Games Industry Finance Cheat Sheet, Spring 2025, 22/05/2025
Running the rule over the finances of the biggest games bizzes for your convenience
Microsoft happy, Nintendo ready for Switch 2 and Roblox growing in latest financial results
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping goes quackers in this week’s game releases
Epic’s generative AI Darth Vader backfires in entertaining fashion
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Hello VGIM-ers,
Welcome to a slightly shorter edition of the newsletter than usual.
I had minor surgery on Monday, which thankfully, went well. However, having been in recovery for the past few days, I haven’t had the time to compile the news in brief or job moves sections. Usual service will resume next week.
There are a couple of things that I would like to ask you to lend me a hand with for future VGIMS, if you’d like to help..
First, I want to hear your hot takes about the Nintendo Switch 2 for a piece I’m releasing on Thursday 4th June. Think of it like the VGIM Readers Game of the Year piece, only about whether or not you think Nintendo is about to smash it or not.
If you, one of your team or an appropriate Big Boss (no, not this one) wants to share an oven-fresh take on the Switch 2’s launch to run in the newsletter, email me 200-300 words of commentary to george@videogamesindustrymemo.com by Friday 30th May. The best submissions will be included in the round-up.
Second, I’m going to be at Develop: Brighton on Tuesday 8th July and Wednesday 9th July doing my usual “wot I learned from the conference” piece.
If you’re going to be there and have something interesting to say (I’m confident you do), get in touch via the aforementioned email address.
And with that done, let’s be the biggest financial boffins who ever boffed.
The big read - Games Industry Finance Cheat Sheet, Spring 2025
Easy week for me: It’s that time again. As per VGIM tradition, we’re back with another lightning-fast cheat sheet of the main financial results from the biggest public games businesses.
Explainer: If you’ve not read one of these before, the purpose of the cheat sheet is dead simple. We read the financial reports from the biggest video game companies. We then provide you with a pithy summary of their performance over the past quarter, helping you get up to speed without needing to click through half a dozen PDFs.
Disclaimer: As per usual, we have a few quick disclaimers. We declare all results in dollars first and then the original currency they were declared in, with most conversions taken last week when this piece was written. When we’re talking about bookings, that typically means in-game currency and item purchases. And if we’ve missed any businesses out, it’s likely because they’ve not reported their financial results yet OR we have a grudge against them and hate them.
Seamless segway: And with all that paperwork done, let’s get on with things.
Nintendo - The end of a generation
Bumpy landing: Nintendo’s tricky financial year concluded with a muted set of results. The company’s revenue for the 2024-2025 financial year was $8.2bn (¥1.2tn), a 30.3% reduction on the previous year. Nintendo’s operating income was also down significantly compared to the previous year, reducing by 46.6% to $1.9bn (¥282.5bn) in the most recent financial year.
Switching off: Nintendo’s poor year has been caused by the slow transition from the original Switch console to the new device. In the most recent quarter, the Switch sold 1.2m units - just a small fraction of the company’s 150m+ sales of the device since it first launched eight years ago.
Switching on: But Nintendo looks well placed for a solid launch of the Switch 2 console. Despite concerns about its potentially high cost of entry, the company reported that 2.2m players in Japan had registered their interest in grabbing one and that it is forecasting 15m sales of the new console in the financial year 2026.
Microsoft - Game Pass continues to thrive
Strong quarter: Microsoft delivered a strong performance in the third quarter of its 2025 financial year. The company’s revenue increased by 15% year-on-year to $70.6bn in constant currency terms. This resulted in an operating income of $32bn, up 16% in the comparable period, and a net income of $25.8bn, an increase of 18%.
Software sells: Xbox content and services revenue climbed by 9% in Q3 2025 to reach $5.7bn, pushing Microsoft’s More Personal Computing category up by 7% to $13.4bn. Increasing Game Pass subscriptions, the ongoing strength of the Call of Duty franchise and an uptick in Minecraft revenue as players jumped into the game again ahead of the movie’s release earlier this year.
Hardware headaches?: However, Eurogamer reports that Xbox hardware revenue was down in the quarter by 6%. Microsoft may feel relaxed about this, given its long-term plan to make its games division platform agnostic. But with Trump tariffs driving up the cost of devices, Xbox will need to strike a balance between transitioning to its ‘platform’ future and maintaining a sizeable console install base.
Sony - Forecasting the tariff effect
Decent performance: Sony Group performed well in its 2024-2025 financial year. The company recorded sales of $82bn (¥12.04tn), up 7% year-on-year, while its operating income grew by 23% to reach $8.2bn (¥1.2tn).
Game on: While the company saw strong performance in its music and imaging sensing and solutions business, the company’s game and network services had a strong year too. Sales grew by roughly 9% from $29.1bn (¥4.26tn) in 2023 to $31.5bn (¥4.67tn) in 2024, with operating income increasing by a chunky 43% year-on-year to $2.8bn (¥414.8bn) in 2024. Increasing sales of non-first-party game software titles, a foreign exchange rate bump and growth in network services sales were cited as reasons for the strong performance, even with hardware sales down 6% compared to the last financial year.
Striking a balance: However, Sony’s Games and Network Services sales dropped year-on-year by 4% in Q4 2024, as the market for consoles and content slowed down between January and March 2025. With Trump’s tariffs likely to weaken the market further and Grand Theft Auto VI delayed into Sony’s next financial year, the company is forecasting that sales in its games business will slip back to $29.3bn (¥4.3tn) in FY 2025.
Electronic Arts - Quarter good, financial year less good
Split reality: EA’s Q4 2025 financial results painted a mixed picture for the business, following the news of hundreds of lay-offs within the business.
Quarterly delight: The company’s quarterly results for the three months ending March 2025 were impressive. Total net revenue hit $1.9bn, up from $1.78bn this time last year. Full game revenue was pushed up by the launch of Hazelight’s Split Fiction, which sold over 4m units, while live service revenue nudged slightly up to $1.46bn following a double-digit increase in player monetisation in EA Sports FC in January 2025.
Prepping for war: But net revenue for 2025 was down slightly on 2024, with the company recording $7.46bn this year compared to $7.56bn in the previous financial period. Both full game revenue and bookings were slightly down, suggesting that the forthcoming release of a new entry in the Battlefield series will be important for EA’s return to growth in the next financial year.
Ubisoft - All eyes on the Tencent subsidiary
Challenging times: Ubisoft’s revenue dropped by 17.5% to $2.1bn (€1.9bn) for its latest financial year, with Yves Guillemot, the company’s CEO, describing it as a ‘challenging year’ for the French publisher.
Totally booked: Net bookings fell over 20% to $2bn (€1.85bn) and back catalogue net bookings fell by 13.5% to $1.46bn (€1.3bn) as the company’s portfolio of titles performed poorly. The company also reported that its headcount has reduced by 1230 as part of a $225m (€200m) cost-cutting exercise, with a further $112m (€110m) reduction due in the next 12 months.
Subsidising the subsidiary: However, the business also reported that Tencent had invested €1.16bn to take 25% ownership in its new subsidiary company, which houses the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises. Guillemot has teased that there will be multiple releases from these franchises in the next few financial years, making the performance of this subsidiary one to watch.
Roblox - Daily user count soars again
Delivering big numbers: Roblox’s player base continues to grow at a staggering rate, even while the company continues to post a quarterly profit.
Hello, Digital Nation: Average daily active users were up 26% year-on-year to reach 96.7m in Q1 2025. Roblox also reported monthly average payers of 20.2m, up by 29% compared to Q1 2024, as well as 21.7bn hours of engagement with the platform.
Eating into losses: The company is still racking up financial losses, with a consolidated net loss of $216.5m. But with its bookings up 33% on a constant currency basis to $1.21bn, revenue up 30% and its free cash flow reaching record levels, Roblox has exceeded its guidance to investors, leaving it well placed to grow further in the year ahead.
Best of the rest
Take-Two - Grand Theft Auto VI may have been delayed, but Take-Two still showed it was capable of generating significant returns. The company beat expectations by growing net bookings by 17% year-on-year to $1.58bn, while recording a 13% increase in GAAP net revenue to $1.58bn. Civilisation VII received a shout-out for its performance alongside the company’s heavy-hitting games-as-a-service titles.
Capcom has had another excellent financial year. The Japanese publisher behind Monster Hunter, Resident Evil and Street Fighter posted record annual financial results for an eighth year in a row. It has now recorded 12 consecutive years of operating profit growth. VGC breaks down its long-term success effectively here.
Sega reported an ordinary income of $357m (¥53.1bn) for its financial year 2025. That’s an 11.1% growth on last year’s results, despite a fall in net sales and operating income caused in part by the cancellation of Football Manager 2025. Sonic movies, Metaphor: ReFantazio and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii all performed strongly.
Warner Bros saw its games revenue drop by a painful 48% in Q1 2025. The failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League last year continues to affect the company’s performance, although the strong performance of the Minecraft movie has softened the blow a bit.
The Bluffer’s guide to the latest financial results
Do say: The industry’s attempts to adjust their business models to a mature market reality have been buffeted by political instability, with tariffs and trade wars providing companies with extra challenges to overcome.
Don’t say: …so just run me through Ubisoft’s new business structure again?
Events and conferences
Unreal Fest, Orlando - 2nd-5th June
Summer Game Fest, Los Angeles - 6th June
Toronto Games Week, Toronto - 12th-18th June
Games for Change, New York - 26th-27th June
Develop, Brighton - 7th-9th July
Games of the week
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping - Sequel to the quacking non-violent detective game featuring feathered friends arrives on Steam today.
Game of Thrones: Kingsroad - Action RPG set in the world of Game of Thrones that appears to entirely miss the point of the political intrigue underpinning the book/series is out now on major platforms.
Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny - Remaster of classic Sega samurai game lands across platforms tomorrow.
Before you go…
Epic Games has had a mixed week.
On the positive side, Fortnite is finally back on the US app store after Apple’s efforts to continue to stall its return attracted the ire of one very annoyed district court judge.
However, Epic’s decision to include a generative AI-powered Darth Vader in Fortnite featuring the voice of the late James Earl Jones has backfired a bit.
Players have successfully managed to get AI Vader to do everything from telling players his favourite McDonald’s order to outright swearing.
And to make matters worse, acting union SAG-AFTRA has filed a complaint against Epic’s subsidiary Llama Productions over the partnership because it decided "to replace the work of human performers with AI technology" without speaking to relevant reps.
The force is a little weak with this one.