Rhys Elliott

Rhys Elliott is a games industry analyst at MIDiA. Over the past decade, Rhys has honed his voice in the gaming business world, making his passion for games, analysis, data, and words his career. As a consultant, Rhys has worked with tech giants to help unpack market trends. He has also done consulting work for the biggest short-form video app (pinpointing the role of community and culture in launching successful games), a major global investment management firm (honing investment strategies around gaming’s biggest acquisition), and has worked on various other projects across big tech, media, and entertainment. He also plays, in his words, "WAY too many games".

MIDiA’s 2025 predictions
It’s social’s stage now

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Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Tatiana Cirisano, Ben Woods, Rutger Rosenborg, Rhys Elliott and Olivia Jones
The creator economy reshaped entertainment in the first half of the 2020s and social wasthe big winner, now positioned at the centre of the entertainment economy. In 2025 wewill see the second-order effects begin to play out, set against the backdrop of attentionsaturation, content commodification, and increased focus on profit.
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Activision pushed Xbox to growth in an otherwise flat Q3

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Rhys Elliott
Microsoft’s Q3 2024 results (fiscal Q1 2025) continue to reflect Xbox’s shifting strategy: Xbox’s gaming revenue grew 43% year-on-year , but essentially all of this growth came from the Activision Blizzard acquisition (43 points of net impact) Xbox content and service revenue grew 61% , with 53 revenue points of net impact from the acquisition Xbox’s hardware sales fell 29%, continuing a trend from previous quarters Black Ops 6 has performed well so far , setting records for day one players, new Game Pass subscribers on a launch day, and increased unit sales off-platform Xbox’s Activision Blizzard acquisition is doing its job Let’s address the elephant in the room: In terms of overall gaming revenue for the quarter, Microsoft’s growth would have been flat if not for the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
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Sony's $700 PS5 Pro is for superfans – it won’t really grow PlayStation’s playerbase

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Rhys Elliott
Sony just announced its worst-kept secret, the PS5 Pro. It's launching for $700 in November 2024, four years after the debut of the original PS5. Compared to the original, PS5 Pro will offer better visuals and performance: Larger GPU with more speed : Sony says the PS5 Pro’s GPU will render 45% faster than the current model, with substantial improvements to ray tracing (three times better in some cases), a favourite of graphics aficionados CPU improvements : An “enhanced mode” will allow for more CPU power.
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Marketers, don't miss out on GTA 6

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Rhys Elliott
Grand Theft Auto VI ( GTA 6 ) is due to launch in autumn 2026. It will be one of the century's biggest entertainment launches, and its impact will ripple through culture for years to come. Remember how every brand jumped on the Barbie movie hype train with an everything-pink activation? GTA 6 is about to usher in a similar opportunity –– a bigger one that will last far beyond a single summer.
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High tide raises all ships
Leveraging the cultural tidal wave of Grand Theft Auto VI

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Rhys Elliott
Grand Theft Auto VI ( GTA 6 ), due to be released in autumn 2025, is on track to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of all time. It will capture a significant amount of consumer attention. Marketers in and outside of the gaming industry have a choice –– either resist and face the increased challenge of capturing consumer attention during this time or embrace the GTA zeitgeist and ride the wave.
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