Christopher Dring

PS5, EA Sports FC 26 and Hogwarts Legacy come out top during Europe’s Black Friday Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 slips to No.3

PS5 had a huge Black Friday week in the UK. It accounted for 62% of all console sales (Xbox had 10%, Switch 2 had 23%). The PS5 Pro had its best week since launch.

Meanwhile, Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC 26 came out top in Europe.

www.thegamebusiness.com/p/ps5-ea-spo...

GoldenEye and TimeSplitters developers reunite to find out if they can still make a hit game Plus! Are older titles killing new game sales? And the latest data from the Asia and MENA markets

In today'sThe Game Business, we look at the impact old games are having on new ones, the latest data for Asia and MENA markets... plus game legends Dr David Doak and Steve Ellis talk Scrabble.

Thanks to @andyrobinson.bsky.social for guest hosting this week.

www.thegamebusiness.com/p/goldeneye-...

Oh sure. I’m not convinced subs can work in the way ads do.

But ultimately the problem with the media is that we don’t pay for it

But... how do you monetise that? How many paid-for newsletters and channels can the audience support?

And is it scalable?

I do not know.

Oh absolutely. It's my concluding point, in a way (You've got a far broader reach than me. So it's not quite like-for-like). But if someone comes onto my show with an interesting story... I might not directly get them the reach they desire. But I have an audience of people who can

The video game industry, like most industries, is an ecosystem. Smart, connected journalists influence the influencers. They discover games. They educate influential people and organisations. I think that's valuable.

This might suggest traditional media is irrelevant, but it isn't. I wrote a story about how an Rock Paper Shotgun article on an indie game got picked up by an event, which featured the game, which then got picked up by an influencer, and then a publisher, and sold 1m units. RPS started that chain

The discovery model has thus switched more to influencers and events like TGAs or Future Game Show. People watch a YouTuber because of their personality. They watch The Game Awards for a big reveal. And these events and channels can then present new things to that audience they weren't expecting

A 'customer' in any market is the one that pays for a product. So in media, the 'customer' isn't the reader at all. It's the advertiser. And the advertiser wants lots of relevant people seeing their ads. And that involves writing about the things people will click on.

But online, people don't really go on homepages and flick through an assortment of articles and stories. They discover the articles via Google or Reddit or social media. They come in for that article about the game they like, and then leave. And what's more, they don't pay for it, either

Back in the glorious old days, we had magazines. And the front cover would have a popular game on it. People would buy the mag for that, and then hear about all sorts of other stuff the journalists think you should know about. The mags were paid for by the readers... it was a solid model

The man who signed Arc Raiders: "The AAA industry is at its end" Former Nexon boss Owen Mahoney on what we can all learn from the explosive success of Arc Raiders

The former Nexon CEO said he received a lot of pushback when he wanted to buy Embark Studios. “Certainly, a lot of the analysts I talked to were like, ‘what the hell are you doing? That’s crazy.’”
www.thegamebusiness.com/p/the-man-wh...

The man who signed Arc Raiders: "The AAA industry is at its end" Former Nexon boss Owen Mahoney on what we can all learn from the explosive success of Arc Raiders

In today’s edition of The Game Business, I spoke to Owen Mahoney, the former CEO of Nexon about his decision to buy Arc Raiders developer Embark… and why his investors were not so keen. We also chat the ‘end’ of AAA, the AI future and a whole lot more

www.thegamebusiness.com/p/the-man-wh...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 drops to No.2 in its second week on sale in Europe No new games in the Top Ten as EA Sports FC 26 reclaims the top spot

In a quiet week for new games, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is down to No.2 in the European charts in its second week. Kirby Air Riders just about makes the Top 20 www.thegamebusiness.com/p/call-of-du...

What went wrong at Splash Damage? – The Game Business Micro Plus, Sega ponders falling new game sales, Xbox makes cloud gaming boast and Nintendo buys a studio

In this week’s The Game Business Micro, we look at the planned lay-offs at Splash Damage. Meanwhile, Xbox shared some cloud gaming statistics, Nintendo bought a studio, Sega pondered falling new game sales and Epic boss Tim Sweeney continued to debate AI
open.substack.com/pub/thegameb...

Mario. Endless, constant, Mario. He is on his third play-through of Odyssey

The State of Games: October 2026 A first in a new monthly series looking at the performance of the games market

We've just launched our first monthly report about the video games market for paid subscribers. This month, we look at the best-selling games of October, the most played titles, and the most covered games, across PC, console and mobile www.thegamebusiness.com/p/the-state-...

Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada: As a producer, maybe I’m a failure The Tekken team on budgets, events and potential new revenue streams

“I want to make sure everyone’s aware my salary hasn’t ballooned with the development costs at all. Contrary to opinions on the internet, I do not drive a Lamborghini" www.thegamebusiness.com/p/tekkens-ka...

In the latest edition of TGB, I chat with the Tekken team. Harada-san is clearly interested in Capcom's pay-per-view approach to live streaming Street Fighter tournaments

Battlefield 6, Switch 2 and mobile drive another month of US games growth – The Game Business Micro Plus! Ubisoft plans another $100m worth of cost savings, while Epic and Unity get friendly

In today's edition of The Game Business Micro, we look at the impressive US sales figures for October, Ubisoft's results, Epic and Unit's new friendship, and more. (Paid Subscribers only) www.thegamebusiness.com/p/battlefiel...

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 European launch sales are 63% down over Battlefield 6 But a strong launch for Ubisoft's Anno 117: Pax Romana

Terrible launch for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in Europe. The game sold 63% fewer copies at launch compared with Battlefield 6. It's also more than 60% down over last year's Black Ops 6. (Digital and physical sales. GSD Data) www.thegamebusiness.com/p/call-of-du...

Call of Duty under attack And Helldivers is caught in the cross-fire

51% of Arc Raiders players played a shooter game in September, vs 72% for Battlefield 6.

www.thegamebusiness.com/p/call-of-du...

Lots of data in here. A quarter of Battlefield 6 players played COD the month before it came out. Helldivers 2 has lost 45% of its player base, with many going to Battlefield and Arc Raiders....

And is COD facing its biggest challenge yet? (yes)

Such a great game

I went to Evo in France last month to meet and interview the CEO of Bandai Namco Entertainment. I was delighted to find out her favourite movie is Back To The Future

I did an entire 12-page feature on this for Doctor Who Magazine. From the very first game to the TinyBuild mobile games. I interviewed about 20 people

Lots of different eras of BBC in that

Red Dead Redemption leads Netflix games reboot – The Game Business Micro Plus! Epic/Google deal under scrutiny, GDC survey results, Valve's new hardware, and loads more

In today’s The Game Business Micro, we cover Netflix’s games slate, Valve’s hardware, Sony’s mobile and PC push, concerns over the Epic/Google deal, Rockstar’s union row, and the latest GDC survey results. It was a busy week (paid subscribers only) www.thegamebusiness.com/p/red-dead-r...

Wow. I've done Donkey Kong and Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.... Does Mario Kart World count?

So… Metroid players

This is interesting.

Although, we also see games that refuse to hold your hand (Elden Ring, Hollow Knight etc) perform better than ever.

And surely Metroid has always been about about that type of gamer?