Imaginedvl said:
Yeah I'm not sure what people mean by "it will be a tough" year lol So far, we already have a lot of stuff coming up this year. I just got the Mario vs. Donkey Kong, then the end-of-month Final Fantasy 7. Then Microsoft has at least 5 big titles (FS, Hellblade 2, Avowed, Indiana Jones, and ARA) that we know of (not counting the COD, Diablo expansion, etc.), and Nintendo has at least 3 that I know of. I'm not sure about the Play Station (probably not that much on the first party, but a bunch of third parties for sure). |
I think they are moreso talking about the gaming industry overall, not specific games or specific publishers. So far each year gaming revenue has increased, especially from 2016-2021 where the growth was so fast we had analysts projecting huge growth for the next several years, one projected a growth to $321b by 2026, another to $358b in 2026 and $583b by 2030.
However this past year was rough for gaming, hardware targets were missed, software and revenue targets were missed for quite a few publishers, most publishers reported either losses or flat revenue, only a few with tepid single digit growth I believe. Publishers are projecting slow growth or flat 2024's as well. The explosive growth that was predicted back in 2021 isn't happening. Word around the industry is that the publishers are basically going into turtle mode to weather the storm, they are trimming the fat via layoffs, they aren't greenlighting new IP nearly as much as usual and are instead sticking with safe sequels, neither publishers nor venture capitalists want to invest in new studio start-ups.
The analysts were hoping that some things like the Switch 2 launch would be able to get the industry jump started again, but now it's looking like Switch 2 has been delayed into Q1 or Q2 2025.
Last edited by shikamaru317 - on 16 February 2024
