Key facts
- Blizzard said "World of Warcraft: Forever" set franchise records for peak concurrent players and returning players.
- Nintendo said the "Ocarina of Time" remake sold more than 5.2 million units worldwide in four days.
- "Grand Theft Auto VI" is scheduled for release on November 19, its first entry since 2013.
- Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC preorders "vastly exceeded" expectations and called it the franchise's second biggest release.
Blizzard Entertainment, owned by Microsoft, released "World of Warcraft: Forever" on November 4, a new entry in a franchise whose original game came out 22 years earlier. Two days later the company said the launch was the largest in "World of Warcraft" history by peak concurrent players and by number of returning players.
Nintendo released "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" for Nintendo Switch 2 on November 5, a full remake of the 1998 Nintendo 64 title. On November 11 Nintendo said the game sold more than 5.2 million units worldwide in its first four days, which the company described as a record.
"Grand Theft Auto VI," from Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, is scheduled for release on November 19. Rockstar formally announced the title in 2023, and footage from the in-development game leaked in 2022. The previous "GTA" release came in 2013 and the original in 1997.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told CNBC on November 10 that preorder sales have "vastly exceeded" the company's expectations. "The good news is it's our second biggest release in the history of the franchise," Zelnick said, adding that the company expects the game to be profitable.
The three releases arrive as the video game industry works to win customers while rising hardware costs and competition for semiconductors push up prices, according to the report.