Mat Piscatella, who you may know as the current Executive Director and industry analyst at Circana, took to Bluesky recently to talk about what he thinks is the biggest competitor facing the industry. He also held positions at Activision and Warner Bros., so you know he knows what he's talking about.
There has recently been some thought that Xbox Game Pass is an "unsustainable model" and is doing more harm than good to the industry as a whole. In a thread on BlueSky, Mat replies to a user questioning whether Xbox Game Pass is bad for the industry, and whether subscriptions and free-to-play games are causing harm.
Turns out, he thinks Fortnite - along with Minecraft and Roblox - are a much bigger threat than anything a subscription service can do. He notes that "US video game subscription spending reached an all-time monthly high in May 2025 ($0.6B)", after consecutive months of growth.
"Looks to me that the pressures of higher prices in everyday spending categories like food and general economic uncertainty [have] folks looking for value." This is a very valid point, as most people are feeling the pinch with rising costs of… Well, everything. It leaves a lot less expendable cash to drop on that new $65 RPG you might like, and instead spend $9.99 for a whole library of games.
He goes on to say that "the top ten live service games [are] sucking nearly half of all gaming hours from the PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems before any other game can even get a taste… In every presentation I give I will at some point say 'the biggest competitor to any new game or service is Fortnite'".
As both a gamer and someone working in the industry, it's an odd place to be in. Do I want worthwhile subscriptions that allow me to test more games? Absolutely, but I also enjoy purchasing a single copy of a game that I own. Plus, with more live-service games popping up, it brings in the possibility of games ending service and disappearing. The recent Stop Killing Games campaign in the UK is actively advocating to stop this, and I recommend checking it out.
Who knows where the future of games is going, and whether live-service games like Fortnite or gacha games will be the norm, or if we'll pivot back to buying physical media to keep a record of the games we own.