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".

Xbox’s Games Showcase points to a reckoning for game subscriptions

Rhys Elliott

13 Jun 2024

Xbox Game Pass

Xbox

Games

“Play it day one with Game Pass.” These words flashed on the screen 15 times during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, which wowed critics and fans alike with a lineup of 30 Xbox games. Most of the titles are coming in 2024 or 2025, which is a huge turning point for Xbox.

min read

PlayStation shifts lanes, letting its family-friendly ambitions known

Rhys Elliott

6 Jun 2024

Playstation VR

playstation 5

Sony

Sony’s second State of Play marketing event of 2024 has increased anticipation for the company’s upcoming game releases. The roughly 30-minute presentation advertised 14 games consumers can look forward to in 2024 and 2025.

min read

Older gamers are a growth opportunity for AA(A) publishers

Rhys Elliott

29 May 2024

console gaming

Minecraft

The days of gaming as a hobby only for young people are clearly over. Unlike in the past, gamers are now sticking with console and PC games into adulthood and old age. Consumers aged 55+ account for a quarter of gamers now, and that share is on the rise.

min read

Golden years, golden opportunity
Older gamers are a key growth opportunity in a challenging games market

Cover image for Golden years, golden opportunity

Rhys Elliott

May 2024

Audience Insight

Unlike in the past, gamers are now sticking with games through adulthood and into old age, leading to a growing segment of older gamers. Older gamers are a valuable segment posing a key growth opportunity for games companies in a stagnant market. Yet, most game makers do not currently cater to older gamers.

The New York Times leverages gaming to level up and stay current

Rhys Elliott

May 2024

Audience Insight

Read the case study …

GTA 6 will solidify gaming's role at the heart of entertainment

Rhys Elliott

24 May 2024

take two interactive

Grand Theft Auto VI

grand theft auto

Move aside, Barbenheimer and Taylor Swift. The decade’s defining moment in entertainment is coming. Grand Theft Auto ( GTA) VI is due to launch in autumn 2025, and it's set to be entertainment’s biggest release ever.

min read

PlayStation’s financial results: The good, the bad, and the hopeful

Rhys Elliott

16 May 2024

PlayStation

playstation 5

PlayStation Plus

Sony released its earnings for the 12 months ending March 31, 2024 (FY2023). As always, gaming was Sony’s biggest vertical and the heart of its cross-media strategy . Revenues grew +17% in FY2023 to $28.

min read

Helldivers 2's woes show publishers should nudge, not push, gamers

Rhys Elliott

10 May 2024

playstation 5

Sony

helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is one of the most popular games of the year so far and has been PlayStation’s biggest PC and live-service success story to date. But PlayStation drew the ire of the game’s PC fanbase by announcing it would force Steam players to link their account to a PlayStation Network (PSN) acc...

min read

Focusing too much on Xbox's hardware decline misses the point

Rhys Elliott

2 May 2024

Xbox Series X

Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft

Microsoft recently released its Q1 2024 financial results (fiscal Q3). Gaming revenue was up +51% and Xbox content / services revenue was up +62%. These gains mostly came from Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition.

min read

Fallout is another transmedia hit, but the strategy needs to evolve

Rhys Elliott

26 Apr 2024

Amazon

Prime Video

Fallout

Everyone was talking about the Super Mario Bros. Movie (The Mario movie ) and HBO’s The Last of Us this time last year, and now Fallout has entered the mainstream thanks to the Amazon show. But, for game publishers, the transmedia strategy is nowhere near maximising its potential.

min read

Collector’s editions are becoming a backdoor for monetising early access

Rhys Elliott

17 Apr 2024

Xbox

Xbox Game Pass

Ubisoft

Since publishers first increased AAA game prices from $60 to $70 in 2020, many people have asked MIDiA if publishers will raise that price further. Our answer: they already have – sort of, anyway. Via collector’s editions – more expensive versions of games with extra content – publishers are...

min read

Game budgets have gone out of control – let's shrink the scope

Rhys Elliott

11 Apr 2024

PlayStation Productions

Xbox

Nintendo

AAA game development budgets and timelines for single-player games are getting out of hand. This was not always the case, but there has been an insidious creep over the past 20 years. While the cost of game development is a black box, leaks and disclosures around court cases and acquisitions show th...

min read

Steam is the unlikely winner of the modern console wars – for now

Rhys Elliott

4 Apr 2024

Xbox

playstation 5

Sony

Thanks to console manufacturers and third-party publishers moving content to Steam, Valve now boasts one of the most diverse AAA offerings on the market, benefitting from new strategies adopted by Xbox and PlayStation.

min read

Showing 41 to 53 of 53 results.