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 webinar slides
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

December 2024

Spotify

YouTube

Twitch

MIDiA's expert analysts dive into our 2025 predictions for the music, social, video, audio, and games industries – and explain why we believe "it's social's stage now".

Gamers spend more time on social video than games

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Rhys Elliott

5 Dec 2024

Game publishers have long used third-party video platforms such as Twitch and YouTube as springboards for game promotion. In return, Twitch and YouTube receive ad- and creator-driven revenues (like donations).

min read

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

December 2024

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

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.

Microsoft ticks all the boxes for an in-game video platform

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Rhys Elliott

November 2024

Product Strategy

Read the case study …

Move over, console wars – the battle for AAA portable gaming is coming

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Rhys Elliott

25 Nov 2024

Seemingly every manufacturer in the games space is working on a portable machine. Now, Bloomberg sources claim that Sony has started early work on a portable that plays PS5 games. Microsoft’s head of gaming, Phil Spencer, has already confirmed that Xbox is working on its own portable (also per Blo...

min read

What would happen if Sony bought Kadokawa?

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Rhys Elliott

22 Nov 2024

Japanese media conglomerate Kadokawa recently confirmed that Sony sent it a letter of intent to acquire Kadokawa (increasing its current 2% stake). Kadokawa owns FromSoftware, the developer of Elden Ring , a 25-million-selling game that became a huge cultural moment in 2022.

min read

A fifth of gamers love couch co-op, so where are all the games?

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Rhys Elliott

15 Nov 2024

Couch co-op gaming, when two or more players in the same room play together co-operatively, already has some proven success stories: It Takes Two , a co-op-only platformer from EA studio Hazelight, has sold over 20 million copies.

min read

Nintendo’s music app underlines its cross-entertainment future

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Rhys Elliott

8 Nov 2024

Business Strategy

Nintendo is at the forefront of the cross-entertainment trend. Alongside console games and hardware, Nintendo’s strategy spans theme parks, Hollywood (including the billion-dollar-grossing Super Mario movie), mobile, toys, merch, and even alarm clocks.

min read

Activision pushed Xbox to growth in an otherwise flat Q3

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Rhys Elliott

1 Nov 2024

Product Strategy

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 5...

min read

Horizon's price changes show why consoles are pushing for no discs

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Rhys Elliott

10 Oct 2024

PlayStation recently launched a remaster of 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn forPS5 and PC. As part of a specialpromotion from Sony, anyone who already owns the original Horizon Zero Dawn can paya $10 upgrade fee to access the remaster.

min read

Most gamers prefer single-player games

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Rhys Elliott

3 Oct 2024

It’s no secret that the bulk of AAA games market revenues come from in-game purchases , mostlyfrom live-service games. It’s also impossible to ignore that the live-service market is fiercely competitive.

min read

The single-player opportunity
Course correcting from a red to blue ocean

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Rhys Elliott

September 2024

YouTube

Netflix

Xbox

The AAA PC and console games market is facing growth issues, money is more expensive, and developers are facing pressure to become leaner, more profitable, and take fewer risks. Many game makers, including those that found initial success in single player, have been chasing the live-service trend.

In-game cosmetics remain a huge opportunity for brands

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Rhys Elliott

19 Sep 2024

in-game monetisation

While the games market is facing growth challenges, in-game spending will remain a key pillar for revenue growth. In-game spending generated revenues of $125.7 billion in 2023. In the coming years, that number will grow with a CAGR of +5% to hit $176.

min read

Sony's $700 PS5 Pro is for superfans – it won’t really grow PlayStation’s playerbase

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Rhys Elliott

10 Sep 2024

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% f...

min read

Concord has been taken offline: What went wrong?

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Rhys Elliott

5 Sep 2024

PlayStation Studios

PlayStation is taking its PVP hero shooter Concord off the market after just two weeks. The game’s Steam numbers point to incredibly low sales. ‘’At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024,’’ said Firewalk Studios’ game director, Ryan Ellis .

min read

Marketers, don't miss out on GTA 6

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Rhys Elliott

31 Jul 2024

grand theft auto

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 abo...

min read

High tide raises all ships
Leveraging the cultural tidal wave of Grand Theft Auto VI

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Rhys Elliott

July 2024

Audience Insight

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 dur...

Gamers aren’t finishing games, and that’s a problem

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Rhys Elliott

24 Jul 2024

Assassin's Creed

Every segment in the games market is facing challenges. While some experts remain optimistic about gaming’s growth pace returning in the near future, the truth is that many arguments for this never-ending growth are shaky.

min read

Game Pass’ updates mark a new era for Xbox

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Rhys Elliott

19 Jul 2024

Xbox recently announced significant changes to its subscription offering ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 hitting the service. In September 2024, Xbox is: Increasing prices for Game Pass Ultimate from $16.

min read

Bigger is not always better
Premium gaming’s AA opportunity

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Rhys Elliott

July 2024

Business Strategy

Following the post-pandemic slowdown of global games revenue growth, cost-cutting measures are now in full force. However, games continue to grow in scope and length with budgets often exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars, while growth and profitability are increasingly challenging to achieve.

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