We know that Grand Theft Auto VI will have a massive impact on the video game industry when it launches, so it's no surprise that its delay into next year is also having a huge impact on the industry in 2025.
Analytics firm Ampere Analysis has lowered its revenue and sales forecast for the video game console market, specifically for PlayStation and Xbox, The Game Business reports. Ampere's Piers Harding-Rolls expects PlayStation and Xbox to sell 700,000 fewer consoles than they would have if GTA VI were still being released this year.
Harding-Rolls and Ampere also estimate that 21 million fewer game sales will be made, and that between hardware and software revenue, the console market is missing out on approximately $2.7 billion in revenue.
Of course, the knock-on effect of all this is that expectations for 2026 are that much higher, but we're not yet halfway through 2025, and the year already looks drastically different from the one the video game industry thought it would have in January 2025.
Without GTA VI in the holiday lineup, the one platform that will benefit, Harding-Rolls suggests, will be Nintendo. Harding-Rolls and Ampere Analysis also aren't alone in this suggestion, as DFC Intelligence reports that in its estimates, it sees Nintendo benefiting from Grand Theft Auto VI's delay, while PlayStation and Xbox have a much more muted year.
Overall, Ampere now estimates that the industry will only grow by 0.9%, with a bigger 2.2% jump coming in 2026.
Shortly after the news of Grand Theft Auto VI being delayed was announced, it was reported that the game had no chance of actually releasing in 2025. Unfortunate as that might be for fans hoping to play it this year, the delay doesn't seem to have really impacted excitement, as eager fans continue to salivate over the small bits of the game we have seen.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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