Play on or game over? A look back at 2025 for the video game industry

It has been a monumental twelvemonth for the video crippled industry, marked by caller devices and billion-dollar deals.

Further consolidation occurred wrong the assemblage erstwhile a consortium led by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, alongside Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners and Silver Lake, announced plans to instrumentality Electronic Arts private. The $55 cardinal deal, which includes $20 cardinal successful indebtedness financing, is the largest leveraged buyout successful Wall Street history.

The determination could person large implications for EA, according to Omdia analysts. They said the question present is whether the PIF plans to tally EA arsenic a "PR project" oregon "to extract maximum returns" from the company.

French crippled developer Ubisoft looked to crook its fortunes astir this year, though it started 2025 with a 2nd hold to the latest introduction successful its flagship Assassin's Creed series, Shadows.

Ubisoft's shares received a boost successful March aft announcing the instauration of a new gaming subsidiary with Chinese tech elephantine Tencent called Vantage Studios. The caller developer, which volition beryllium part-owned by Tencent, volition absorption connected Ubisoft's cardinal IP — Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.

Despite Ubisoft's efforts, shares person mislaid conscionable implicit fractional of their worth twelvemonth to date, and the banal is down implicit 90% from its 2021 high.

In contrast, Take-Two Interactive's shares continued to ascent passim 2025, arsenic anticipation mounted for the adjacent Grand Theft Auto title. It's been 12 years since the erstwhile edition, GTA 5, was released connected Xbox 360 and PS3.

However, with vigor soundlessness connected GTA 6 for astir of the year, fans speculated that an further hold from the May 26, 2026, merchandise day was connected the cards, contempt Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick telling CNBC successful May that helium had a "very, precise precocious conviction" the scheduled day would beryllium achievable. In November this year, the game was pushed back to Nov. 19, 2026, with shares successful Take-Two tumbling connected the news.

The crippled volition motorboat successful the twilight model for Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S — six years aft some consoles were released. As absorption shifts to the adjacent procreation of consoles, this past procreation has seen a alteration successful strategy for some brands.

Xbox has moved distant from exclusive games, with titles specified arsenic Indiana Jones, Forza Horizon, and much releasing connected PS5, portion PlayStation continues to experimentation further with releasing titles connected PC.

Take-Two's Zelnick argued that the shifting strategies volition spot the video crippled manufacture go much open. When asked whether the console volition beryllium successful concern wrong the adjacent 5 to 10 years, helium said the consoles volition inactive beryllium around, with the devices moving towards PC arsenic "business is moving towards unfastened alternatively than closed."

"But if you specify console arsenic the property, not the system, past the conception of a precise affluent crippled that you prosecute successful for galore hours, that you play connected a large screen, that's ne'er going away," helium told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin successful November.

Consoles inactive person a immense relation to play successful the market, according to George Jijiashvili, elder main expert for Games astatine Omdia. He told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" that the devices are inactive "the go-to spot for premium games."

Data from Omdia shows that consoles are the second-largest class erstwhile it comes to full user spend, with mobile walk contributing 60%, consoles reaching 23%, and PCs hitting 16%.

While others mostly abandoned exclusive titles, Nintendo has continued to prosecute the strategy, releasing respective exclusive titles for its caller Switch 2 console – including an open-world reimaging of Mario Kart and a brand-new Donkey Kong game.

This summer, Switch 2 became the fastest-selling console successful history, selling 10.36 cardinal units successful the archetypal 4 months of sales.

Not each are convinced by Nintendo's strategy. Christopher Dring, laminitis and editor-in-chief of The Game Business, told CNBC's "Built for Billions" successful November that Nintendo faces a situation successful maintaining request for its systems.

"Unlike PlayStation and Xbox and different platforms, the radical buying Nintendo machines are buying it for Nintendo games. What that means is, if they don't person a crippled ready, they tin not trust connected different developers to prop them up."