Author: Game Infliction

November 2025 was a shockingly terrible month for video game sales in the U.S. While we traditionally think of November as a huge sales month what with Black Friday and all, November 2025 was the worst November in video game hardware unit sales, and the worst in physical software dollar sales the U.S. has seen since 1995.

That’s according to Circana’s monthly report, which paints a pretty dismal picture of last month’s commercial performance. The industry in the U.S. saw declines across the board in hardware, accessories, and console spending for an overall drop of 4% year-over-year, at $5.9 billion in total spending.

Hardware

More specifically, hardware spending was down a whopping 27% year-over-year to $695 million, the lowest hardware spending total for November since 2005’s $455 million. Even worse, unit sales reached 1.6 million, which is the lowest November total since 1995’s 1.4 million.

And that’s representative of declines across the board. Xbox Series hardware sales were down 70% year-over-year. PS5 sales were down over 40%, and combined unit sales of Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were down over 10% from Switch sales last year, despite this being a launch year for the Nintendo Switch 2.

What’s going on? As pointed out by Circana senior director Mat Piscatella, video game hardware has never been more expensive, reaching an all-time November high of $439 per unit, up 11% year-over-year. The Xbox specifically saw its average price per unit increase by over 30%, perhaps confirming one reason why folks aren’t so keen to buy Xboxes specifically.

With the Nintendo Switch 2, Piscatella says he’s watching its sales “very closely,” and offers this analysis of its current situation:

With six months in the market, it remains the fastest-selling video game hardware in U.S. history. However, part of what was driving that was its availability to be bought during its launch window. It’s been extremely rare to have such a successful new device not suffer supply constraints going into its first holiday sales period. Unit sales of Switch 2 were lower than those of Switch 1 during each console’s first November, but the price points are also quite different. The average price paid for a new Nintendo Switch in November 2017 was $309 (which, if adjusted for inflation, is approximately $405 in November 2025 dollars), compared to the $486 for Switch 2 in November 2025. Perhaps it is a case of demand having been pulled forward earlier in the year because people could find them. Or perhaps the mass market is not as quickly adopting Switch 2 as it did Switch. Or perhaps consumers are looking elsewhere for holiday gifting as the prices continue to rise in video game hardware. Tough to say at the moment.

There’s one piece of hardware that’s doing okay, and it’s not what you’d expect: the NEX Playground. It was the third best-selling piece of video game hardware of November by unit sales, surpassing the Xbox Series, while the more expensive Xbox Series beat it in dollar sales (the PS5 was first in both categories, the Switch 2 was second). Piscatella calls the NEX Playground a “remarkable story,” noting that while everyone else is having a bad time, it just had a superb November by comparison:

November 2025 tracked unit sales at U.S. retailers for NEX Playground were just 7% below its entire tracked lifetime sales at retail through October. With an average selling price of just over $200 in November, strong placement at retail, and some successful influencer and viral marketing efforts, the NEX Playground became one of the hottest video game products of the holiday season during the month. We’ll have to see how well the pace can keep up, as there are reports that the NEX Playground is now largely sold out, with secondary market prices on sites like eBay soaring accordingly.

There could be a lesson here that more affordable, family friendly gaming devices carry appeal during holiday gifting season.

Software

Things aren’t looking much better on the content side. While Circana reports that content spending was up 1% year-over-year to $4.8 billion, that’s with subscription spending rising 16% and 2% growth in mobile. Physical software sales, meanwhile, dropped 14% year-over-year to the worst November since 1995, the year Circana began tracking them.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 put the Call of Duty franchise back on top for another debut month in November as the month’s best-seller, marking the 18th year in a row a Call of Duty has launched to the top of the charts. That said, Circana reports that the franchise saw a double-digit percentage full game dollar sales decline when compared to November 2024.

It’s a little tricky to make precise comparisons between Black Ops 7 and its predecessor, Black Ops 6, given both games launched into Xbox Game Pass, and Black Ops 6 released in October last year, not November. Still, Piscatella tells me that Black Ops 7’s full game dollar sales finished below those of Black Ops 6’s last November. Additionally, Black Ops 7 is currently the seventh best-selling game of the year-to-date, and Piscatella anticipates that its rival, Battlefield 6, will end the year as the best-selling game of 2025. This isn’t the first time in recent memory it’s been beaten, with Hogwarts Legacy coming out on top in 2023. Notably, that year, Hogwarts Legacy beat Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, which did not launch into Game Pass, while Black Ops 7 this year did, almost certainly making its actual dollar sales total lower as a result.

It’s worth noting as well that accessories spending was down 13% year-over-year.

Red Flags

This is shaping up to be a pretty weird year. I asked Piscatella what he makes of all this, and what it means for the games industry. He pointed out that much of the story remains to be told in December, and that it’s possible consumers are waiting for better deals closer to the holidays. Alternatively, it’s possible that economic factors and price of consoles are pushing people to hold off on gaming purchases. Here’s what Piscatella had to say:

Retail spending had been holding up relatively well until now, despite the pressure from higher prices we’ve been seeing in the market. More affluent consumers have kept on spending so far, which has made up for some of the declines in spending from the less affluent portions of the market. Perhaps this is a sign that those higher prices are beginning to impact purchases of pricier items, like consoles. Perhaps not.

However, if the crunch on RAM pricing continues, if we see rising prices on consoles and gaming PCs over the coming months it could, theoretically, be potentially devastating to the dedicated gaming device market. Which would, of course, have potential carryover effects on the content side.

I certainly see some of the relationships between hardware unit sales and pricing we’re seeing in the November results as a red flag.

We won’t get the December and full-year results in until January, which will tell us a lot more about whether the games industry is about to enter a lean period, or if this November was just a goofy one-off.

November 2025 U.S. Top 20 Best-Selling Games:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (NEW)
2. Battlefield 6
3. NBA 2K26
4. Madden NFL 26
5. EA Sports FC 26
6. Pokemon Legends: Z-A*
7. Ghost of Yotei
8. EA Sports College Football 26
9. Minecraft*
10. Kirby Air Riders (NEW)*
11. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment (NEW)*
12. The Outer Worlds 2
13. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
14. Donkey Kong Bananza*
15. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
16. Red Dead Redemption II
17. Grand Theft Auto V
18. Borderlands 4
19. Forza Horizon 5
20. Digimon Story: Time Stranger

* Indicates that some or all digital sales are not included in Circana’s data. Some publishers, including Nintendo, do not share certain digital data for this report.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Palworld has just pushed out a significant new patch, bringing a collab with Ultrakill and a ton of improvements as developer Pocketpair continues work to prepare for the launch of Palworld 1.0, the game’s eagerly-anticipated full release.

John “Bucky” Buckley, communications director and publishing manager, teased that this update, dubbed Home Sweet Home, “puts a lot of groundwork in as we work towards our MASSIVE 1.0 release in 2026, but we have lots of little surprises in this update so check it out!”

As part of the Ultrakill collaboration, you’ll find several “iconic weapons and armor,” as well as a V1’s infamous coin toss, while the Home Sweet Home update — as the name suggests — makes it a little more intuitive to put down roots and make your own cozy base.

Pocketpair said it had been “blown away by all the incredible builds that you guys have been sending us,” and knows we’ve “been eagerly waiting for more freedom in how you design your base.” That’s why this update brings a number of new building parts, including the ability to change the color of building pieces and the “much-requested triangular pieces.” The building menu UI has also been redesigned and reformatted into a list.

But that’s not all. Melee combat has been improved to make it “more viable and fun,” and now, when summoning a raid boss at the Summoning Altar, players can choose to either fight at their base as before, or take on the raid boss in a special Raid Area.

“These Raid Areas allow you to fight with all your might, without risking any damage to your base,” the team explained. “You can build temporary structures and take items into these special Raid Areas.” Which is just as well, as a new raid boss will also pop up after the update.

“2025 has been an incredible year for Palworld, and we’re excited to end the year with v0.7, Home Sweet Home!” Pocketpair exclaimed. “The purpose of this update is to begin improving existing features, and while this update may not be as content-rich as previous ones, we hope players understand that it’s necessary for us to begin laying the groundwork now as we work on the development of Palworld 1.0.”

Last but definitely not least, PvP! Though the studio admits PvP has been a topic of discussion in the Palworld community for a “long time,” and it’s “hard to fully integrate PvP into the game,” it is trying to make the dream a reality, albeit with some careful parameters.

“We are releasing all the necessary tools for players to set up their own PvP rules on their own terms,” Pocketpair said. “Show off your skills and compete with other Pal Tamers! Please note that PvP is experimental, and as such, there may be some balancing issues.”

Palworld v0.7 patch notes:

ULTRAKILL Collab!

• Added V1 and V2 armor sets! Terrorize the Palpagos Islands as your favorite blood-fueled robot!
• Added a pair of iconic weapons from ULTRAKILL!
• Unique Mechanic – Coin Toss
  • Throw coins while using the Marksman Revolver to perform a Ricoshot! Bullets will ricochet off the thrown coin and deal devastating damage to nearby targets!

Base Building Improvements

• Added 48 new building parts, including triangular pieces!
• Added the ability to change the color of some buildings and foundations!
• Changed the building UI to a list-based system.

Raid Boss Improvements

• Added a new raid boss!
• Added a new battlefield for raid bosses. Players can now choose to challenge raid bosses in their base or in a new separate battlefield.

Melee Combat Improvements

• Improved the melee gameplay for swords, katanas and beam swords. Pressing left click (right trigger) will perform a new consecutive combo attack.
• Special attacks have been added to the katana and beam sword. Holding either left or right click (left or right trigger) will activate these abilities.

New Features

• Added PvP functionality (Experimental!).
• [PC – Steam Only] Added Steam Workshop, allowing players to download and use mods.

Mechanic Adjustments

• When placing a building, an arrow indicating the building’s orientation will now be displayed.
• When placing a building, buildings with a set work location will now display a Cattiva icon indicating the work location.
• Adjusted the Palbox so it can be aligned with foundations and roofs.
• [Keyboard & Mouse Controls] Building controls have been made more intuitive, and continuous building has been changed to the default setting.

Balance Adjustments

• Added new implants to the surgery table:
  • Implant: Mine Foreman
  • Implant: Logging Foreman
  • Implant: Fine Furs
  • Implant: Sleek Stroke
  • Implant: Work Slave
• You can now get a Little Kinship Peach from a Pal when freeing them from an enemy camp.
• The last hit done to an enemy while using mercy will now display “”MERCY HIT”” to indicate that no damage was done.
• Changed specifications so that all Pals will no longer lose SAN when taking damage.
• Reduced the impact of bad status effects:
  • Hungry… Attack, Defense, Work Speed ​​-20% → -10%
  • Starving… Attack, Defense, Work Speed ​​-50% → -20%
  • Cold… Work Speed ​​-10% → -5%
  • Sprain… Movement Speed ​​-10% → -5%
  • Overfull… Increased hunger loss rate by 100% → +50%
  • Ulcer… Work Speed ​​-20%, Movement Speed ​​-10% → Work Speed ​​-10%, Movement Speed ​​-5%
  • Fracture… Work Speed ​​-10%, Movement Speed ​​-20% → Work Speed ​​-5%, Movement Speed ​​-10%
  • Weakened… Work Speed ​​-20%, Movement Speed ​​-30% → Work Speed ​​-10%, Movement Speed ​​-20%
  • Depressed… -30% Work Speed, -20% Movement Speed ​​→ -20% Work Speed, -10% Movement Speed
• Changed the attribute of the Broncherry’s unique skill “”Body Smash”” from neutral to the grass.
• Changed the attribute of Rushoar’s unique skill “Heavy Charge” from neutral to earth.
• Added “Item Decay Speed ​​Multiplier” to the Options Settings.
• ・[Dedicated Servers] Police NPCs targeting players who have committed crimes will now only deal damage to the target player and their guild.
• ・The appearance of the work aptitude icon has been changed.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Flopie would not collect dropped items in the field while her partner skill “Helper Bunny” was active.
• Improved Pal pathfinding AI ​​to make it easier to reach the target location within the base.
• Fixed an issue where summoned Pals would attack visitors when set to “attack aggressively.”
• Fixed an issue where attacking visitors in your base would not result in the correct attacking state.
• Many other minor bug fixes.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios has confirmed the end of new content development for the game, following layoffs at the company this summer.

Released in 2023, the latest and (for now) final entry in the Forza Motorsport series was launched as a reboot of Xbox’s veteran sim racing franchise, with years of new content expected. But the game launched to a mixed response, and around half of Turn 10 Studios’ staff were made redundant in July. (The studio remains open, with support for the more popular Forza Horizon brand now a key focus.)

Word that Forza Motorsport will not receive any further big updates is unsurprising, then, though a fresh statement in a blog post from the studio has now laid it out in black and white.

“As our team shifts its focus toward delivering the best possible experience with Forza Horizon 6 in 2026, we do not plan to introduce new cars, tracks, features, or regular bug fixes for Forza Motorsport,” Turn 10 Studios wrote.

“However, we will continue supporting the game by keeping online servers active, hosting special events and competitions, and reintroducing previously released Featured Tours and reward cars on a monthly basis, until all content is available for you to enjoy anytime.”

Turn 10 is now a co-development partner for Forza Horizon 6, which is primarily being made at British studio Playground Games. The latest entry in the series will be set in Japan, and launch at some point in 2026.

Microsoft has not officially detailed its cuts to Turn 10 Studios this summer, but one former employee stated at the time that around “120 people” were “gone from FM side” of the studio. “Turn 10 Studios has shuttered the Forza Motorsport space and the team is no more,” wrote a second former employee amid the layoffs. “A very sad day for one of the best car racing video games. I loved my time there.”

The first Forza Motorsport from Turn 10 Studios launched for the original Xbox in 2005, and established the racing franchise as one of Microsoft’s key gaming brands, as well as a serious rival to PlayStation’s Gran Turismo. Seven Forza Motorsport sequels launched since, across every Xbox console generation.

Is Forza Motorsport gone for good? In October, Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer offered this comment to Famitsu on the franchise’s status, which seems to suggest that while not fully scrapped, it’s at least currently parked with the engine off.

“As for Forza Motorsport, we sometimes have to shift our focus to games that will be released earlier,” Spencer said. “And I also understand that many people reacted when the scale of Turn 10 Studios was reduced. As far as we are concerned, there are many games that we would like to support carefully, and sometimes we give the development team a little more time so that they do not continue to be in a state of tension.”

“Forza Motorsport is brimming with new features across the board, from its muscular new multiplayer to its much-improved handling, but its new RPG-inspired upgrade system feels like a step down,” IGN wrote in our Forza Motorsport review, handing the game an 8/10.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The team behind the reimagining of the original Lara Croft adventure, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, have opened up on how they’re approaching the 1996 game’s difficulty and instakills, acknowledging it will have to be adjusted for “modern player tastes.”

Speaking at a press event and captured by GamesRadar+, Crystal Dynamics’ game director Will Kerslake said: “part of reimagining a game right is adjusting that game evolving for modern player tastes.”

He also hinted at what kind of gameplay we can expect to see, insisting “it is core to the Tomb Raider experience that there are puzzles in combat and traversal and death-defying action.” However, Kerslake stressed that the things we remember from the original game will remain, adding: “you’ll see big rolling balls, and you know, the things that you expect in a Tomb Raider game are going to be there in spades.”

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is due out at some point in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. Alix Wilton Regan will now play Lara Croft in both Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and 2027’s Tomb Raider: Catalyst, with Camilla Luddington, who portrayed Lara Croft in the Survivor Trilogy, issuing a heartfelt goodbye to the character this week.

Meanwhile, some Tomb Raider fans are bracing themselves for retcons, given the need to fit both Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst in a new, unified Tomb Raider timeline. There’s also the upcoming Amazon TV show to consider. The live-action Tomb Raider Prime Video series, which will star Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner, will “reinvent the franchise on a massive scale” and interconnect “live-action television series and video games into a unified storytelling universe.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.