GTA 6 and Switch 2 are the subject of a ton of buzz right now. Sure, they’re both massive launches on the horizon for millions of gamers, but there’s a bucket of cold water about to fall on all of our heads. The gaming industry is worth billions, but more and more consumers are running for the hills, and playing older games instead.
Why do I say this? Because massive growth is exactly what the industry expects, according to one source. The latest report, The PC & Console Gaming 2025, created by Newzoo, has been published. And from the 100+ pages of analysis comes a few key points.
For one thing, we’re about to see the biggest value explosion in the games industry, EVER. According to the report’s authors, the industry is projected to be valued at 92.7 billion dollars in 2027 (currently it stands at 85.2 billion dollars). And according to them, the lion’s share of the growth is attributed to an ever-growing console market.
The overall push for consoles takes the form of 7% in growth from 2024 to 2027, at least that’s what’s projected. For the PC gaming market by comparison, we’re seeing a 2.7% growth from 2024 to 2027. Whether that growth holds past 2025 is completely uncertain, though.
This overall trend of inflation isn’t unique to games, or any hobby really, but it’s become the subject of a ton of outrage. Gamers all over the globe are fed up. But according to this report, their rage is taking a strange form. Rather than swearing off new games entirely, they’re doing something unique.
And we can see that in the Newzoo report, namely by the engagement with older games. More and more gamers are choosing to stick with older games. It’s questionable how much of this change is attributable to the quality and pricing of games, or some other factor. Pay too much attention to complaints online, and you’ll be under the impression that gaming is dying, but the numbers don’t lie. Overall, playtime is up, it’s just that older games are gaining a lion’s share of people’s attention. The real losers here are titles between 1-5 years old, who saw a sharp drop in playtime. By comparison, brand new releases have risen from 7 per cent of playtime to 12 per cent from 2021 to 2024.
Newzoo report shows players either prefer very new or very old games
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Sony got some good news as playtime on PlayStation consoles has significantly increased by 21%.
Another area of concern as recession fears grow is the dropoff in new game purchases overall. The report shows that the share of more engaged consumers (those who play multiple new games per year) is experiencing a sharp decline. The report shows that since 2021, players have been playing fewer games. They usually settle for 1-3 The decline is most noticeable for PC and Xbox gamers, whereas PlayStation fans are a bit more resilient.
Gamers are playing fewer games per year, and that has some analysts worried
The drop in players trying new games comes alongside pricing fears being a large motivator for complaints online. Spend any time on social media in recent weeks and you’ll hear nothing but discourse about game and console pricing.
GTA 6 will be releasing exclusively on PS5 and XSX/S, meaning that there will be a glut of consumers rushing to acquire those consoles at some point in the next couple of years. And with the long shelf-life that game is expected to have, its impact could be felt for years. The negative here is that pricing is very up in the air. Rumblings across the internet of a $100 USD baseline price tag for the game have been circulating for months. And with US tariffs directly slamming Nintendo and Sony’s plans for the future, Take-Two might seize the opportunity.
According to some analysts, the $100 pricetag may carry a raft of in-game currency for the next iteration of GTA Online. There’s some heft to that assumption, given how immensely profitable the property has been for Take-Two.
Michael Pachter, managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, argues:
We think the company has plans to sell the game at a previously unheard of price point, and suspect that management can offer consumers an incentive to pay $100 or more per unit by rewarding them with a large amount of in-game currency to be spent in GTA Online.
Will we see $100 games become the norm? God, I hope not, but we really don’t know. And there will likely be some consumers who balk at increased prices for both GTA 6 and Switch 2, but the question remains about volume.
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- Source: https://www.iskmogul.com/will-gta-6-and-switch-2-be-the-hallmarks-of-a-recession-in-games/
