ColumnGamingThe StepbackNew Zelda and GTA represent a games industry that no longer existsThe two biggest games of the year launch in November, offering some reprieve from a terrible year.\ufeffby Andrew WebsterNov 1, 2026, 1:00 PM UTCShareGift Image: NintendoColumnGamingThe StepbackNew Zelda and GTA represent a games industry that no longer existsThe two biggest games of the year launch in November, offering some reprieve from a terrible year.\ufeffby Andrew WebsterNov 1, 2026, 1:00 PM UTCShareGiftAndrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pok\u00e9mon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the biggest game releases of the year, follow Andrew Webster. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers\u2019 inboxes on Sunday at 8AM ET.<\/p>\n
Opt in for The Stepbackhere.The two biggest games of 2026 are set to launch just a few weeks apart in November.On the one side you have the behemoth that is Grand Theft Auto VI, an experience 13 years in the making, and the sequel to one of the best-selling games in history. Its predecessor, GTA V, has sold a staggering 230 million copies since it launched in 2013, and was re-released across three generations of consoles. Developer Rockstar is a pioneer in the realm of open-world games, dating back to GTA III, and the scale and ambitions of those worlds have steadily grown since then. With GTA V and later Red Dead Redemption 2, the studio\u2019s ideas reached a new level of realism.<\/p>\n
And the sixth GTA looks poised to eclipse them both, which has created an unprecedented level of demand.Analyst firm Circana estimates that 29 percent of gamers in the US intend to buy the game, with demand so large it could boost flagging console sales. \u201cMany consumers who have yet to upgrade to a current-generation console may choose to purchase a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series specifically to play the title,\u201d analyst Mat Piscatella says in a statement. GTA VI\u2019s reach is so vast that almost every other major game launched early to avoid it.The one exception is Nintendo. The company\u2019s tentpole release for the holidays, and its next major exclusive for the Switch 2, is a lavish remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.The release is notable for a few reasons. For one thing, it\u2019s an attempt from Nintendo to modernize one of the most influential and beloved games in its long history.<\/p>\n
The original Ocarina of Time was the world\u2019s first introduction to a 3D iteration of Hyrule, which, in turn, made it an early glimpse at what was possible in three-dimensional spaces, laying a blueprint for countless games that came afterward. Nintendo has since expanded on that, turning Switch-era adventures Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom into wide-open adventures designed for player creativity. They went on to become some of the best-selling games for Nintendo\u2019s most successful console.Ocarina of Time\u2019s launch also comes just ahead of a live-action Zelda movie in 2027, which could catapult the franchise to a new level of prominence. That\u2019s why Nintendo is seemingly the only company unafraid of competing with GTA.These aren\u2019t just two blockbuster games \u2013 they\u2019re two series with the pull to make this a real cultural moment, akin to \u201cBarbenheimer\u201d but for video games.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the kind of launches that make it onto Saturday Night Live and have NBA players worried.It\u2019s just too bad about the rest of the industry.These major November releases are something of a mirage, two outliers that stand out amid the wreckage that is the rest of the video game industry. While there have been plenty of major releases and great games this year, the main theme of 2026 has been just how dire things have become. Layoffs, studio closures, unpopular business models, the ever-looming threat of AI, and massive increases in hardware costs have combined to create an ominous cloud over the medium.Here is just a snapshot of what the year has been like: Xbox is in the middle of a \u201creset\u201d that involves laying off thousands of developers, shutting down some studios, and gutting others; Fortnite developer Epic cut more than 1,000 jobs due to a sharp downturn in the live-service games space, and it\u2019s currently going all-in on vibe coding; Sony is also struggling, slashing jobs at Destiny developer Bungie, watching console sales plummet as costs skyrocket, and raising the ire of gamers by moving on from physical media; and meanwhile, major publishers like EA and Ubisoft are in their own dramatic states of upheaval.And the bad news hasn\u2019t really let up. Just last week, EA shut down beloved studio BioWare and canceled the next Mass Effect game, and this week Sony studio Sucker Punch cut staff despite the success of last year\u2019s Ghost of Y\u014dtei.<\/p>\n
Every day, it seems, brings some new unwelcome development.What happens nextClearly, things are changing for the video game industry; they have to change. What that future looks like, though, remains unclear. The next generation of game consoles is being threatened by exorbitant prices, and all the while the rise of AI-powered tools is sending ripples across the industry, threatening the established order between players and creators as games are ported to every platform imaginable. \u201cThese are unmistakably good outcomes for players, even when (and sometimes because) they challenge our existing business models,\u201d Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in a recent memo. But how that plays out remains to be seen.It\u2019s not all doom and gloom.<\/p>\n
There have been rare success stories, where studios like FromSoftware and Remedy have managed to carve out a sustainable existence in a turbulent field. But for the most part, the established norms that have been part of the blockbuster games industry for years are going away. Big games are too expensive to make, hardware is too expensive to buy (and the cost is only going up), and somewhere, something has to give.It\u2019s tempting to look at Zelda and GTA as answers to these problems. After all, if Nintendo and Rockstar are doing so well, there must be a solution out there.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re also two very specific cases that are essentially impossible to replicate. Nintendo maintains ownership over all aspects of its platform, from the hardware to the games, and it has taken a careful and largely risk-averse approach that has allowed it to weather the current storm and create a growing entertainment empire. Rockstar, meanwhile, is the rare example of being too big to fail. GTA V was so massive for so long \u2014 Circana says it was among the top 20 best-selling games in the US for 13 straight years \u2014 that it allowed the studio to build up both an unprecedented amount of anticipation and, it seems, a game big enough to match it.In that way, Zelda and GTA are throwbacks to a time when major games were sure bets.<\/p>\n
Their duelling releases are fascinating both because these games are so impactful, but also because, with all of the impending upheaval, the industry might never see a moment like this again.The Ocarina of Time remake makes some smart modern tweaks to the formula, which you can learn about in our hands-on with the game.While the wait has been long for GTA VI, it seems there\u2019s a good chance its inevitable sequel won\u2019t spend so many years in development.There\u2019s one other notable game that was unafraid to launch in November: Moomin: Midsummer Madness.Rockstar is very secretive, but you can get a sense of what went into GTA VI\u2019s protracted development from these cover stories in Edge magazine and Businessweek.Ocarina of Time is an especially interesting game in 2026 because of how much Zelda has changed since it first debuted. For more on that, here\u2019s our interview from 2023 with Tears of the Kingdom director Hidemaro Fujibayashi.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your per<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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