, so I'm very happy to see two of those, uh, coming up quite highly. Um, uh, uh, yeah. So, that that's a I know LEGO games are always huge. They're always big. I think people underestimate them, but um I don't know. Are they as big in the US as they are over here? Because over here they can sometimes be like the number two game of the year.
Yeah. I I mean I was at Warner for a long time, worked on almost all of the Lego games and it was the
it was the very silent success and uh it it tailed off for a bit, but The Skywalker Saga uh did exceptionally well, a game that yeah, people sleep on in terms of thinking about the market

uh potential. And you know, Batman's never been Star Wars in the LEGO world in terms of sales potential. So, I don't think it's going to get to Skywalker Saga numbers, but yeah, in terms of our player uh purchase intent, it is it's number two on our list as well behind Reququum. Um, so again, tracking pretty well there. And yeah, like it's one of those games that,
you know, will do okay at launch, but the tales on LEGO games, especially because they discount rather aggressively later in the cycle. Like I think uh over the holiday you could pick up Skywalker Saga on Switch for I think it was like five bucks or something crazy. Like they do some really aggressive uh Hy low promotional pricing uh later in its cycle. And so yeah, this would be one of those games I think is going to sell for a long long time.
Uh number three on my list, well number four if you count GTA, but I'm not. So number three on my list, uh also partly made in the UK is 007 First Light. I don't Is that on your list as well?
It is, but lower. Um perhaps this just a

regional thing. Um 007 is going to be stronger in Europe than in the US I think based on historical data.
But yeah, a little bit lower on list, but yeah, it's there.
I'm a little worried. I I don't know. It's coming up highly, but I'm I there's they they worked very hard to get it to that point on the list. You know, there's been a lot of activity, a lot of promotion, a lot of bigname actors announced to it. I I hope it does very well. I love IO Interactive. They're a great team. Um and the game looks great. But it in a way Lego, Resident Evil, GTA, James Bond. I feel like I'm reading a a top five games list from 1999. Like it's like I can't it's it's very console as well. Um
Well, they're selling to the same people.
Yeah. [laughter]
People playing console in 2026 are the same ones that were playing console in 1999, but that's a whole different conversation.
Yeah. Yeah. [laughter]
But yeah, I mean 007, right? They've done all kinds of promotional work. They had that little bit of a stumble there in terms of the PC specs that got a

little bit of run on social media where they they announced 32 gigs of RAM were a requirement. Oh no, no, it's 16 gigs. It's cool. Uh yeah, so it's kind of interesting. I think people want it to be great. Uh but I I have a my gut feeling tells me that people are kind of like I hope it's great, but we'll we'll have to see.
I like what I've seen of it, but then I I feel like I'm as a 40-year-old British man, I feel like I'm pure I'm exactly who the target audience is for this. Yeah, you have to or they'll kick you out and take your tea, man.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like Paddington and and James Bond if we're not if we're not in that. Um
let me get Paddington as a secret agent. I'll play that game.
Oh, that's a mod. That's the mod waiting to happen. Um number four on So, what's number three for you? What was number three?
Uh Wolverine.
Ah, okay. Well, that's number four on my list is Wolverine. Again, another console one. There's not been too much revealed of it really. I mean, I know we had a trailer, a teaser and a trailer. Um, there's a big reveal for it. I don't know about this one because it feels more God of War than Spider-Man. I was a big fan of Spider-Man, but Insomniac

rarely I don't do put a foot wrong with this kind of thing. I think you've got you got the IP and the and the studio and Sony's marketing muscle behind it.
Y
and it seems to be targeting exactly the sort of thing that PS5 plan fans like.
Yeah. And if you like can we talk about the the branding a little bit? I think that uh when Spider-Man came out and they had that bright red background and the hero prominent and all of the coordinated efforts across all media and in store like I don't know if anyone does the selling effort at the retail level whether that's digital or physical than Sony does right now and I think this Marvel Wolverine branding really pops really well and is going to grab a lot of attention on the front page of the Sony storefront or even in what remains of retail. I I don't know. I just think they do such a phenomenal job of retail merchandising and and that doesn't quite get talked about very much, but
it's a very striking. I always say that somebody pointed out to me years and years and years ago when do you remember the game enslaved Odyssey to the West?
Yeah. Yeah.
Um it was an advert on a on a on a bill

on a on the tube underground on the underground in the London point to me said that's just a mess of just a mess of colors and images and it's just too much. And then you look at something like Spider-Man and like Wolverine, that's gonna that's going to be quite a
it's very striking attention grabbing. I don't know. It's it's a minor component, right? But uh I'm a sicko. That comes from retail merchandising and retail marketing when I first started in this business. And I just look at that and go, damn, you guys know what you're doing. That is just beautiful. Anyways,
I spent nine years on MCV magazine. Retail merchandising and in store placements and box arts and stuff are all my uh [laughter] very much my domain, too.
Yeah. I Yeah, in the US in particular, like the Marvel thing always worked really well. Insomniac, the the whole thing, but ultimately it'll come down to you're right in that it's a very different style of gameplay. Uh, but I'm sure they're gonna put enough Insomniac in there to uh I'm confident they're gonna put enough Insomniac stuff in

there to really drive the gameplay.
They're one of my favorite developers and I Sunset Overdrive was one of my favorite Xbox One games. And Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Ratchet and Clank. I just I actually tested Ratchet and Clank once. It's one of my first projects I worked on.
Man, I want a new Ratchet and Clank with Paddington. Give me that.
Paddington and Clank. Um, um,
uh, number five. I I don't know. Is this even on your list? Is on on the level up list. This is in terms of engagement. It comes a little bit lower in terms of publications and stuff. The Dust Bloods from from Software. It's the first new IP on my list.
Yeah. You know, so uh spoiler alert for later in the list, the all these games we're going to talk about for the most part, uh aside from the some Marvel stuff, they all blur together for me. It's just it's all kind of the same. Very dark, gothic, violent. They're all a lot of these games kind of have this vibe and that'll speak to that enthusiast audience, but um you know, we're starting to get into that
yeah more niche part of the of the list

they got going here.
The Dust Bloods because it's a from software from software games obviously generate a lot of buzz, a lot of excitement, a lot of a lot of conversation. I can see why it's done well on this list, but it is on the is Switch 2 exclusive.
So, and therefore I'm immediately looking thinking Bayonetta numbers, not not Elder Ring numbers, right? and
and PvPVE, right? It's like eight player kind of.
It doesn't feel like a Nintendo Switch 2 game in terms of its typical audience. And and so, you know, and the fact is on my list, the Dust Bloods is number five, but uh Pootopia, the new Pokémon game, isn't on the list at all. And if if you if you want to point a gun to my head and say, is The Dust Bloods going to outsell Pokémon? Of course, it's not.
No.
Yeah. I I it's interesting it's on here. And I guess it's because of the type of game it is, that enthusiast audience, that conversation that happens on social media and and stuff is is generating things. But
yeah, we're getting to that point where um you mean you know this as well as anyone, the hyperenthusiast audience online and what it talks about is quite

different than what the average video game player is talking and thinking about. Like we're there is absolutely a portion of the audience which is very high spend, high engagement, incredibly critical in terms of its ability to evangelize or even demonize products to friends and family. They're very influential as a group, but it's a small group and what they really are into is often different
uh than what the mass market will be into. Well, what was number five for you in your uh is it similar?
Uh well, we had Tomb Raider on our list. It's a little bit more recent in terms of our Yeah.
Um our analysis.
Another console one,
but Poke Popia Po Pootopia. Yes, that's how you pronounce that. Um was behind Wolverine for us.
I see. That's a uh I think that'd be I think that could do well. I I'm interested in that one. I look at the Switch 2 lineup and I know Nintendo will announce something for the end of the year. They always do. Um, it that's

that's that's one to watch. I think I I don't
I mean, it's the biggest entertainment brand in the world right now, right? So, put out whatever you want. It's going to sell.
Yeah. But how is it is it something I mean, the sort of an Animal Crossing style Dragon Quest Builder style game. I think it could it could c you know, you've seen this stuff this set fire before. Um, number six on my list I is is Marvel Token. And there's also, if I go a little bit lower down, number nine is Invincible S. I find fighting games do have they have a very specific and very noisy audience of people um who do a lot of sharing their engagement is always quite high. I think that's why these two games on the list. I mean I know that they've been getting I think Marvel's talking might be even a Sony thing. Um uh I don't even know if I pronounced that right. Um but it's uh these games tend to do quite well with um uh a certain very specific audience. It's a small one but the noisy one. And um I don't know if that's if they do they appear on your list at all.

They well Marvel Token does. I don't know if we have Invincible Verses in our uh set.
Invincible Versus for me number 17 in terms of creative coverage, number 14 publication coverage, number 12 in terms of video views. It's not that high, but number nine in engagement. So it's like it's it's I guess it's just that conversation I was telling about,
right? It's that hyper enthusias audience over over uh what is it? Overperforming its weight basically. Um, but yeah, for us when I'm looking at our list like Marvel token that's down there for us with I mean not down there, it's still like
it's still in there still,
but it it's in the world of uh gosh uh [sighs and gasps] what's down here with it? Um Warlock Dungeons and Dragons. Uh Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.
Oh,
uh Mega Man Dual Override. Like um it's kind of in that second tier.
Okay. Yeah, Yoshi's interesting now they've got because obviously I think that's coming out around the same time of the movie and the obviously just revealed he's a star of the uh the new

Mario Galaxy movie.
Yeah, those kind of games are the ones that perform far better commercially than they do on something like a purchase intent or other survey work with gaming audiences, right? It's kind of that that split again.
All this list will be by the way on the newsletter, but there's a few things here. Reanimal comes in quite highly in almost every list. Um it's uh number two in Craz. Now Reanimal is from the people that did the Little Nightmares games, particularly the first and second one. They didn't do the third one. The third one didn't do as well as the first two. Um and uh this one looks very very Little Nightmaresy. Um and that has a very quite a big one actually active enga audience of fan fans. I did a Comic-Con panel with the Little Nightmares 3 team and it was a really busy panel. I was surprised um at the amount of people in the room and um so I'm not I'm not too surprised to see it up there, but it's actually one of a few new IPs in here. Um uh I think that's another one of those sort of quiet ones people I know it's again it's a hard

it's a core audience, a niche audience, but it's one of those quiet ones that's always hovering around in the top parts of these charts. Yeah, the games like this um Reanimal with its $40 price point at launch, like it it I'm not saying it's not justified at all. People should charge as much as they can for the the games they make. But I wonder how much an audience will be there day one for a $40 price for a game like that. That's just, you know, kind of how it all works. I hope they are. Um but I'm wondering how that's going to impact things as well.
Yeah. And then another new IP is The Blood of the Dawn Walker, uh, which came out pretty high on most charts, which is a Witch. It's from, I think it's The Witcher 3, some of the people that worked on that. Um, I saw that at Gamescom. It looked very, uh, European RPG, [laughter] I describe it. Um, which, you know, they're big. They they they're big, and I know it's a new IP and stuff, but I think people are excited about that. I think if you like The Witcher, there's a good chance you'll probably like this one.
Yeah. It's another one of those kind of games that that you expect to have a

very very long tale that people are going to hang out with for a long time. Maybe smaller in terms of the overall audience, but more deeply engaged for a longer period of time. So, I think I'm expecting that one to be more of a slowburn. Um, but yeah, really I I hope it really finds a strong uh audience because uh that's a cool that's a cool looking game. I'm interested in that one. So, we'll see. And uh I know we're into this sort of mix of Phantom Blade Zero is on the list. This will be because of I imagine China um because it's a it's a sort of I can never pronounce it. Wooks a storytelling sort of game that's in there. It's sort of there and there about uh I guess it has that sort of black myth sort of appeal um going on with that. Is that on your that I guess yours is US? I'm interested. Is that is that a is that thing that's US or is this more of a global thing? It's not it's not in our um in our current look. So, we we go to consumers with a a list of games, but we don't have every game on there. So, we try to identify which

ones might fit. So, this one we might have to add.
Yeah. Well, that's interesting. I mean, it's it's number five in terms of wish lists on Steam. Um I did I'd grantly grab the wish list list wish [laughter] the list of the top 10 wish lists on Steam to try and get uh see if I was missing any. And you actually we are missing quite a few. Um
oh man somewhere Simon's ears are like wish list steam I'm going to come over.
Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] This is Simon's list. Um there you go.
Um fair enough.
So yeah I'm not I'm not Yeah. This is information he knows. Um I I also put in number 11 on this is Pragmata because Pragmat actually came in the top 10 for creators. Number four for creators. Number three for publications. Number nine for views. Just missed out by engagement but was in the top 10 for everything else. And it's number five. Number six, sorry, on the Steam wish list. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this because I play Pragmata at Summer Game Fest and I loved it and it gave me the vibe of like Vanquish and um PO3, if you remember those sort of

games. It has that sort of look about them. Those all sort of Capcom games. I'm actually surprised this is um I'm pleasantly surprised, I want to say, that it seems to be
getting quite a lot of engagement. Another new IP. Um, it I just didn't I thought this was I thought it was one of those old old school Capcom games that don't really do very well, but hey, it seems to be getting a doing all right.
Yeah. Full confession on this one for me. Every time I see the name of the game, I go, I've never heard of this game before, and then I go look it up, I go, "Oh, it's this game I've seen a bunch of times, but I keep forgetting exists." So, [laughter] you know, maybe I'm not the best one to ask about this one. I don't know. Well, um,
I've seen the trailers a bunch, but for some reason the name of the game and the game itself just kind of keeps disassociating in my brain.
Yeah, it's a very Yeah. Well, no, I can see that. I say I play I I sort of can I say I used to I loved even though it's nothing like PO3, it has the similar look to it. The um uh the old Gamecube game from the Capcom 5, if you remember that. Um uh it gives that vibe to it,

but I I really it's just very fun. It was a very fun game to play. It's
awesome. I'll I'll have to remember to try it next time I forget the name.
Like, oh, that game. I got to try that game. That's right. What is it again? Um, that's that's on me, though.
Uh, on my I mean, there's one game that was on the list very highly, and I think it's probably because of China is a game called pronounce this right, Ananta. Um, very highly rated. It's actually was in the top three on level on level ups data, but it doesn't there's no official confirmation when that's out, whether it's 2026 or not. So, I I didn't put it in the in the list. And there were other games that made the top 10 for certain metrics but not others. SOS on immushia and near free. Um uh so I did they didn't make the list. And I also as I've got the wish lists out from from silent and game discover. And there's a few like Slay the Spire is two. Slay the Spire 2 is is the second most wishlisted game behind Resident Evil. For Horizon 6 number three. Um so that's that's quite big. Uh then it's Reanimal, Phantom Blade Zero, Pragmata. The one that I'm

really looking forward to is Mouse PI for Hire, which I don't know if you seen that. That's that uh
that's the it looks it's a first person game that looks like it's Cuphead. Um I think it's um yeah, I'm all over that. Um and then there's a few other there's Outbound and Crimson Desert and Gothic one remake. That's also in the top 10, which let's say game quite different. Obviously, it's only Steam. It's only one platform. Is there anything else that I've uh your on your list? Um Matt? Uh, so from our purchase intent list, I we think we've covered almost all of them. I mean, the the fun part about this market, right, is that some game will come out that literally no one's ever heard of
uh and be the biggest thing in the world um out of nowhere or like a Hell Divers 2 will show up and you go, I kind of remember Hell Divers, but then it becomes the biggest game in the market for
Hell World or a Clair Obscure or an Arc Raiders like it happens again and again and again and again. This this this is not the list of the bestselling games of the year. It's not. It won't be.
No, it's And it's beautiful because

these games it's not just the games that we're anticipating. Um I mean, ideally, in my ideal world, the video game industry would be much more like film and say, "Hey, these are the this is what's coming out."
But, you know, we have to hide everything and be uh be weird about it for some reason.
Um one of the games that's popping up recently, it's it's already out in early access, but No Rest for the Wicked. Um, we're starting to see that
kind of climb up in in terms of the momentum we're seeing.
Um, so kind of keep an eye on that one. Uh, in terms of the recent games, like you've covered High Guard a lot. By the way, I had no idea Dusty Welch was involved with that. I worked with him way back in the early Call of Duty days. That was kind of fun to
to learn about. Um, but yeah, we we're we're trying to keep an eye on like some of these even more recent games that have been coming out and watching them climb and fall depending on whatever weird things are happening. It's I mean, this is what

makes this market so fun, right? It's like you can have like your most anticipated list and then you come back at the end of the year, you're like, "Well, half of these games didn't come out. Two of them did way better than expected. The one we thought was going to do great bond." Like it's always kind of fun to
see the madness of this market.
It's it's fun. I like being a reporter, not an analyst. I have to say, man, I don't envy your job. I like being able to say, "Oh, Star Wars Outlaws underperformed." That's I don't like saying that, but I I I and and but not having not having to predict that and then saying, "Oh, but then Arc Raiders came Battlefield B." You know, these things that you would just next playground like it's it's I I'm glad I can report on that and see that and just talk about it. Isn't this interesting? Isn't the Isn't the rise of the niche really fascinating and not have to put a number on what's going to do well and what's not going to do well? The fun part is right now because of all the the chaos in the market when it comes to tariffs and pricing and
all of the madness going around there is I'm going to folks now saying here's my forecast plus or minus a lot because who

the hell knows and like
you you show a hardware forecast for this year and I just kind of laugh when I'm doing it because I go you know this could all be blown up uh by 300 p.m. today if we see $100 price increases or god knows what's going to happen. I wish we could get some stability in what we can assume for the market. So in that respect, yeah, it's not the best because uh you know, every forecast you make has these huge error bars on it from things you can't control. But on the other hand, you kind of go, well, I don't know. Do you? And people go, "No, I don't know." And then, you know, it's cool. [laughter] People just know that there's a lot of lot of wiggle room in there.
Well, a lot of people are asking me how I felt Nintendo's going to do this year, and I said, "Till I know what they've got in their slate." I I don't know. Like I look at their lineup now and it's a bunch of um older games with new content added to it and Fire Emblem. And if that's the slate for the year, which it won't be, I would I would say that's, you know, that's going to be a tough year for them. But if they suddenly announce, oh, we've got a 3D Mario game

and a brand new Pokémon game at the end of the year, then
opinions, oh, in that case, you know, expect something significant. It's difficult to know with them. Um, they can never predict or they do and they and they'll announce late. That's the thing with Nintendo is they they they they have a habit of going, "Oh, we'll tell you what we got coming out in October and September, in June." And it it is and how do you Yeah. factor for that.
Yeah. And they have ninja attorneys, right? So, no one wants to cross them that has any brains in their head because those people like I if Nintendo's lawyers wanted to do anything they want to do in this world, they could achieve it. Um I'm convinced. But yeah, I mean, you touched on it, right? There's a difference between forecasting and prophecy.
Yeah. Yeah.
And a lot of the times people want prophecy and I go, I'm a forecaster, baby. Like I'll I'll give you my ideas about what could happen, but uh I ain't no Nostradamus over here at the video game world. I can only know what I can assume, right? So with anything, you try to get your assumptions right and then the forecast will follow correctly. Uh,

a lot of people want that prophetic this is what's going to happen this year without any of the assumptions being reliable and that's when it all falls apart.
I I will say when I when this list came together, I expected to see a load of weird PC games, but what I actually got was a very console friendly slate. And it maybe it's an old school console friendly site cuz Tomb Raider is not on my list. I think it's on yours, but um Resident Evil, Lego, Bond, Marvel, um um uh uh Tomb Raider, uh the Dust Bloods, which is is a is is only coming to Switch 2, Pokémon in your on your list. I I I don't know. Maybe maybe it'll be a good year for consoles. Maybe. Maybe.
Maybe. Or or maybe that all the PC stuff that's going to really move the needle hasn't even
Yeah, we have no idea.
We have no idea it's there, right? You never know. you're going to we could have one of the bestselling games of all time getting ready to launch in June for all we know and we have no idea until it shows up.
I mean again that's what makes it fun

but also uh maddening.
Yeah. Well um I'm I'm conscious of the time Matt. Um and we've gone through the biggest games according to the internet and we look back at at 2025 briefly there. What are you looking forward to? What is the uh what's top of your 2026 wish list? The top of my 2026 wish list is that tariffs go away, we get some stability in pricing and we understand what's going to happen in that area. Like that's uh my what keeps me up at night is the impact that's going to have not only on the hardware manufacturers but on consumers and downstream on the publishers. So, um I know like the question is more about what games are we excited about.
No, it's that's fine. I I asked that question expecting a game answer and I'm pleasantly surprised when I get a business one. It's great. It's a
Yeah, I'm I'm ter I'm terrified is the not the right word, but uh I'm uh extremely concerned. Anxious is a good word by the uncertainty in the marketplace. Everything from interest rates down to availability of component

parts. Uh it's tenuous right now. And what I expect to see happen is people fall back on devices they own playing games they know they know uh because of the uncertainty. And I hope that doesn't happen. I hope we get these new games on devices that people can afford and want to buy [laughter] and perhaps that all happens. Uh, which would be great. And I'm not saying it's not going to happen, but what keeps me up at night is the uh is the uncertainty.
Yeah. Yeah. And I sometimes my anxiety spills over into the articles I write for people uh cross with me for being downbeat or anything negative. It's often it's often I'm worried. I got some emails after the November release from some folks that weren't very happy. I'll tell you that.
Well, well, well, I don't want [laughter] to rep I want to be stressed. I don't want to report disappointing sales. Like, that is not what I want to report. I I if anything, I want everything to succeed. It's the reason why I do this show. It's to try and help us all be more successful.
But there's no sense in lying about what

the reality of the market is, no matter how much we want, you know, whatever. Anyways,
how we we're not going to help people be more successful by misleading. I it'sact it's it's it's yeah but anyway
not in reporting and not in analysis and not in anything else like you have you have to agree on the truth to move forward and well that's just a problem in society at the moment.
Well on that note I'm going to wrap up Matt. Thank you so much for joining us
on a real upper there. I love that. [laughter]
Uh it's been a joy having you on and um I I'll have you we'll be back on you. One of our you're one of our most popular guests so we'll definitely be
That's insane to me. But I appreciate that. Thanks for watching everybody. Hi. [laughter]
Uh, thank you, Matt. Well, that's it for today's edition of the Game Business Show. Do check out the website for some of the big interviews we've done this week, including with the World of Warcraft team. We did that as a podcast as well. And uh interviews with Take CEO Straick and Epic Store boss Steve Allison. Those are unfortunately text only uh interviews, but you can find them on the game.com. Indeed, if you go

to the gamebus.com, stick in your email address in there, you will make sure you receive all the news, analysis, insight, and interviews that we put out, and you won't miss an episode of the show either. Until next time, thank you for tuning in.