Blog: Games industry

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Quick take: The games industry health check

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Karol Severin

27 Feb 2024

In recent weeks and months, a growing number of people have been asking: “What is going on with the games industry?”, “Is the games industry doomed now?”, “Is it done growing?”, “If neither a new Switch or GTA 6 are getting released this year, is the games industry going to have a weak year?”, or some other typically sceptical permutation thereof.

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Are the ongoing layoffs in games indicative of a wider issue in the games industry?

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Karol Severin

6 Oct 2023

The layoffs wildfire that struck the games industry at the start of 2023 does not seem to be stopping - the most recent being Epic Games last week. Firstly, on a personal level, it has been really sad and upsetting to see all these people being laid off in 2023 – especially when the reasons behind these layoffs are really not through any fault of their own.

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Games publishers are gradually losing their mojo

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Karol Severin

5 Jul 2023

games publishers

Similarly to music labels, games publishers 20 years ago had a bona fide hit-making capability. For music, this was the combination of funding, marketing, and an exclusive network to ‘make things happen’ (e.

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The streaming wars will be won with technology, not content

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Ben Woods

31 Jan 2023

The modern entertainment industry is a tale of re-invention. The need for vast amounts of content to justify the value of a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service has made the artists, series, and franchises of yesteryear just as valuable to platforms as the next blockbuster hit.

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Games companies turn to defence as recession looms

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Karol Severin

12 Jan 2023

business planning

The beginning of 2023 has seen several games companies show prudent caution, highlighting warning signs as to what lies ahead. Ubisoft cancelled three games in development. Wizards of the Coast reportedly cancelled five video games projects.

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How to recycle games IP: God of War: Ragnarök

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Samuel Griffin

10 Nov 2022

Santa Monica Studio

Familiar enough, but not too familiar Recycling games IP is commercially beneficial to games companies, be it from the cost, risk, or predictability perspective. Despite, or perhaps because of, the constant outpouring of new content, audiences find comfort in the familiar – making revamps, sequels, and spin-offs safe bets for production companies in video and games alike.

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Quick take: Are Netflix’s games efforts still in line with the consumer needs of today?

Cover image for Quick take: Are Netflix’s games efforts still in line with the consumer needs of today?

Karol Severin

29 Sep 2022

It has been a year since Netflix announced its first games studio acquisition. Two days ago, it announced the launch of its own in-house gaming studio based in Finland, bringing a fourth gaming studio into its arsenal.

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Can Gamescom retain its appeal going forward?

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Karol Severin

23 Jun 2022

I remember attending my first Gamescom as an analyst in 2017 . The sheer excitement as gaming was eating the world whole, and before brands and just about everybody else woke up to gaming as a mainstream cultural phenomenon.

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Microsoft’s new cloud focus solidifies Xbox Game Pass as the Netflix of games

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Perry Gresham

29 Mar 2022

Last week Microsoft announced a new division of Xbox Game Studios, the “Cloud Gaming Organisation”, designed to help developers create new cloud-native games to be distributed via their Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

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Webinar: Games companies’ video opportunity

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Karol Severin

3 Mar 2022

Traditionally, games companies predominantly used games video for marketing purposes. This made perfect sense in the era of unit sales and early-adoption stages of games-related video. Today, 30% of console gamers view games-related videos every month.

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Reflections from PG Connects London 2022

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Karol Severin

25 Feb 2022

industry events

PG Connects London 2022 was the first in-person games industry event that I attended in over two years. Having spent the best part of the pandemic on Zoom, which quickly blurred the lines between a call and an event, walking into a physical venue was truly reinvigorating.

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Labels could have helped Epic reimagine music – now Harmonix will do it instead

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Karol Severin

25 Nov 2021

Epic Games announced it is acquiring Harmonix, the maker of Rock Band. While this makes sense for the Fortnite maker and its entertainment metaverse, it has the risk of diluting the potential music expertise that labels and other music companies could (and should) offer to games partners.

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Opportunity for entertainment companies as the ‘Covid Bounce’ effect is in full swing for games

Cover image for Opportunity for entertainment companies as the ‘Covid Bounce’ effect is in full swing for games

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2021

covid-19 impact

Following the pandemic breakout in March 2020, MIDiA predicted that Covid-19-induced games engagement growth was temporary and will face a correction as the world starts coming back to life. Indeed, with four quarters of data in hindsight, the Covid Bounce effect for games is in full swing.

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The games industry has changed; E3 needs to do the same if it is to remain relevant

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Karol Severin

21 Jun 2021

This year’s E3 has experienced mixed reviews, with the consensus largely being that some interesting announcements were made, but they no longer provide an all-encompassing view of what’s going on in the games industry and what to get excited about for the rest of the year.

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Why games companies need to take Apple’s Arcade expansion seriously

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Karol Severin

9 Apr 2021

Apple announced a significant expansion of Apple Arcade last week, including more than 180 new games across three new games categories: ‘Timeless Classics’, ‘App Store Greats’ and ‘New Arcade Exclusives’.

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Why Games Could Benefit from Coronavirus

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Karol Severin

17 Mar 2020

Yes, it’s another coronavirus-related one, but this time hopefully a more cheerful story than what we’ve been reading and hearing over the last few weeks – at least for gamers and the games industry.

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Games Console Incumbents Sony and Microsoft Join Forces Against Tech Majors’ Entrance to Games Streaming

Karol Severin

17 May 2019

The enemy of my enemy is my friend – a phrase that nicely sums up the latest major development in games streaming and the console gaming industry. “ Sony and (Microsoft) announced on Thursday that …the two companies will partner on exploring joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content-streaming services.

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Major Games Publishers Are Feeling The Impact Of Peaking Attention

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Karol Severin

12 Feb 2019

activision results

activision staff

Just last week (February 5th) Electronic Arts (EA) reported disappointing quarterly results, now Activision has laid off nearly 800 staff, mostly in marketing and sales. As MIDiA has reported multiple times before , engagement has declined throughout the sector, suggesting that the attention economy has peaked.

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