The two indie game legends going head-to

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• Plus, Rami Ismail on the state of indies (podcast only)

Hello there!

We are just a week away from GTA 6. Is it going to light a fire under the game business? Or just suck all the oxygen out of the room?

Two game developers banking on the former are indie legends Rami Ismail and Edmund McMillen, who are both launching games right next to Rockstar’s epic. We chat to both of them about that, plus a few other things, in today’s Show.

In addition, I had a brief interview with Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, and I’ll share some of that with you, too.

You can watch or listen to the whole thing above. Alternatively, I’ve selected the key quotes and insights below. Enjoy!

Reminder: The Game Business Marketing Awards entry period ends today. To submit your 2026 game campaign for consideration,click here.The winners will be announced Thursday, December 10.

The majority of game developers and publishers have run away from the launch GTA 6, but not Rami Ismail or Edmund McMillen.

The indie game titans are both launching new projects next to Rockstar’s epic. Ismail’s new game Australia Did It: End-of-the-World Railway Defense Business arrived earlier this week, whereas McMillen’s The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+ Online comes to console on November 19, the very launch day of GTA 6.

“Weirdly enough, the quietest time to launch right now is near Grand Theft Auto”

“Everybody agrees you’re not supposed to go near Grand Theft Auto, so most people are not going near Grand Theft Auto,” Ismail explained. “That means most people are going before or after Grand Theft Auto, which means that, weirdly enough, the quietest time to launch right now is near Grand Theft Auto.

“It’s going to stay busy until March, where everybody’s just been like, ‘Oh, we’re dodging Grand Theft Auto, so we’re just going to launch in Feb or January.’ And those are all games I am competing with. Those are indies, those are $20, $15, $10 games. Those are games that you’re meant to play in between other games. I’m not competing [with GTA], it’s not even the same industry. Rockstar Games is a separate industry.

“Are we shooting ourselves in the foot? Frankly, we don’t know. But the alternative of waiting with the way the industry is developing now, I’m happy with the choices we made.”

Ismail said with the sheer number of games coming to market, he would rather take the risk of “Grand Theft Auto 6 snuffing all the oxygen out of the room, than go stand in the middle of a busy football stadium with a little flag being like, ‘play my game.’”

He added: “We’re increasingly in damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t territory with this industry. You’re supposed to make things quick, but then AI can clone you faster. You’re supposed to build community, but then building a community creates additional expectations, and AI is a threat. You’re supposed to move your risk to publishers, but publishers are less and less interested in taking risks. You’re supposed to put your Steam page up early, but then publishers can see your wishlist numbers. You’re supposed to not launch against Grand Theft Auto, but then everybody else does the same. You’re supposed to not take too many reckless risks, but then anything but reckless risk doesn’t seem to pay off. It’s strange times.”

Ismail acknowledged it may be hard to get press coverage this month due to GTA, but he hopes his influence, and the game’s niche audience, can still cut-through. But even if it doesn’t, he’ll simply do another push “a month or two after Grand Theft Auto.”

Meanwhile, for McMillen, the decision to go next to GTA 6 was far less analytical.

“Honestly, Tyrone [Rodriguez, CEO of publisher Nicalis] said, ‘wouldn’t it be funny if we launched on the same day as Grand Theft Auto?’ And I was like, ‘yeah, that’s funny.’ I’m not scared of it. It’s an interesting experiment. Who’s to know if it will sell more or less? I feel like more people are going to be playing video games in that week, and Isaac fans are Isaac fans, period. The people that are playing it actively on Steam will see it launch on console. Once the dust settles on [GTA], people are going to be looking for another game to play. And Isaac’s right there.”

McMillen has good reason to be confident in Binding of Isaac. The 15 year-old game is already enjoying a huge year of sales.

“I think by the end of 2026, we would have sold five million more copies this year,” he revealed.

“We put it on sale at the beginning of summer. Steam recommended that we do it, and I always say yes to whatever Steam recommends. They pushed it, and it was a big sale, but it was just like, ‘wow’. It broke all of our daily numbers by times three. It went crazy. It went higher than Mewgenics for daily [users].”

Mewgenics is McMillen’s latest breakout hit, which launched in February to rave reviews and big sales.

“We passed two million units a while back, and then we released on console [in September], and we sold an okay amount,” he revealed. “We should have launched after Grand Theft Auto, hoping Grand Theft Auto sells some consoles.”

Check out our full conversation with Ismail and McMillen in today’s edition of The Game Business Show above. Our Ismail interview also discusses the state of the indie scene, AI, publishing and Steam Next Fest. Meanwhile, McMillen shares his experience of trying to support Chinese fans of Mewgenics.

Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick says “it may not be the end” for physical media entirely, despite 98% of its business being digital.

Next week’s GTA 6 won’t be released in disc form, and with now just 2% of its business comingts relationship with optical media

“It may not be the end, but listen, we’ve been talking, you and I, for a long time,” he said. “I predicted that digital distribution would be well over 90% of the business more than 10 years ago. I don’t always get it right, but this one I got right. Will there always be some physical business? Yes, in the same way that there’s still a vinyl business in recorded music. But it’s going to be a very small part of the business.”

Zelnick was speaking to us about the company’s latest financial results, which saw NBA 2K27 perform below expectations. And he suggested that GTA may be partially responsible.

“First of all, let’s remember this release of NBA 2K is the second most successful release we’ve ever had,” he explained. “This is not a recovery situation, this is a great news situation. That said, do I believe that there is some influence of the presales of GTA 6, the expectations around GTA 6, on the rest of the entertainment business? Certainly. Certainly there’s influence.”

In addition to the numbers, we also spoke about Take-Two’s new studio Small Axe, which was formed in August to create a ‘blockbuster sports franchise’. The studio features veterans from EA Sports, including leaders who worked on FIFA and EA Sports FC.

Zelnick says it’s “incumbent” that Take-Two invests in new IP. But players of games like NBA 2K and EA Sports FC are increasing entrenched within their existing franchises, with live service modes like Ultimate Team and MyTeam keeping them engaged from title-to-title. So what makes Take-Two confident that it can find a space for a new competitor?

“I don’t know that we can,” he said candidly. “I’m always running scared, and again, I never claim success before it occurs, and I’m a firm believer that arrogance is the enemy of continued success. Our track record with regard to the creation of new intellectual property is not perfect, but it’s pretty good. Today we have 15 huge franchises in our PC and console business that have each sold at least five million units, and the only reason that is the case is because we were willing to invest in new intellectual property over the years. I’m cautiously optimistic that we can continue to create success. Inevitably, it will not be 100% of the time.”

Sales of Nintendo Switch 2 jumped following the release of the 40^thAnniversary Zelda Switch 2 console.

According to Nielsen IQ, the launch of the special edition console was the fifth biggest week for Switch 2 sales in the UK so far. It was just behind the Christmas week last year. Other bigger weeks include last year’s Black Friday, the weekafterBlack Friday and the launch week of the console itself. Switch 2 accounted for 52% of all game consoles sold during the week the special edition SKU arrived.

This success was mirrored in the US, where Switch 2 had its biggest week of the year thanks to the Zelda console (Circana figures).

So far, Switch 2 leads the market in the UK. We now wait to see the impact of GTA 6 on PS5 and Xbox sales.

• PlayStation has cancelled its online shooter FairGames after playtests delivered “mixed” results when it came to player feedback and retention. Developer Haven Studios will now collaborate with other PlayStation teams, while exploring new projects. No job cuts are being made at this time.

• PlayStation has also cancelled Ratchet & Clank: Ranger Rumble, its free-to-play mobile game a year after it entered soft launch.

• Sony Santa Monica has delayed God of War Laufey from February to May 20, 2027.

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has sold 5.2 million units in four days. It’s the fastest selling Nintendo Switch 2 game globally.

• World of Warcraft Forever saw the biggest launch in WoW history based on peak concurrent players. It also marked the highest number of returning players in the series’ history, and it saw the biggest number of new players in 15 years.

• A leaked draft of the EU’s Digital Fairness Act suggests the new legislation would stop games from selling loot boxes and pay-to-win mechanics to minors without parental approval, and switch off paid-for virtual currencies for under-18s.

• Skydance has made some undisclosed layoffs at its games division. It follows the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery.

• Mobile game developer Fortis Games has shut down with 440 redundancies.

• Bandai Namco has closed Unknown 9: Awakening developer Reflector Entertainment, which it acquired in 2020.

• Killing Floor and Maneater developer Tripwire Interactive has laid off 36 staff. The studio is owned by Embracer.

• Bit Reactor, the developer of Star Wars: Zero Company, has laid off an unspecified number of staff. It’s after it had to furlough many of its team ahead of the launch of the Star Wars strategy game.

• Black Forest Games has spun out of THQ Nordic and created Third Signal, a new independent group of studios.

• Take-Two saw second quarter bookings drop 18% to $1.6 billion. It’s very slightly below the firm’s $1.62 billion to $1.67 billion guidance due to NBA 2K27 missing its forecast.

• Unity has delivered another record financial quarter, boosted by a 126% year-on-year growth in its AI-powered ad network Vector. Unity delivered its first GAAP-profitable quarter since its 2020 IPO.

• Nintendo reported a 12.1% decrease in sales for the six months ending September 30, 2026. This is primarily due to fewer console sales. Profit rose 49.1% to $1.3 billion, driven by successful Switch games such as Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream, Rhythm Heaven Groove, and the Switch 2 title Splatoon Raiders. The firm also had a first quarter US tariff refund. Switch 2 hardware sales dropped 37.4% for the period.

• PlayStation saw its sales rise 2.9% to $13.5 billion for the six months ending September 30, while income reached $2.6 billion (up 57%). This was helped by stronger sales of its services, plus first-party games such as Marvel’s Wolverine, which has sold 2.4 million copies so far. Nevertheless, hardware sales are falling, down from four million in financial Q2 2025 to 2.6 million this time around. The company has now increased its forecast for the year by 6%.

• Guildford Games Festival returns on Friday, February 19, and will feature talks from Larian, EA and Supermassive Games.

That’s it today! Join us next week for a bit of John Romero and our bumper GTA special. Have a lovely weekend.