‘GTA VI' delay weighs on global videogame market growth, data shows
The global videogame market's growth rate is expected to improve marginally in 2025 from the previous year, according to a report from research firm Newzoo, seen exclusively by Reuters on Tuesday.
Analysts and industry experts had projected a surge in industry growth this year due to the expected blockbuster launch of Take-Two's 'Grand Theft Auto VI' and new consoles.
However, the delay of the long-awaited title to next year and price hikes to videogame hardware, arising from tariffs, have made consumer spending uncertain.
The global videogame market is projected to grow 3.4% to $188.9 billion in 2025, compared with last year's growth of 3.2%, according to the report.
'This forecast reflects concrete changes, hardware cycles, pricing trends, install base growth, and title pipelines,' said Michiel Buijsman, principle analyst at Newzoo.
Take-Two Interactive delays 'Grand Theft Auto VI' release to May 26, 2026
Compounded annually, Newzoo expects the market to grow 3.3% till 2027, compared with its earlier forecast of 3.7%.
As 'GTA VI' is scheduled to launch in 2026, the industry will most likely see the boost from sales next year along with the release of other premium titles such as Capcom's 'Resident Evil Requiem.'
The launch of 'GTA VI' on PC is also expected to carry growth through 2027, the report said.
Price increases to Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation devices have sparked fears of slower hardware sales as consumers globally grapple with market uncertainty, even as Nintendo's Switch 2 became the company's fastest-selling console.
Xbox also unveiled its own handheld console, the Xbox Ally, earlier this month, developed in partnership with ASUS and set to launch in holidays 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Recorder
3 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Saudi Arabia's net foreign direct investment falls 7% in Q1
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's net foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 7% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, government data showed on Sunday, as the kingdom continues to lag behind its ambitious FDI goals. The kingdom drew 22.2 billion riyals ($5.92 billion) in FDI in the three months ended March 31 from 24 billion riyals ($6.40 billion) in the last three months of 2024. Net FDI rose 44% compared to the same quarter the previous year when the kingdom drew 15.5 billion riyals ($4.13 billion), the General Authority of Statistics data showed. Raising FDI is a key element of the kingdom's Vision 2030 economic transformation programme, which aims to lower the country's dependence on oil, expand the private sector, and create jobs. Saudi Arabia has set a goal of attracting $100 billion in FDI by 2030, spending massively on huge development projects known as 'giga projects' and expanding sectors like sports, tourism, and entertainment. But FDI numbers remain far from that target. Saudi Arabia has been seen as a source of capital rather than a home for investment, and foreign investors can find it difficult to navigate the kingdom's business environment, sources told Reuters when the FDI goal was first announced in 2021. The kingdom is projected to post a fiscal deficit of around $27 billion this year, which will largely be financed by borrowing, said a recent report by the International Monetary Fund. Saudi Arabia's crude exports rise to 6.166mn bpd in April Saudi Arabia was the largest emerging market dollar debt issuer last year, but the IMF says the country has room to continue borrowing, with its net debt around 17% of GDP making it one of the least indebted nations globally. Riyadh has taken steps to encourage foreign firms to invest more in the country. Since 2021 companies seeking to secure state contracts have been required to set up their regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia. The government has also said it would update existing investment laws to boost transparency and promote equal treatment of local and foreign investors.
Express Tribune
13 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Authors hit Microsoft with piracy lawsuit
Microsoft has been hit with a lawsuit by a group of authors who claim the company used their books without permission to train its Megatron artificial intelligence model, reported Reuters. Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, Daniel Okrent and several others alleged that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its AI to respond to human prompts. Their lawsuit, filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, is one of several high-stakes cases brought by authors, news outlets and other copyright holders against tech companies including Meta Platforms, Anthropic and Microsoft-backed OpenAI over alleged misuse of their material in AI training. The complaint against Microsoft came a day after a California federal judge ruled that Anthropic made fair use under US copyright law of authors' material to train its AI systems but may still be liable for pirating their books. It was the first US decision on the legality of using copyrighted materials without permission for generative AI training. Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment. The writers alleged in the complaint that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, an algorithm that gives text responses to user prompts. The complaint said Microsoft used the pirated dataset to create a "computer model that is not only built on the work of thousands of creators and authors, but also built to generate a wide range of expression that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works on which it was trained." Tech companies have argued that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create new, transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders for their work could hamstring the burgeoning AI industry. The authors requested a court order blocking Microsoft's infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work that Microsoft allegedly misused.
Business Recorder
14 hours ago
- Business Recorder
EU plans to add carbon credits to new climate goal, document shows
BRUSSELS: The European Commission is set to propose counting carbon credits bought from other countries towards the European Union's 2040 climate target, a Commission document seen by Reuters showed. The Commission is due to propose a legally binding EU climate target for 2040 on July 2. The EU executive had initially planned a 90% net emissions cut, against 1990 levels, but in recent months has sought to make this goal more flexible, in response to pushback from governments including Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, concerned about the cost. An internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal, seen by Reuters, said the EU would be able to use 'high-quality international credits' from a UN-backed carbon credits market to meet 3% of the emissions cuts towards the 2040 goal. The document said the credits would be phased in from 2036, and that additional EU legislation would later set out the origin and quality criteria that the credits must meet, and details of how they would be purchased. The move would in effect ease the emissions cuts - and the investments required - from European industries needed to hit the 90% emissions-cutting target. For the share of the target met by credits, the EU would buy 'credits' from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad - for example, forest restoration in Brazil - rather than reducing emissions in Europe. Proponents say these credits are a crucial way to raise funds for CO2-cutting projects in developing nations. But recent scandals have shown some credit-generating projects did not deliver the climate benefits they claimed. The document said the Commission will add other flexibilities to the 90% target, as Brussels attempts to contain resistance from governments struggling to fund the green transition alongside priorities including defence, and industries who say ambitious environmental regulations hurt their competitiveness. These include integrating credits from projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere into the EU's carbon market so that European industries can buy these credits to offset some of their own emissions, the document said. The draft would also give countries more flexibility on which sectors in their economy do the heavy lifting to meet the 2040 goal, 'to support the achievement of targets in a cost-effective way'. A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming proposal, which could still change before it is published next week. EU countries and the European Parliament must negotiate the final target and could amend what the Commission proposes.
