How ‘GTA 6,’ Return of BlizzCon and a Very Packed Fall Release Slate Are Revving Up Video Game Industry’s Optimism

After suffering through a post-pandemic downturn, the gaming industry is readying an onslaught of fall releases in the hopes of turning the sector back toward growth.

The white-hot anticipation for the much-delayed “Grand Theft Auto VI” is expected to go a long way to juice the market with projections that it could bring in well over $3 billion in revenue in its first week of release. And there’s a slew of other titles ready to capitalize on the renewed interest in big-ticket games stirred up by “GTA 6” fever.

Related Stories

How This Year’s Drama Nominees, From 'Paradise' to ‘The Pitt,’ Tackle Our Troubled Times

'The Witcher' Co-Producer Rae Benjamin to Receive Starz #TakeTheLead Award at Humanitas Event, Presented by Russell T Davies

Microsoft’s Blizzard Entertainment is also bringing back its BlizzCon fan festival for the first time in three years. The cosplay crowd and more devoted fans of Blizzard game franchises, such as “World of Warcraft,” “Diablo IV,” “Overwatch,” “StarCraft” and “Hearthstone,” are set to gather Sept. 12-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The last BlizzCon was held in 2023, just after Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft in a blockbuster $69 billion transaction that signaled a renewed investment in gaming by the software giant. The past few years have marked an intense period of restructuring and realigning, and not just within Microsoft. But Blizzard is ready to commune with its core consumer, even in the absence of a new tentpole release, says Johanna Faries, president of the unit.

“BlizzCon in and of itself represents so much for all of us to be able to shine a light on all the great work going on at Blizzard,” Faries says. “We have put a lot of thought into this moment, and why now, and how do we continue to capture and build on the momentum we’re experiencing as an organization.”

BlizzCon isn’t a profit-making venture for Blizzard so much as it is an investment in rewarding the super fans that drive the company’s biggest franchises.

“If we can pour into our community in this way and celebrate our teams who are putting so much boldness behind our games and our launches, then [BlizzCon is] always going to be worthwhile,” Faries says.

The renewed optimism comes after a roller-coaster decade for gaming. The pandemic years turbocharged what was already strong growth in the 2000s and 2010s.

The pandemic period sent gaming activity skyrocketing amid lockdown conditions. The unusual circumstances that piqued the interest of casual players was hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime gift that would widen the playing field for gaming consumers. This may prove true in the long run, but in the short term coming out of the pandemic, gaming took a hit, in part because social video and AI tools began to dominate cultural conversation. The about-face was so sharp that most big outfits — notably Blizzard’s parent, Microsoft’s Xbox — in recent years have implemented significant layoffs, scrapped projects and shuttered or sold game studios.

“In my professional career, I had not seen tough times until coming out of the pandemic, and that was scary,” says Jack Buser, Google Cloud gaming chief and a former Sony PlayStation exec. Buser has been in gaming for three decades and asserts that he hadn’t seen a darker time for the sector since he could buy Atari games for $1 at Kmart during the “game crash” of 1983.

But the forecast is much brighter, Buser believes.

“Player spend is back. We’ve got ‘GTA 6’ coming out. There’s a really healthy suite of releases across just about every genre and platform you can imagine,” he says. “Call me an optimist, but I feel like we are on the precipice of a renaissance as an industry.”

“GTA 6” is projected to ring in $3.25 billion to $5.2 billion in global sales in the week after its Nov. 19 launch, according to market research firm Newzoo. But while no other title will come close to “GTA 6,” it isn’t the only souped-up car hitting the road.

The packed fall slate starts with a slew of highly anticipated September and October releases, including “Marvel’s Wolverine” from PlayStation, Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4,” “Gears of War: E-Day” from Xbox, Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy Resonance,” “EA Sports FC 27” from the now-private Electronic Arts, “Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve” from Capcom, Bandai Namco’s “Blood of Dawnwalker,” Nintendo’s “Orbitals,” Take-Two’s “NBA 2K27” and Lyrical Games’ “Valor Mortis.”

With such a crowded schedule and “GTA 6” as the main competition, many developers have chosen to pivot from the oft-used teaser approach for recent game rollouts (a handful of cinematic trailers, some gameplay footage, a beta test if there’s time) to revealing as much of their games as possible in advance to consumers. During the annual Gamescom conference in August, the newly launched Saudi Arabia-backed MBC Game Studio offered extensive hands-on demos of its first title, “1001 Threads of Mizan,” just hours after announcing the game.

“It’s about the community and letting the community actually play the game first, as opposed to just leading with marketing assets,” says Tyler Bahl, Activision marketing chief.

Bahl’s team recently dropped in to Paris for the Esports World Cup to tout the upcoming “Modern Warfare 4.” That game is next headed for a stunt in South Korea (“We’ll be right at the DMZ [with North Korea], allowing people to play some of the new game with multiplayer,” Bahl says) as well as a big push at the Tokyo Game Show and Brasil Game Show.

The goal is to “just really make sure that we feel really strong about the game, so we want people to be able to play it and get hands-on before it launches,” Bahl says.

For BlizzCon, Blizzard is promising to pump up the star power for the big return. There are plans for special appearances by celebrity Blizzard fans including T-Pain, Simu Liu and deadmau5, and performances by musical guests YOASOBI and K-pop sensation LE SSERAFIM.

In programming the two days, the Blizzard team sought to emphasize one-of-a-kind moments that fans will love. Faries says the focus was on “things that attendees will be able to experience and feel really a uniquely special connection to.”

The first BlizzCon was held in 2005 and drew a crowd of 8,000 to Anaheim. This year’s event is expected to draw approximately 40,000, an increase of 30% from 2023. Faries is eager for the chance to rev up fans for future projects.

“We take it as an honor to be a part of the gaming industry all up in this big fall. To kind of kick things off in September in a big way,” Faries says.

“There’s so many other cool games and launches coming forward, so it should just feel like a great time to be a gamer, frankly, and be a part of this global community. And you know, all ships should rise together if we do our collective jobs well. It should be a great fall.”