What You (might've) Missed Last Week: March 23 - March 29, 2025

This feature will go over big-ticket news and milestones I noticed throughout last week. I'll be linking the discussion threads for all these topics (if they exist) if you want to share your thoughts with our community.

The Game Business by Christopher Dring has launched

Christopher Dring has been writing about the video game industry since 2007, working for MCV and then GamesIndustry.biz. He has now gone independent to start up The Game Business. What this sets out to do is explained as:

We’ll be covering what’s selling, what’s trending and what’s struggling, we’ll be analysing established and emerging platforms, distribution channels, monetisation practices, new markets, policy changes, shifting player behaviours, the battle for time in a world without any, and so much more.

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This will be done through a newsletter and a podcast every week. Dring has been someone I've followed for years now and I'm glad to see him still in the industry. Even Geoff Keighley thinks this is a good idea as he's currently funding this venture.

France 2024 Video Game Industry Report

Like with the UK some weeks ago, SELL released their 2024 report for France. There's a lot of data in the report so I'll post some highlights.

Top selling software:
#1 EA Sports FC 25: 1,417,535
#2 Call of Duty: Black Ops 6: 906,312
#3 EA Sports FC 24: 504,687 / 1,982,135

Hardware: €692M (-35%)

Ubisoft and Tencent create new subsidiary for Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Following up on last week's news roundup, Ubisoft has announced that Tencent is investing €1.16 billion in a new subsidiary (valued at €4 billion) that will "focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform. Backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features."

This news came after Assassin's Creed Shadows passed 3M players in a week.

The terms of the subsidiary are:

Includes the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed.

The new subsidiary would be granted by Ubisoft a worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license in respect of the intellectual property and similar proprietary rights owned or licensable by Ubisoft in relation to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry in exchange for a royalty.

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Tencent would invest in the new subsidiary which is headquartered in France and 100% owned by Ubisoft immediately prior to the transaction. Specifically, at closing of the transaction, Tencent would invest a total amount of EUR1.16bn for an approximate 25% economic interest in the New subsidiary, that will be used to strengthen Ubisoft’s balance sheet by significantly reducing its consolidated net debt position, accelerate the Group’s transformation, and sustain growth of selected franchises. After closing of the transaction, the new subsidiary would remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft.

Ubisoft can unilaterally waive the issuance of the fairness opinion as a condition precedent

The new subsidiary would have a dedicated leadership team, supervised by a Board of Directors, focused on enhancing creative vision and streamlining operations, with the authority to make swift, high-impact decisions across development, marketing, and distribution, to ensure these brands continue to evolve, attract new audiences, and deliver groundbreaking gaming experiences for years to come.

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Ubisoft also mentions it will continue to develop future Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division titles.

Nintendo Direct - March 27, 2025 and Zelda movie dated for March 2027

In the final Switch Direct before this week's Switch 2 blowout, Nintendo announced the following games and apps.

• Dragon Quest I+II HD-2D Remake
• No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: The Somnium Files
• Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army
• Shadow Labyrinth
• Patapon 1+2 Replay
• Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Disney Villains Cursed Cafe
• Witchbrook
• The Eternal Life of Goldman
• Gradius Origins
• Rift of the Necrodancer
• Tamagotchi Plaza
• Pokemon Legends Z-A
• Rhythm Heaven Groove
• Virtual Game Cards on Nintendo Switch
• High on Life
• Star Overdrive
• The Wandering Village
• King of Meat
• Lou's Lagoon Summer
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered
• Monument Valley 1, 2, 3
• Everybody Golf Hot Shots
• Marvel Cosmic Invasion
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
• Nintendo Today

Nintendo Today is a news app and Virtual Game Cards on Nintendo Switch is how Nintendo will let you to share digital owned games with friends and family, lending a game out for a 2-week period. This will also work for Switch 2 games.

Announced via the Nintendo Today app, the Zelda movie being produced by Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad finally has a release date of March 26, 2027. This will be 4 years after the successful Mario movie which brought in $1,360,847,665 at the box office. Nintendo were able to market the release of that movie with a choose your own Mario game Switch bundle and released The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 2 months later. There is the possibility Nintendo has a Zelda title prepared around that March 2027 time frame, as it's been 4 years since TOTK, but even if not, Nintendo won't miss the opportunity to use this event to co-market the Switch 2. Speaking of that, the Showcase Direct is this Thursday at 9AM EST.

Also, two Sony IP in Patapon and Hot Shots Golf are coming to Switch, more games from the PlayStation brand going multiplatform after MLB The Show and Lego Horizon Adventures.

Hogwarts Legacy, Pico Park 2, and Atelier Yumia pass new milestones, Cyberpunk and Witcher III stats

In a report by Bloomberg that WB cancelled a new expansion and definitive edition of Hogwarts Legacy, it's stated the game was now at 34M. It passed 30M in October 2024.

Pico Park 2 passed 1 million since launching in August 2024 on Switch and September 2024 on PC and Xbox. The original Pico Park has over 5 million downloads according to the official website.

Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land is the fastest selling game in the franchise at 300K in the first week.

CD Projekt released their Management Board Report for 2024 and in it shared the following stats for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher III:

• Cyberpunk 2077: Revenue was 95% digital, with PC taking 62%, PlayStation 26%, and Xbox 12%. North America was 40.6% of worldwide revenue, Europe 30.7%, and Asia 22.3%
• The Witcher III: Revenue was 94% digital, with PC taking 43%, PlayStation 38%, Switch 11%, and Xbox 8%. Europe was 36.5% of worldwide revenue, North America 28.9%, and Asia 26.2%

Japan Week 12, 2025

5 new games debuted in the top 30 last week, taking up 8 spots.

• Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition was #1, selling 74,689
• Atelier Yumia: The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land was #2, selling a combined 61,074 across the PS5 (#2, 27,810) Switch (#3, 26,315) and PS4 (#7, 6,949)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows was #5 and sold 17,701
• Bleach: Rebirth of Souls for PS5 was #8 and sold 6,079 and the PS4 version was #18 selling 2,182
• MLB The Show 25 - English Edition was #20 and sold 2,015

Switch saw a slight increase to 31K, up from 28K. PS5 is no longer on discount and has dropped from 28K to 15K. Xbox is seemingly sold out as it remains at a super low 252, despite 4 weeks ago selling over 1,000.

What's happening this week?
The Switch 2 Showcase Direct will be airing this Wednesday, April 2, at 10PM Japan, 3PM Central Europe, 9AM EST, 6AM PST.