Gaming companies to watch

The birthplace of the video game industry, Japan remains fertile ground today, home to numerous publicly traded leaders such as Sony, Nintendo, Konami and Bandai Namco. And Capcom is among them. A long-standing player in the gaming world, the company is known for its Street Fighter, Monster Hunter and, above all, Resident Evil franchises, each new instalment of which is a huge sales success. The release of Resident Evil 9 Requiem on 27 February 2026 is eagerly awaited, as is that of Onimusha: Way of the Sword – another legendary franchise – scheduled for later this year. Most analysts recommend buying the stock, which has appreciated 13% since 1 January.

Thank you, Netflix? In December 2020, just before Christmas, Polish publisher CD Projekt was struggling after the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, despite having a budget of around $300 million. A cascade of bugs and player discontent led Sony to remove the title from the PlayStation store and refund customers – decisions that are extremely rare in the industry. Two years later, in September 2022, the release of Cyberpunk Edgerunners – the spin-off series based on the game – on Netflix boosted sales. It should be noted that the game itself has improved enormously since its launch, thanks to numerous updates, which has contributed to this momentum. According to the latest figures released by CD Projekt last November, more than 35 million copies of the game have now been sold in five years, surpassing The Witcher 3 over the same period. The Witcher... another name well known to Netflix fans. Also benefiting from a series on the streaming platform, this game is the Polish company’s other blockbuster, with 75 million copies sold since 2007. Thanks to these two giants, CD Projekt is doing well. In the third quarter, the company posted revenue of 349 million złoty (77.1 million Swiss francs), up more than 50% year-on-year, with a net margin of 55%. The next big step for CD Projekt will be the release of The Witcher 4, which is not expected before 2027 and on which no fewer than 447 developers are currently working. In the meantime, most analysts recommend holding on to the stock, which has already appreciated by more than 30% since the beginning of the year.

After peaking at over $50 in 2021, GameSquare’s share price has become a penny stock, hovering around the 50-cent mark. How can such a decline be explained? At the time, the pandemic was still on everyone’s minds and video gamerelated companies were booming on Wall Street. Today, GameSquare describes itself as a marketing company that helps brands reach young audiences through video games and e-sports. The company has had its own team of professional e-sports players since acquiring FaZe Clan in 2024, a very powerful brand in the United States. The two analysts covering the firm recommend buying the stock.

Released in November, Where Winds Meet is the unexpected title of the moment. Published by Chinese company NetEase, it has received widespread praise from gamers around the world. With this international success, NetEase – China’s second-largest gaming company behind Tencent – has confirmed its desire to conquer the market beyond its borders. This ambition has been evident for several years with the acquisition of multiple studios, notably Japan’s Grasshopper Manufacture in 2021, France’s Quantic Dream in 2022 and Canada’s Skybox Labs in 2023. The vast majority of analysts recommend buying the stock.

“Nintendo will always be Nintendo,” smiles Stéphane Rappeneau, co-founder of Weird Loop studio. While other players in the video game industry have changed their strategy, and sometimes lost their way, following trends and fads, the Japanese company has never changed course. From the NES to the Switch, via the Game Boy and the Wii, it has tirelessly produced family consoles, associated with strong and timeless game franchises (Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong) often developed in-house. It’s an unchanging business model that has proven highly successful. At the end of September, Nintendo announced that it had already sold more than 10.36 million units of its new console, the Switch 2, which has been on the market since June, making it the best launch ever for such a device.

This has prompted the company to revise its forecasts upwards. While Nintendo had planned to sell 15 million units by March 2026, the company now expects to sell 19 million. By way of comparison, the first Switch, released eight years ago but still available, has sold 154 million units to date – only a few million less than the best-selling console of all time, the PlayStation 2, which reached 160 million units in the 2000s.

Buoyed by the success of the Switch 2, Nintendo now estimates that its revenue will increase by 93% to ¥2.25 trillion (approx. €14.5 billion) in the current fiscal year, which runs from April 2025 to March 2026. A majority of analysts recommend buying the stock, which has appreciated by more than 40% since 1 January.

The American group Roblox is delighting Wall Street while worrying the authorities. On the plus side, in the third quarter, the platform surpassed the symbolic milestone of 150 million daily active players, a 70% jump in one year. Another positive indicator is revenue. Between July and September, the company generated $1.4 billion, up 48% compared to the same period a year earlier. This huge success is due to an innovative concept. More than just a video game publisher, Roblox is a social network that provides users with tools to create their own games and make them available to the community (either free of charge or for a fee).

“Roblox is revolutionising the way people create and explore digital worlds. Its cloud platform removes the traditional barriers of coding, cost and distribution. Anyone can design, publish and monetise games instantly, fuelling an economy where millions of creators profit directly from their work,” explains Chloé Darling-Stewart, investment specialist at Baillie Gifford. In recent months, the group has been buoyed by the phenomenal success of Grow a Garden. This game, created by a teenager and launched in March on Roblox, reached a peak of 22.3 million simultaneous players – a figure never before seen in the history of the video game industry – surpassing Fortnite’s record.

Very popular with children and teenagers – a third of users are aged 13 or under – Roblox has sparked a number of controversies, including that of profiting from the labour of minors. When questioned in March 2024 by Eurogamer, Stefano Corrazza, head of Roblox Studio, gave a response that did little to quell the controversy: “You can say, ‘Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labour,’ right? Or, you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income. So, I can be like 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now, with just a laptop, I can create something, make money and then sustain my life.”

Other accusations against the platform include being a haven for paedophiles. To put an end to the controversy, since 2024 the company has banned children under the age of 13 from certain virtual meeting spaces, known as ‘social hangouts’. This has not been enough. Last August, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed a lawsuit against Roblox, calling the platform “an ideal place for paedophiles.” Once again, the company had to respond.

In November, Roblox announced the implementation of facial recognition software to verify the age of its users. Soon, all players will have to take a selfie, which will be used to estimate their age. Users will then be divided into online spaces by age group, making it theoretically impossible for an adult to chat with a minor. Notwithstanding the controversy and lawsuits, a majority recommend buying the Roblox stock, which has already appreciated by nearly 55% since the beginning of the year. However, despite its success, the company remains in the red, posting a loss of $257 million in the third quarter – Robux, the virtual currency that can be purchased with real money, is not yet covering expenses.

Older folks remember that a long, long time ago, Sega was the equivalent of its rival Nintendo, with which it shared the global video game market. The Japanese company marketed successful consoles and had a charismatic hero in the form of a little blue hedgehog. It was the era of Mega Drive versus NES, Sonic versus Mario, in short, Sega versus Nintendo. Forty years later, however, only Nintendo is still competing with the big players. Sega has withdrawn from console manufacturing, overtaken by Sony ( PlayStation) and Microsoft (Xbox).

However, the Japanese company has not completely disappeared from the radar. Renamed Sega Sammy after its merger with Sammy Corporation in 2004, the company continues to develop video games, such as Sonic Rumble, released in November 2025, which has peaked at nearly 5,500 simultaneous players on Steam. These figures are far from those achieved by current blockbusters, which can reach hundreds of thousands of simultaneous players, and also far from Sega’s standards in the early 1990s, but they show the company is, at the very least, still in the game. At the same time, the company is attempting to relaunch itself in the mobile gaming world with the 2023 acquisition of Finnish studio Rovio, creator of the hit game Angry Birds, for €700 million. Most analysts recommend buying the stock, which is down 12% since 1 January. In the 2024-2025 financial year ending in March, the company posted revenue of ¥428.9 billion ($2.7 billion).

There are companies whose creation has completely eclipsed their name. We know the Nivea brand, without knowing that the Beiersdorf group is behind it. Take-Two Interactive is undoubtedly one such company. Its name, little known to the general public, has disappeared behind that of its flagship product: the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game, created by the famous Rockstar studio, the first instalment of which was released in November 1997. Almost 30 years later, the phenomenal success of the series, which continues to fill Take-Two’s coffers, is undeniable. Launched in 2013, GTA V has sold over 220 million copies, making it the second best-selling game of all time behind Minecraft, with over $10 billion in revenue.

With GTA VI, scheduled for release on 19 November 2026, Take-Two intends to break its own records. But the company is not betting everything on this single title. Over the years, the publisher has launched other successful franchises such as Red Dead Redemption, NBA 2K and Max Payne. In addition, the publisher has diversified by expanding its mobile business with the acquisition of Zynga, developer of the smartphone game FarmVille, for $12.7 billion in 2022. More recently, in March 2025, Take-Two acquired the Australian studio Video Games Deluxe, creator of the L.A. Noire series.

Despite its success, Take-Two has not been spared by the decline in growth in the video game industry. In April 2024, the American publisher announced that it would be laying off 5% of its workforce, or between 500 and 600 people. More recently, in November, the company was accused of anti-union repression by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) after the dismissal of 30 to 40 employees from the British and Canadian offices of Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two. In addition, the company has already postponed the release of GTA VI three times, disappointing fans and causing tension in the markets. Take-Two’s share price fell 8% on 7 November following the announcement of the latest delay. Convinced that there will be no further delays, a majority of analysts nevertheless recommend buying the stock, which has already appreciated by more than 30% since the beginning of the year.

Long the French standard-bearer for video games, the giant Ubisoft and its 17,000-strong workforce are facing difficulties. This is due to a series of resounding failures (Star Wars Outlaws, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, XDefiant, Skull and Bones), which have greatly damaged the company’s reputation and financial health, with Ubisoft posting a net loss of €159 million for the 2024-2025 financial year ending in March. One of the main reasons for this is the disenchantment of some players with games they consider too stereotypical and lacking in innovation. This is cause for concern on the markets: in five years, the share price has lost almost 100% of its value, falling from €80 at the end of 2020 to less than €7 at the time of writing.

As rumours began to circulate about its imminent demise – or takeover – Ubisoft decided to prescribe itself a drastic treatment, with a cost-cutting plan that led to the departure of 3,000 employees between September 2022 and March 2025. At the same time, the company received help from a good doctor specialising in Chinese medicine: Tencent. Last November, the French company announced the finalisation of an agreement whereby the Chinese group will inject €1.16 billion to acquire 26.32% of Vantage Studios, a new Ubisoft subsidiary that brings together the company’s three flagship franchises (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six). This transaction will enable Ubisoft to pay off its debt, which stood at €1.15 billion at the end of September. Pending a full recovery, most analysts recommend holding on to the stock, as Ubisoft can also count on the successful launch of the free Assassin’s Creed Mirage expansion last November.

Unity Technologies is challenging Google and Apple. In October, the American company announced that it had partnered with fintech firm Stripe to develop a system for managing microtransactions in games without going through the two giants.

The company promises developers that it will charge low fees – a far cry from the up to 30% levied on each microtransaction by Apple and Google. The launch of this service makes sense. Indeed, “The vast majority of in-app transactions related to games occur within games made with Unity,” said Matt Bromberg, CEO of Unity. The company markets a suite of software that allows developers to create, develop and market games on all platforms, but mainly on mobile. Currently, more than 70% of the top 1,000 most profitable mobile games are made with Unity, according to the company’s figures, including big productions such as Pokémon Go. But this success with developers is struggling to translate into hard cash. In the third quarter, the company lost another $127 million. Analysts are divided between buying and holding the stock, which has already appreciated by more than 70% since 1 January 2025 (at the end of November).