Gaming, in brief

Macronix, a Taiwanese chip maker, is phasing out the ROM chips used in Nintendo's Switch game cartridges. [1]

It is moving its factories to memory for AI data centres, which pays more. [2]

ROM sales fell 39% in a year, while its data-centre NOR memory chips rose 158%. [3]

Nintendo says it has no plans to give up physical games. [3]

Nintendo must now lean on fewer makers, such as Rohm and Lapis, so cartridges could cost more to make. [2]

Publishers may ship more Game-Key Cards, which hold a download key and not the game. [5]

Physical copies were still 38.5% of Nintendo's game sales in its August figures. [3] Downloads were 61.5%. [2]

Sony has already said it will stop making game discs from January 2028. [3]

Economists call it opportunity cost: each wafer of cheap ROM chips is a wafer not earning more elsewhere. [2]

Macronix can make 25,000 silicon discs, called wafers, a month, and its new space is a year or more away. [2] So ROM loses its place on the line. [2]

A baker with one oven bakes the cakes that sell for most and stops making the cheap buns.

The news rests on Macronix's results, as read by one analyst and the Taipei Times. [1] GameSpot asked Nintendo and had no answer when it published. [4]

Macronix's $1.2 billion of new factory space will take a year or more to open. [2]

Memory makers earn more selling to AI data centres, so game chips lose their place on the factory line. [2] Macronix is dropping cartridge chips. [2]

Nintendo must now rely on them for its remaining ROM chips. [2]

Analyst David Gibson expects more Game-Key Cards and digital-only sales, which earn it more on each game. [5]

Its 2022 report shows most of its factory orders going to Macronix, so it now needs another factory. [5]

Inin committed to a full cartridge only after smaller card sizes made it cheaper, so a dearer card could stop a firm like it. [2]

Whether Macronix's exit touches Switch 2 cartridges at all.

Ars Technica and Eurogamer say Macronix chips go in Nintendo's cards for both consoles. [2][6] GamesRadar says teardowns point to Rohm for Switch 2, and admits Nintendo's suppliers are poorly reported. [75]

What this does to MegaChips, which designs Nintendo's chips.

The only figures in print are from its 2022 report, and Tom's Hardware knows of no plan for this. [5]

Whether cartridges will really cost more.

Sources say prices could rise, and digital sales may also cut the demand for cards. [2] Nobody has published new cartridge prices. [6]

Nintendo sold 2.67 million Switch 2 consoles from July to September, 41% fewer than a year earlier. [8]

That was also down from 3.82 million in the 3 months before. [8] The total since launch is now 26.35 million. [18]

During the quarter Nintendo raised the console's price in the US, Canada and Japan, because memory chips cost more. [8]

Nintendo kept its forecast of 16.5 million Switch 2s for the year to March 2027. [8]

Mario Kart World is its biggest Switch 2 game at 16.48 million copies. [18] Splatoon Raiders has sold 2.42 million. [18]

Investors are looking to the Ocarina of Time remake, out on Thursday, to lift console sales. [8]

"It's getting harder and harder to sell video game hardware these days, and only hits help," said analyst Serkan Toto. [8]

Economists call it price elasticity: how far sales fall when a price rises, as Switch 2's did. [8]

Nintendo raised the price to cover dearer memory, and CNBC links the fall in sales to those rises. [8]

When the school shop puts up the price of crisps, some children stop buying them.

Nintendo and Sony have both raised prices to cover dearer memory. [8][9]

How much of the Switch 2's 41% fall comes from its price rises.

CNBC links the two, and gives no figure separating price from anything else. [8]

How many Switch 2 buyers are left once the Zelda remake has come and gone.

Nintendo kept its 16.5 million forecast, and the months that decide it have not happened yet. [8]

A French union says Microsoft froze hiring at Arkane Lyon for 19 months, slowing work on Marvel's Blade. [11]

Arkane Lyon is the Xbox-owned studio behind Dishonored and Prey, and has 217 staff. [11]

The union, STJV, says Microsoft now uses those delays and costs as its reason to close the studio. [19]

The union says Arkane is "just not profitable enough for Microsoft". [20]

Microsoft's deadline to find a buyer is 13 December, after a month's extension. [11] Ubisoft is reported to be among the bidders. [20]

If the studio closes, the union wants 200,000 euros per worker and 2 years of help finding work. [20]

It also wants staff to have a say in any buyer. [11]

Sociologists call it a self-fulfilling prophecy: a belief that causes what it predicted, as the union says happened here. [19]

With no new hires, work went slower and cost more, the union says. [19] It says Microsoft then named those costs as its reason. [19]

A coach who never lets a player train, then drops them for being unfit, has done the same.

This is the union's account: Microsoft had not replied when GamesIndustry.biz published. [11] The union gave no figures for its claim that closing costs more. [20]

They wait until 13 December to learn whether they keep a job, and the union calls Microsoft's offer outrageously low. [20]

Who buys Arkane Lyon, and for how much.

Ubisoft is one reported bidder, and no sale has been agreed before the 13 December deadline. [20]

Sebastian Cardoso, who has worked at Riot, Crytek and EA, tracked 303 game studios bought by big companies since 2000. [10]

One in 3 has since been shut, and half of those closed within 5 years of the sale. [10]

Only 25.1% still make games as well as before and have kept their people and leaders. [10]

Closures are speeding up: 1 from 2019 to 2022, and 33 since 2023. [10]

Cardoso's biggest factor was the buyer. [10] EA's ownerships ended in decline or closure 83% of the time, Microsoft's 63%, Sony's 58% and Tencent's 50%. [10]

All 17 of Activision Blizzard's ownerships ended that way. [10]

Studios that big firms started themselves did worse: 87.5% declined or shut. [10] NetEase opened 8 between 2020 and 2023, and all 8 have closed. [10]

He published the full data, so staff at a studio being sold can look up the buyer's record. [10]

Forecasters call this a base rate: how often something happens across all similar cases, here 1 in 3 sales. [10]

A buyer's promise is about one studio, and Cardoso's table shows what happened to 303. [10]

Before joining a new team, a player asks how the last few new players got on.

Some of the bad score is his own rule: a studio folded into its owner counts as decline. [10] Without those cases, 60.8% falls to 51.6%. [10]

Independent studios look safer, with 2% closed against 12.6%, but that 2% is one studio out of 50. [10]

Why big games come out later than their makers promise

A team pictures its own game and how the work should go

It adds up the steps it can see, assuming a good run

It leaves out what went wrong on games like it

So the first date is too early

The date moves when the real work catches up

A team knows its own game better than anyone, yet its first date is usually too early.

Look at the gaps between each first showing and today. Neither game has come out, and neither has an official date.

Katsuhiro Harada pictured about 15 Tekken games by this point in his career, planning from one game a year, and one game can now take 5 years.

Bethesda showed the game in 2018, and a report now puts it 11 years on from that first showing.

The date set for 16 February moved to 20 May, and Sony's only stated use for the time is finishing touches.

Sebastian Cardoso's count of 303 sales is what forecasters ask for: what happened to jobs like this one, before anyone trusts this one's plan.

Not every moved date is a bad guess.

Players, shops, staff and lenders all plan around a date that one team worked out from inside its own game.

Nintendo has bought 6 game studios in 24 years and has closed none of them.

Sensor Tower, a firm that estimates game sales, puts GTA 6 at 7.71 million pre-orders, 2 weeks before launch. [21]

It says those are worth about $751 million. [22] GTA 5 made $800 million in its first 24 hours. [22]

About 74% are on PlayStation 5 and 26% on Xbox: 5.74 million against 1.97 million. [21]

The game comes out on 19 November, from Rockstar, which is owned by Take-Two. [22]

A poll by the financial firm Piper Sandler found 90% of 9,000 teenagers intend to play GTA Online. [23] Rockstar has announced no online mode for GTA 6. [23]

Sensor Tower expects up to 25 million pre-orders by launch. [21] Piper Sandler expects 45 million sales around launch. [24]

Anything below 45 million may disappoint Take-Two's investors, Kotaku says, even though the launch would still be huge. [24]

Economists call it versioning: one product at several prices, so keener buyers pay more, here $80 or $100. [22]

IGN puts the high early money down to the $100 version. [22] In August Take-Two's boss said the keenest players were the ones pre-ordering. [22]

Front-row seats at a concert cost more, and the band plays the same songs to everyone.

These figures come from one tracking firm, and only Rockstar knows the real number. [25]

A figure like $751 million in pre-orders feels like a count, but it is one firm's estimate of a total only Rockstar knows. [25]

Each keeps about 30% of what GTA 6 sells on its console, as a platform fee. [21]

How many GTA 6 copies will be sold around launch.

Sensor Tower points to up to 25 million pre-orders, and Piper Sandler to 45 million sales. [21][24] Neither has Rockstar's own numbers.

Sony shipped 2.6 million PlayStation 5s from July to September, taking the total to 97.9 million. [16]

Revenue in its games arm still rose 9%, to 1.208 trillion yen, on online services and game sales. [26]

PlayStation Network had 127 million monthly users. [16] Marvel's Wolverine has sold 2.4 million copies. [16]

Finance chief Lin Tao says the next console is "progressing as scheduled". [9] Sony has secured enough memory for next business year. [9]

Sony says it covered dearer memory through cost cuts and price rises. [9]

Eurogamer reports that the next console's memory and storage alone may cost over $680. [9]

Economists call that an installed base: people who already own a machine, and keep paying for what runs on it. [26]

Sony says new PS5 sales are "gradually declining". [9] Its growth came from online services and game sales, among 127 million monthly users. [26]

A coffee machine is sold once, and its owner buys pods for it every week.

Games profit rose 83%, partly because of a low starting point. [26] A year ago Sony wrote off 31.5 billion yen on its Bungie studio. [26]

Sony has neither named the next console nor dated it, saying only "at an appropriate time". [9]

Santa Monica Studio moved God of War Laufey, a PlayStation 5 game, from 16 February to 20 May 2027. [14]

Santa Monica is Sony's own studio behind the God of War series. [27] This is the first game in it led by Faye, not Kratos. [27]

The studio says it will use the time for "finishing touches". [27]

February 2027 already holds the Fable reboot, Persona 4 Revival and Metro 2039. [27]

Economists call it strategic timing: a seller gains by picking a date rivals avoid, as Eurogamer says Laufey did. [27]

By moving 3 months, Laufey no longer shares February with those 3 games. [27]

Two friends with birthdays in one week hold their parties on different days, so guests can go to both.

The studio gave no reason for the delay; the crowded month is Eurogamer's observation. [27]

The date set for 16 February moved to 20 May, and Sony's only stated use for the time is finishing touches.

Why God of War Laufey really moved.

The studio named only finishing touches, and did not say whether a busy February played a part. [27]

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier says The Elder Scrolls 6 is more than 2 years away. [15] "It's not a prediction," he says. [15]

Jez Corden of Windows Central says he has heard 2029. [15]

Bethesda, which Xbox owns, first showed the game in 2018. [28] It named it Sentinel this week, and gave no date. [15]

If 2029 holds, it comes 11 years after that teaser and 18 after Skyrim, the last game in the series. [15]

Another Xbox-owned studio, Blizzard, has named spring 2029 for Diablo 5 and 2030 for its StarCraft shooter. [28]

Its developers fear for their jobs amid Xbox's reset, GameSpot says. [29]

Recruiters call it employer branding: making a company's work known so people want to join, as an early reveal can. [29]

GameSpot says showing a game early can be done partly to recruit staff, and calls that common. [29]

A school club puts up its poster months before it starts, so people know to sign up.

Bethesda has not confirmed any of this, saying only "it'll be some time" before more news. [15]

Director Todd Howard has said announcing so early was "not my preference". [29]

Bethesda showed the game in 2018, and a report now puts it 11 years on from that first showing.

Katsuhiro Harada, the driving force behind Tekken, said last December he was leaving Bandai Namco. [13] He has since started VS Studio. [13]

Tekken is a long-running fighting game series. [13] VS Studio is paid for by SNK, a Japanese maker of fighting games with Saudi owners. [13]

He says Japan's usual retirement age of about 60 left him 10 working years. [13]

"We used to release one game a year, but now it can take five years," he says. [13]

He had pictured Tekken reaching about its 15th game by that point in his career. [13]

Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda has joined him. [13] It began with 10 people, who brought in others they knew. [13]

Economists call it human capital: skill built over years, which Harada says is why older developers win. [13]

Harada says a team in its 50s beats a younger one at making games, because experience matters. [13]

A cook who has made a dish a thousand times knows what goes wrong before it does.

Harada says SNK promised full freedom, and this interview gives only his side. [13]

Katsuhiro Harada pictured about 15 Tekken games by this point in his career, planning from one game a year, and one game can now take 5 years.

Everyone who has joined Katsuhiro Harada's new studio is over 45, and he says experience really matters in making games.

Mob Entertainment makes the Poppy Playtime horror games. [12] A former designer says it cut "almost the entire" Escape From Playtime team. [12]

The spin-off, a survival game for 2 to 8 players, came out on 21 October. [12]

A former lead designer shared the news on 4 November and asked for help finding the team work. [12]

Communications manager Tyler Sanchez says Mob has parted ways with "some talented members" and that work on the game continues. [12]

The company has changed its plans after player feedback, promising better matchmaking and a more varied map. [12]

Those who remain must deliver those changes, and the people who built the game are looking for work. [12]

"Almost the entire" comes from one former employee, and Mob gives no number and no reason. [12]

A former lead designer was asking for work for the whole group on the day it happened. [12]

Why Mob Entertainment cut the team, and how many people.

The company gave no number and no reason, and promised more as it can. [12]

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority, which polices adverts, banned ads from King, Omnilojo, Vistrex and Scopely-backed Loom Games. [30]

King's Farm Heroes Saga ad showed falling nails and a saw moving toward a cow. [30] None of that is in the game. [30]

King said the extras were fiction to convey urgency, and pointed to its "Not actual gameplay" label. [30]

Omnilojo's Dark War Survival ads showed film-like scenes, plus false award badges such as "2026 Survival Game". [30]

Vistrex's ad showed a 60-second minigame as if it were the whole game. [30]

The regulator says people must be able to make informed choices about the games they download. [30]

Regulators judge the overall impression: what an ad leaves people believing, whatever its small print says, as King found. [30]

The authority ruled that King's label contradicted the ad and did not explain it. [30]

A menu photo of a huge burger, with "not actual size" in tiny print, works the same way.

Ad makers now know a "not actual gameplay" label will not save a false picture in the UK. [30]

Valve has tightened the checks game makers must pass before release on Steam, its big PC game store. [31]

Makers must now run a game through Steam for at least 5 minutes. [31] Valve says some games it received had never been played that way. [31]

They must also list needed add-ons, such as DirectX, and confirm that achievements and cloud saves work. [32]

A Reddit user counted 49.9% of October's Steam releases as declaring that they used AI. [32] Valve itself does not mention AI in its post. [33]

Days earlier, Alexander Rehm of rival Epic Games said "keep improving" is no help to small teams facing AI copies. [34]

"It's a tax only the well funded can pay," he wrote. [34]

Quality engineers call this rework: a job done twice, as when Valve must re-check a failed game. [31]

Valve says much of its delay comes from re-checking games that failed, so it wants them to pass first time. [31]

A teacher who hands back homework with no name on it has to mark that homework twice.

Former Valve developer Chet Faliszek called Rehm's post a "dishonest read", noting Epic's own AI push. [34]

A petition to save BioWare passed 500 checked Canadian signatures, so it will be put before Canada's House of Commons. [35]

That means Canada's government must give some official answer. [35] MP Don Davies is sponsoring it. [35]

It asks the state to give BioWare money to become independent of EA, which closed the Canadian studio last month. [35]

BioWare made the Mass Effect games. [36] Co-founder Trent Oster says the campaign makes him want "some of the original band back together". [36]

A separate online petition is about to pass 300,000 names. [36]