Analyst says 2025's GTA 6 and Nintendo Switch 2 combo is almost unprecedented: "I don't remember a year like this where so much of what's going to happen is focused on just two products"

gamesradar.com:

Veteran games analyst Mat Piscatella of Circana has called GTA 6 possibly the most important thing "to ever release in the industry," so in a recent interview, as Rockstar's long-awaited open-world monolith slowly approaches, I was keen to dig into the idea of this rising tide lifting all boats. Much of our conversation revolved around the one-two punch of GTA 6 and the still-unnamed Nintendo Switch 2, the software and hardware releases poised to define the next year in gaming, if not beyond.

The fact that these two software and hardware titans are coming in the same year is, to put it mildly, simultaneously almost unprecedented and increasingly necessary. To put it less mildly, Piscatella says "if one misses the year, or if one doesn't deliver on expectations, it could be a much tougher look" for the industry in 2025. Either way, Piscatella reckons "these are the two things that could really change the course of consumer behavior when it comes to gaming."

"That's not to say there aren't going to be other surprises, that we couldn't see more Helldivers 2-type hits," he continues. "We sure could. But while those can move the needle a little bit, these two things can move the needle a lot. I don't recall – maybe when Grand Theft Auto 5 showed up, that type of thing in 2013 is maybe the last time we had an individual product or two really have this big of a potential impact on the market."

"I don't remember a year like this where so much of what's going to happen is focused on just two products entering the market, right?" he reiterates. "A lot of eggs in the basket, so to speak. And we'll have to see how that goes. So it's really tough until we get confirmation about when these things are showing up, and we start seeing the results about just how good or bad 2025 is going to look from a video game world perspective."

"My expectation for the year is going to be determined by if and when new Nintendo hardware and Grand Theft Auto 6 show up and how successful they are,"