The Game Business
Games industry business news and analysis by Christopher Dring (ex-GamesIndustry.biz).
Documents
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 European Launch Sales Performance
The launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in Europe has underperformed significantly, with opening week sales figures trailing behind major competitors.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 experienced a weak European launch, with opening week sales 63% lower than Battlefield 6's October debut and over 50% lower than last year's Black Ops 6.
- The sales data for Black Ops 7 excludes Game Pass subscriptions, meaning the actual player count is likely higher than the reported unit sales figures.
- Ubisoft's new release, Anno 117: Pax Romana, performed strongly, selling approximately 2.5 times more units at launch than the 2019 title Anno 1800.
Call of Duty under Attack
The video game shooter genre is currently experiencing a significant period of volatility, characterized by intense competition and shifting player engagement.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched with 100,000 peak concurrent players on Steam, significantly underperforming compared to Black Ops 6 (300,000) and Modern Warfare 3 (190,000).
- Competing shooters Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders achieved strong launch figures, peaking at 747,000 and 482,000 concurrent Steam users respectively.
- Arc Raiders shows low player crossover with Call of Duty, with only 11% on PS5 and 13% on Xbox, while 5 million Call of Duty console players were drawn from Fortnite last weekend.
Call of Duty under attack, but who is winning (and losing) in the battle of the shooters?
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a period of intense volatility and structural realignment, characterized by shifting player loyalties and evolving development strategies.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is experiencing a softening in performance as competitors like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders successfully capture segments of its shooter audience.
- Established franchises like Destiny 2 are facing declining engagement and resource constraints, forcing studios to pivot toward new genres like extraction shooters such as Marathon.
- Major publishers are shifting away from traditional annual release models, exemplified by EA’s decision to move the F1 series toward a long-term DLC expansion strategy.
Life beyond Elden Ring: What’s Next for Bandai Namco Entertainment
This analysis examines the strategic direction of Bandai Namco Entertainment through an interview with CEO and President Nao Udagawa.
- Bandai Namco’s recent commercial success is anchored by FromSoftware titles, with the original Elden Ring exceeding 30 million units sold, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion reaching 10 million, and the spin-off Elden Ring: Nightreign selling 5 million units.
- Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has become the third best-selling game in Bandai Namco’s US history, achieving 5 million global sales since its 2024 release.
- CEO Nao Udagawa announced a strategic pivot to expand internal development capabilities to create games based on Bandai Namco’s own intellectual properties, rather than relying primarily on third-party partnerships.
Life beyond Elden Ring: A rare interview with Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa
Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa outlines a strategic vision centered on balancing third-party partnerships with an increased focus on internal development capabilities.
- Bandai Namco is shifting its strategic focus toward balancing third-party partnerships with a greater emphasis on internal development capabilities.
- The company is using the success of its partnership with FromSoftware on Elden Ring as a primary benchmark for future development standards and global marketing strategies.
- To mitigate rising development costs, the firm is maintaining a diversified portfolio that spans from large-scale AAA blockbusters to smaller projects.
Football Manager 2026: European Chart History Analysis
Football Manager 2026 achieved the strongest launch in the series' European chart history for the week ending November 9, 2025.
- Football Manager 2026 achieved the biggest first-week launch in the series' European chart history since records began in 2017.
- Despite its commercial success, the title currently holds a 'Mostly Negative' rating on Steam following its transition to a new engine.
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment for the Nintendo Switch 2 debuted at No. 5 in unit sales, with launch performance estimated to be 75% lower than its 2020 predecessor, Age of Calamity.
What’s Going to Stop the Steam Machine Failing Again?
The reintroduction of the Steam Machine represents a strategic shift for Valve, aiming to establish a stronger foothold in the living room console market.
- Valve has announced a new cube-shaped Steam Machine featuring six times the horsepower of the Steam Deck, with a new controller and a release scheduled for next year.
- Unlike the failed 2015 iteration which relied on multiple third-party partners, the new Steam Machine is a single, internally developed hardware proposition from Valve.
- The addressable market for Steam has grown significantly, with user game entitlements increasing from roughly $9 billion in 2015 to $90 billion today.
What will stop the Steam Machine failing again? And how did Helldivers 2's Xbox launch go?
The current landscape of the video game industry is defined by a tension between aggressive corporate consolidation and the necessity for studios to maintain distinct creative identities.
- The video game industry is shifting away from aggressive consolidation toward sustainable growth, evidenced by Square Enix’s divestment from Western studios as firms refocus on core competencies.
- Creative vision remains a viable market strategy, as demonstrated by the success of multiplayer-focused titles like Helldivers 2 despite a crowded and risk-averse landscape.
- High-profile release delays have created a temporary market reprieve, providing a strategic window for smaller developers to capture market share from major publishers.
Interview with Reggie Fils-Aime on Nintendo Switch 2, leadership and the console war
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural transformation as the traditional console war model fades in favor of platform-agnostic strategies.
- The gaming industry is shifting from a hardware-exclusive console war model toward a platform-agnostic strategy, evidenced by Xbox’s move into third-party publishing and Sony’s expansion onto PC.
- Future hardware success, including for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, now depends heavily on robust third-party support and efficient development tools rather than relying solely on proprietary exclusivity.
- To avoid market stagnation, hardware manufacturers must leverage unique brand identities to deliver innovative, distinct experiences that justify their continued relevance in a less hardware-centric landscape.
Battlefield, EA Sports FC and Pokémon Continue to Lead European Charts
The European video game market continues to be dominated by established franchises, with Battlefield 6, EA Sports FC 26, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A maintaining the top three positions in unit sales for the week ending November 2, 2025.
- Battlefield 6, EA Sports FC 26, and Pokémon Legends: Z-A maintained the top three positions in the European sales charts for the week ending November 2, 2025, despite respective sales declines of 24%, 11%, and 36%.
- The Outer Worlds 2 debuted at No. 8 in unit sales, with its combined early access and launch performance tracking slightly below the opening week of the original 2019 title.
- Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake entered the charts at No. 9 in units and No. 6 in revenue.
Grand Theft Auto VI Delayed Again: "When We Set a Date, We Really Do Believe in It"
Take-Two Interactive has officially delayed the release of Grand Theft Auto VI to November 19, 2026.
- Take-Two has delayed the release of Grand Theft Auto VI to November 19, 2026, marking a six-month shift from its previous May 2026 target.
- Take-Two reported Q2 net bookings of $1.96 billion, a 33% year-over-year increase, and raised its full-year guidance to between $6.4 billion and $6.5 billion.
- NBA 2K26 achieved double-digit growth over its predecessor with over five million units sold, while recurrent consumer spending across the company rose 45% year-over-year.
How global Governments are using video games to influence the population
The global video game industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural and geopolitical transformation.
- Autocratic regimes, including Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia, are utilizing massive economic investments and regulatory pressure to use the gaming industry as a tool for state-aligned propaganda and ideological control.
- Governments are increasingly co-opting gaming aesthetics and iconography to influence digital discourse, often bypassing intellectual property holders to push partisan agendas.
- The gaming industry faces an urgent ethical crisis regarding state interference, as platforms become central to public life and potential vehicles for population control.