Huge thanks to Ukie for putting together a strong conference, and to Nick Poole OBE, Bhavina Jennings, Sam Collins, and the whole team for making it happen!
#UkieConference #ukgames #gamesindustry #games @ukieofficial.bsky.social
• A reality check on the adoption of AI in game development
I’ve had a great response from attendees who connected with me afterwards, and it was affirming to hear my presentation points echoed in the afternoon panels.
Alongside sharing some top-level market context, I focused on three topical themes backed by research from the Omdia games team:
• The “content crush”: growing oversaturation of games across platforms
• The impact of memory and storage price surges on games hardware and software
📊🎮 It was a privilege to present at the inaugural Ukie Conference 2026!
The event brought together leaders from across the UK games industry for a day of discussion on where it goes next – from regulation and funding, to emerging tech and evolving business models.
🧵👇
And finally, 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 will become far more visible from 2026 onwards. Consumer backlash hasn’t materialised, but within the industry the debate is only intensifying – particularly around jobs, workflows, and creative ownership.
AI-driven demand for memory and data centre capacity will 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘂𝗽 and increase the cost of running live games. This will be one of the biggest challenges that the whole industry will have to contend with next year.
𝗚𝗧𝗔 𝗩𝗜, now expected in late 2026, will be the biggest game launch ever (as long as it lands on schedule! 👀). It’ll lift hardware sales, but most publishers will be hoping to stay well clear of its launch window (AKA "The Blast Zone").
Regulation around 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 is tightening; from the UK’s Online Safety Act to Australia’s under-16 social media ban, this is a trend that will increasingly shape game design, platforms, and monetisation.
We’re deep into what Omdia calls the “𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵", as games release volumes keep rising across console, PC, and mobile – all while the player base grows slowly. Discovery and retention are now core challenges for studios of all sizes.
Mobile remains the engine of the industry, accounting for 60% of total spend, followed by console (23%) and PC (17%). Despite ongoing debate about the long-term relevance of 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀, the reality is 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆 for the foreseeable future, continuing to underpin high-end AAA game development
Global consumer spend on games hits $𝟭𝟵𝟬𝗯𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝘂𝗽 𝟭𝟬% 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿. That follows three fairly flat, post-pandemic years, but momentum is clearly back. 2026 is shaping up well too, with 9% growth to $207bn.
📽️ A nice way to bookend the year – talking to CNBC International about where the games industry stands in 2025, and what's ahead. 🦌👇
🔗 Video: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...
Highlights from the conversation in 🧵
Was just putting a chart together for a post, and then saw this post. Thought I'd extrapolate Nov 2025 figures out to end of the decade. Kind of... disappointing, even with that crazy assumption!!!! Just shy of 10m cumulative by end of 2030 💀. Who knew, hardware is hard 🤔
Sadly, beyond that enthusiast audience, the broader story won't change: VR’s penetration within the Steam ecosystem will remain similar, as the Frame strengthens the high-end niche rather than meaningfully expanding the market.
Overall, it's a very encouraging news for VR fans: Valve clearly sees value in the platform, and it brings innovative features around its form factor, wireless streaming, and ARM-based SteamOS enabling standalone play of PCVR content.
It underlines that there’s a loyal group of PCVR players, who stuck with the Index all these years. This is the core audience for the Steam Frame, who'll be looking to upgrade from the aging Index hardware.
PC-first VR still has a committed audience, as evidenced by Valve Index enjoying disproportionally high usage share on Steam, currently at 14%.
While this decline may partly reflect Steam’s user base growing faster than VR adoption, it also highlights that VR isn’t gaining meaningful traction among the most dedicated gamers.
What really stands out in the Steam Hardware Survey data is how little VR usage on Steam has changed over the past six years, which has hovered around 1.9%. It's currently at 1.6%, down from an average of 2.1% in 2021.
🥽 The Steam Frame will be welcomed by the PCVR community that’s felt sidelined by Meta, but will it unlock a new audience? (no) 🧵👇
#valve #steam #steamframe #vr #xr
For those of you who have played these two games, what are your thoughts? Do you agree with me, or do I just need to "get gud"? 🤔
#Silksong #Hades2 #videogames
On the other hand, Silksong increasingly left me feeling more frustrated than fulfilled. I would die frequently, seemingly due to random/unintentional factors - thus blaming the game.
I think Hades 2 gave AGENCY to me as a player, whereas playing Silksong felt punishing, rather than challenging.
These kind of games normally don't appeal to me, but their predecessors, Hollow Knight and Hades were rare exceptions.
Hades 2 has kept me engaged with a sense of control and progression: when it came to deaths, I blamed my own lack of skills/knowledge, and not the game/enemies themselves.
Silksong and Hades 2 were two of my most anticipated games this year. Sadly, one of them has disappointed me...
Yes, one is a metroidvania and other is a roguelike, but both games revolve around challenging, repetitive gameplay - with the games expecting you to die... a lot.
🧵👇
Perhaps people think this is British Petroleum -> BP type situation? (But yeah, to your point, I do see how this could have been communicated better)
🫠
🫠
Back in February 2019, when I thought #Silksong was just around the corner 🤣
Every mode and map, big or small, just felt like Call of Duty, in the worst possible way 🥲 I'm not the target demographic for these types of FPS games to begin with, but the slight 'tactical' elements of Battlefield 1 for example really appealed to me.
