Video Games Finance Cheat Sheet: Autumn 2025 edition, 20/11/2025
Nintendo rakes it in, Roblox’s growth turbocharges, and Ubisoft keeps us waiting
This week’s Video Games Industry Memo is sponsored by Testronic
Delivering QA & Localisation Excellence to some of the world’s biggest games developers and publishers for over 25 years
We run through the big financial results from the games industry in pithy style
Krafton CEO accused of forming a secret task force to boot out Subnautica founders
A well-armed rodent is on the loose in this week’s releases
Hello VGIM-ers,
Happy Golden Joysticks Day to all of you who celebrate it. I’m sure that I will see many of you at the event later this afternoon.
I’ve got three quick VGIM-related announcements for you before we dive headfirst into the latest newsletter.
First, the VGIM 2nd Birthday drinks, sponsored by Fifty, Renaissance PR, and The Games Rating Authority, are taking place next Tuesday in Central London. You can grab one of the last tickets here.
Second, I’m looking for advertisers to sponsor VGIM in the first half of next year.
If you want to have your lovely logo land in the inboxes of the best part of 6,000 people, get in touch via george@videogamesindustrymemo.com for my snazzy sponsor deck.
And third, we’re on the lookout for VGIM reader reviews for this year’s round-up of the best video games of 2025.
If you’ve enjoyed a video game released this year and want to appear within these hallowed pages, shove me a 200-300 word review via the email address above by Friday 5th December.
The best ones will be featured in the final VGIM of 2025 on Thursday 18th December.
The big read - Video Games Finance Cheat Sheet: Autumn 2025 edition
Remind me how this works again: By gar, it’s been a while. Yes, this is the first video game financial cheat sheet I’ve written in the better part of six months. 2025, you’ve been the worst.
Cheats definitely prosper: Personal meltdown over the passage of time aside, the purpose of this cheat sheet - if you’ve not read one before - is dead simple. I pick through the financial results from the biggest public video game companies. I summarise the key points. And you steal the notes for your next PowerPoint deck because lord knows no one wants to be writing anything fresh in November.
Pedantry corner: As per usual, the usual caveats apply. We always summarise results in dollars first and then any relevant local currencies for the sake of ease/to convince a wealthy American benefactor to buy us up (delete as factually accurate). Bookings refer to in-game purchases for reasons that are too tedious to explain again. It’s also worth keeping a close eye on whether a hardware maker says it has shipped a console or sold one. The latter is always preferable.
Seamless segway: So, without further ado, let’s get into a set of results that looks like it may be the last for a couple of big publicly traded game companies.
Nintendo: Mario Kart drives Switch 2 success
Smiles all round: Nintendo saw its net sales increase by 110.1% year-on-year to $7.1bn (1099.5bn yen) and its operating profit jumped by 19.5% to $935m (145.1bn yen) in Q2 of its 2026 financial year as Switch 2 sales continued to exceed expectations.
Getting shippy with it: The company sold 10.36 million Switch 2s in the first half of the fiscal year, beating its expectations and making the console one of the fastest-selling in history. Nintendo has also increased its forecast for unit sales, up from 15 million to 19 million for the financial year.
Knockout Tour success: And while consumer appetite for a new Switch was high, Mario Kart World appears to have been the system seller the company needed. According to its financial report, approximately nine in ten Switch 2 users have played the game on their device.
Roblox: Absurd growth
Buckle up: Roblox’s Q3 2025 results showed growth in user base, revenue, and free cash flow that would be the envy of games businesses across the world.
Insane numbers: Roblox’s average daily active user count has grown 70% year-on-year to 151.5m. Hours engaged with the platform hit 39.6bn, a 91% increase from this point last year. And bookings leapt to $1.92bn, growth of 70% compared to 12 months ago.
Cash flow for the win: So, everything’s rosy for Roblox? Not quite. The company still recorded a net loss of $257.4m for the quarter. But with operating cash flow up 121% to $546.2m and free cash flow bumped by 103% to $442.6m, the user-generated content platform is well placed to grow further in the quarters ahead.
Electronic Arts: So long, and thanks for all the cash
Headline pain: Electronic Arts’ headline figures for Q2 2026 look a little messy on paper, with net bookings down 13% year on year to $1.81bn. But once you’ve accounted for the one-off bombastic success of College Football 2025, things look a little better for the soon-to-be Saudi-owned publisher.
Below the surface gain: The company saw evergreen live service games Madden NFL and Apex Legends return to growth in net bookings across the quarter. It also stated that Battlefield 6 and Skate both launched successfully in the quarter, lining the company up for long-term success.
Soon to be secret: Sadly though, we will be hearing less about what precisely that success looks like. As a result of its impending acquisition, EA has said that it will no longer be posting forward-looking guidance. It also skipped this quarter’s conference call to explain its results. A blow for all games industry finance nerds across the world, you’ll agree.
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Microsoft: Hardware landing for Xbox
Azured performance: Microsoft had itself a hell of a time in its first quarter of its 2026 financial year. Revenue across the business climbed by 18% to $77.7bn, with operating profit up by 24% to $38bn off the back of seriously strong performance from its Azure division.
Hardware times ahead: However, Xbox sputtered hard while the rest of the business surged ahead. A 1% growth in content and services could not offset a 29% decline in Xbox hardware revenue, leading to revenue across the division declining by $113m year-on-year (a drop of 2%).
Everything better be an Xbox: Can Xbox pull itself out of the nose-dive? It is tough to say. The slight growth in content and services was driven by third-party content and Game Pass uptake. But with first-party content looking relatively light, the future of its hardware business in doubt, and Game Pass price rises spooking consumers, things look a little shaky for Team Xbox.
Sony: PlayStation’s Correction Course
Wiggling the numbers: Sony’s Games and Network services performance in the second quarter of its 2025/2026 financial year was dragged down by some financial corrections behind the scenes.
Forex for the win: Overall, sales within the division increased by 4% year-on-year to hit $268.2m (41.6bn yen). The company noted that sales of both network service titles and game software were up, while foreign exchange rates also worked in the company’s favour.
Unexpected Destiny: However, a correction to previously capitalised development expenses and losses against Bungie Inc’s “intangible and other assets” associated with Destiny 2 saw the company record a 13% decline in operating income to $119.3m (18.5bn yen). It nevertheless continues to forecast sales growth of approximately 3% across its overall financial year.
Ubisoft: Please hold, your earnings call is very important to us
Pressing pause: Finally, Ubisoft took the unusual decision to delay publication of its latest financial figures and request a temporary halt to trading.
Ominous writing: In a letter released publicly last week, the company said that it was going to announce its results publicly in the coming days. Behind closed doors, the company circulated a memo that said it was taking “extra time to finalise the closing” of its latest figures. Its UK arm also issued a profit warning. That’s rarely good news.
Wild speculation: Is the company being sold? Are its finances under even worse pressure than we thought? And what of its new spin-off subsidiary? VGIM can only shrug its shoulders and say, “I dunno, mate.” But with the company announcing it’ll have more news for us before markets open on Friday, we’ll find out soon enough.
Best of the rest
Tencent saw strong results from both its domestic and international games business in Q3 2025. Revenue within its home-grown games division grew by 15% to $6.1bn (42.8bn RMB), with Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and the newly mobile Valorant bringing home the bacon. Its international game revenues jumped 43% to $2.9bn (20.8bn RMB) off the back of super performance from Supercell.
Take-Two Interactive brushed off the latest delay to Grand Theft Auto VI by recording $1.96bn of net bookings in Q2 2026 - an increase of 33% year-on-year. The result, which was above guidance to investors, was powered by a mix of evergreen hits like NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Empires and Puzzles, as well as new releases such as Borderlands 4.
And Capcom continued to quietly make bank, increasing net revenue by 43.9% to $523.5m (81.2bn yen) and shoving ordinary profit up by 76.5% to $235.2m (36.5bn yen) in the first half of its 2025/2026 financial year. Strong back catalogue performance and a bump in sales of Street Fighter 6 following the launch of the Switch 2 helped the company to another successful reporting period.
The bluffer’s guide to the Autumn financial results
Do say: Game businesses that have clarity on where they fit in the games market, know who they’re selling to, and have found the best route to market are finding their way forward in a tricky landscape.
Don’t say: …hang on, do more people live in Roblox than Russia now?
News in brief
Secretive plotting latest: The founders of Subnautica developers Unknown Worlds have claimed that they were forced out of the business as a result of a secret plot orchestrated by the CEO of parent company Krafton. In a court filing unpicked by Chris Kerr at Game Developer, the filing alleges that Changhan Kim formed a secret task force called “Project X” to boot Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill out of the business before Subnautica 2 went into early access: denying them an enormous payout in the process.
Generative AI Eunt Domus: Ubisoft has apologised after generative AI art assets were spotted in the release build of city builder Anno 117: Pax Romana. It said that the asset was a placeholder, which has been replaced in a newly updated build of the game. The company has so far not responded to allegations that the game’s German translation was also localised with AI.
Dread letter day: Over 200 Rockstar North employees have signed a letter calling on the company to reinstate more than 30 workers who were fired as part of an alleged ‘union busting’ campaign. The GTA maker claims that the workers were sacked for gross misconduct as a result of sharing confidential information. But hundreds of their colleagues disagree, calling for them to be ‘immediately reinstated’ after it emerged that the affected employees had been discussing unionisation in a private Discord.
Breaking up is never easy: Paradox Interactive and Cities: Skylines developer Colossal Order have ended their long-running partnership. Paradox will retain the rights to Cities: Skylines, while also transferring the development of its sequel to Finnish developer Iceflake Studios. Colossal Order will reportedly “explore new creative opportunities” in 2026.
Tingle of anticipation: The first image of the live-action Legend of Zelda movie has been released. It shows Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Bo Bragason posing as Link and Zelda, wearing outfits that reference the Hero of Time’s classic green garb and Zelda’s Breath of the Wild fit. But does the first publicity shot also look like a slightly shoddy cosplayer photoshoot run wild? We couldn’t possibly say.
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Moving on
Galaxy-brained mobile advertising guru Eric Seufert has been appointed to Unity’s AI Council…Andrew Macdonald is the new Group Legal Counsel for Everplay Group… Julian Benson is the new Editorial Director of Rock Paper Shotgun…Friend of VGIM Mark Nolan has been promoted to Senior Director, Brand Marketing and Communications at Modulate…And Andrew Watson is the new CEO at Hutch…
Jobs ahoy
NetEase Games is snapping up a Community Manager in London…Google is hiring a Strategic Partner Manager, Gaming Publishers, YouTube on the East Coast…Nintendo has a role open for a Lead Financial Analyst in Austin, Texas…Supercell is hiring a new Trust & Safety Lead…And Activision has reposted a Development Director role in Melbourne, if you fancy excellent flat whites on your walk to work…
Events and conferences
AdventureX, London - 22nd-23rd November
VGIM 2nd Birthday Drinks sponsored by Fifty, Renaissance PR, and The Games Rating Authority, London - 26th November
Games Gathering, Kyiv - 27th-30th November
The Game Awards, Los Angeles - 11th December
Pocket Gamer Connects, London - 19th-20th January 2026
Games of the week
Squirrel with a Gun - Sometimes, less really is more.
Kirby Air Riders - It’s the racing game reboot that nobody thought they needed, but has turned out to be pretty good by all accounts.
Marvel’s Deadpool VR - Twisted Pixel’s release really makes you feel like Deadpool and, specifically, how annoying he is in its latest VR adventure.
Before you go…
You can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind. And you certainly will do if you’re Hungarian man, Szabolcs Csépe.
The 34-year-old broke the record for longest video game marathon by strutting his stuff to 3000 tracks over the course of six days in Dance Dance Revolution.
And to think I felt a bit tired after running a half-marathon this weekend…
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Thanks to Anna Mahtani for production support.