And finally, 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 will become far more visible from 2026 onwards. Consumer backlash hasn’t materialised, but within the industry the debate is only intensifying – particularly around jobs, workflows, and creative ownership.
AI-driven demand for memory and data centre capacity will 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗽 and increase the cost of running live games. This will be one of the biggest challenges that the whole industry will have to contend with next year.
𝗚𝗧𝗔 𝗩𝗜, now expected in late 2026, will be the biggest game launch ever (as long as it lands on schedule! 👀). It’ll lift hardware sales, but most publishers will be hoping to stay well clear of its launch window (AKA "The Blast Zone").
Regulation around 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 is tightening; from the UK’s Online Safety Act to Australia’s under-16 social media ban, this is a trend that will increasingly shape game design, platforms, and monetisation.
We’re deep into what Omdia calls the “𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵", as games release volumes keep rising across console, PC, and mobile – all while the player base grows slowly. Discovery and retention are now core challenges for studios of all sizes.
Mobile remains the engine of the industry, accounting for 60% of total spend, followed by console (23%) and PC (17%). Despite ongoing debate about the long-term relevance of 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀, the reality is 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 for the foreseeable future, continuing to underpin high-end AAA game development
Global consumer spend on games hits $𝟭𝟵𝟬𝗯𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝘂𝗽 𝟭𝟬% 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿. That follows three fairly flat, post-pandemic years, but momentum is clearly back. 2026 is shaping up well too, with 9% growth to $207bn.
📽️ A nice way to bookend the year – talking to CNBC International about where the games industry stands in 2025, and what's ahead. 🦌👇
🔗 Video: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Highlights from the conversation in 🧵
Was just putting a chart together for a post, and then saw this post. Thought I'd extrapolate Nov 2025 figures out to end of the decade. Kind of... disappointing, even with that crazy assumption!!!! Just shy of 10m cumulative by end of 2030 💀. Who knew, hardware is hard 🤔
Sadly, beyond that enthusiast audience, the broader story won't change: VR’s penetration within the Steam ecosystem will remain similar, as the Frame strengthens the high-end niche rather than meaningfully expanding the market.
Overall, it's a very encouraging news for VR fans: Valve clearly sees value in the platform, and it brings innovative features around its form factor, wireless streaming, and ARM-based SteamOS enabling standalone play of PCVR content.
It underlines that there’s a loyal group of PCVR players, who stuck with the Index all these years. This is the core audience for the Steam Frame, who'll be looking to upgrade from the aging Index hardware.
PC-first VR still has a committed audience, as evidenced by Valve Index enjoying disproportionally high usage share on Steam, currently at 14%.
While this decline may partly reflect Steam’s user base growing faster than VR adoption, it also highlights that VR isn’t gaining meaningful traction among the most dedicated gamers.
What really stands out in the Steam Hardware Survey data is how little VR usage on Steam has changed over the past six years, which has hovered around 1.9%. It's currently at 1.6%, down from an average of 2.1% in 2021.
🥽 The Steam Frame will be welcomed by the PCVR community that’s felt sidelined by Meta, but will it unlock a new audience? (no) 🧵👇
#valve #steam #steamframe #vr #xr
For those of you who have played these two games, what are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, or do I just need to "get gud"? 🤔
#Silksong #Hades2 #videogames
On the other hand, Silksong increasingly left me feeling more frustrated than fulfilled. I would die frequently, seemingly due to random/unintentional factors - thus blaming the game.
I think Hades 2 gave AGENCY to me as a player, whereas playing Silksong felt punishing, rather than challenging.
These kind of games normally don't appeal to me, but their predecessors, Hollow Knight and Hades were rare exceptions.
Hades 2 has kept me engaged with a sense of control and progression: when it came to deaths, I blamed my own lack of skills/knowledge, and not the game/enemies themselves.
Silksong and Hades 2 were two of my most anticipated games this year. Sadly, one of them has disappointed me...
Yes, one is a metroidvania and other is a roguelike, but both games revolve around challenging, repetitive gameplay - with the games expecting you to die... a lot.
🧵👇
Perhaps people think this is British Petroleum -> BP type situation? (But yeah, to your point, I do see how this could have been communicated better)
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Back in February 2019, when I thought #Silksong was just around the corner 🤣
Every mode and map, big or small, just felt like Call of Duty, in the worst possible way 🥲 I'm not the target demographic for these types of FPS games to begin with, but the slight 'tactical' elements of Battlefield 1 for example really appealed to me.
📒 For our clients, my colleague Rob Gallagher's 49-page recent report takes a deep dive into Netflix's games strategy and assesses the outlook for its plans.
🔗 "Netflix's New Games Strategy: A Data-Driven Assessment" report can be accessed via the link below:
omdia.tech.informa.com/om129522/net...
Golf Mayhem is the latest indicator of where Netflix might be heading with its games strategy: platform-agnostic, synergistic with its video content, and using games to support 'content moments' rather than build standalone game franchises.
It’s not yet clear to me exactly what tech is being used to deliver the game. It could be cloud streaming, HTML5-based, or something in between, but from a user perspective, the experience was mostly smooth, with only occasional stutters. The phone-as-controller setup worked surprisingly well.
🪩The game leans hard into a ‘retro’ aesthetic – both visually and in its intentionally clunky feel – as a nod to the era when the original Happy Gilmore was released. That stylistic decision fits the nostalgic framing, though it's clearly a novelty rather than a long-term service game.
