Financial Times headline: Gaming tapers off post-pandemic as players return to the real world
Sub-headline: Companies across the industry have reported weakening sales and player engagement in recent months
Console makers Sony and Microsoft were the harbingers of a downturn in gaming, posting sales declines from their gaming businesses. Last month, Sony reported a 15 per cent drop in PlayStation engagement year-on-year.
On Monday Nvidia, which is a heavyweight in gaming chip production, reported lower second-quarter revenue because of weakness in its gaming business. Gaming revenue in the second quarter fell 44 per cent from the previous quarter and 33 per cent from a year earlier to $2.04bn.
Strauss Zelnick, chief executive of Take-Two Interactive, the company behind Grand Theft Auto, told investors this week that he does not believe “the entertainment business is recession proof or even necessarily recession resistant”. On Monday it released forecasted sales for the second quarter and the full year which fell short of analysts’ estimates, causing its share price to fall by 5 per cent.