Rockstar owner Take-Two has confirmed the current November 19 GTA 6 release date is still on track, and insisted the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look will help grow “consumers’ passion and anticipation" for the game.
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Reporting what it called “excellent” results for the first quarter of its 2027 financial year, Take-Two said the Grand Theft Auto series had “once again exceeded expectations,” with sales of GTA 5 over 230 million worldwide and 3% growth of the series overall in terms of microtransactions. GTA 5 is the second best-selling video game of all time, behind only Minecraft’s 400 million copies sold.
In its financial statement, Take-Two said “global excitement for the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 continues to build, with the title having an exceptional start to preorders.” It did not put a number on those GTA 6 preorders or revenue generated from them, however recent analysis suggests GTA 6 generated approximately $180 million in digital preorders across the U.S. and the five biggest European markets during the last week of June (GTA 6 preorders went live at midnight, June 25). Net bookings for the quarter amounted to $1.39 billion, which was slightly above Take-Two's prediction of $1.32-$1.37 billion.
Take-Two did touch briefly on yesterday’s confirmation that the next official look at GTA 6 will come via what’s called the ‘Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look,’ which will be exclusive to Netflix for six hours.
“With Rockstar Games’ recent announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look coming on August 27th, we believe that consumers’ passion and anticipation for the next evolution of this iconic series will grow further leading up to the title’s November 19th release,” Take-Two said.
The other significant contribution to Take-Two’s Q1 financials was NBA 2K, which grew 7% in terms of Recurrent Consumer Spending (RCS) — in other words, microtransactions. NBA 2K26’s performance was “outstanding and concluded a record year for the franchise,” Take-Two added. To date, the title has sold-in over 12 million units, reflecting 9% growth compared to NBA 2K25.
“The achievements of this year’s iteration of the series are a testament to Visual Concepts’ ability continually to deliver new, innovative ways for fans to stay engaged, and our live-service execution remains a cornerstone of NBA 2K's sustained success,” Take-Two said. NBA 2K27 is due out this September.
Take-Two also mentioned 2K’s support of Borderlands 4, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, and WWE 2K26 “with an array of new offerings, which enhanced player engagement and sentiment.” There are no firm numbers for these games.
Looking ahead, all eyes are on GTA 6, as you’d expect. Take-Two said it believes the current financial year will be an “inflection point” for the company, “one that will write an exciting new chapter in our history and provide the foundation for new levels of success and the creation of groundbreaking entertainment experiences.”
It reiterated its net bookings prediction for the year ($8-$8.2 billion), which represents approximately 20% growth over FY26 at the midpoint (GTA 6 will fuel most of that enormous growth). Take-Two said it expects revenue breakdown by its labels to be roughly 37% Rockstar Games, 34% Zynga, and 29% 2K. Other games without a release date include PGA Tour 2K27, WWE 2K27, Judas, Project Ethos, and the next BioShock.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].%!s()
Shueisha aims to translate over one million pages of manga into 100 languages
Shueisha's massive Manga Million translation project is off to a great start despite controversies
Image: Shueisha
Last Thursday, the world of manga was shaken by the launch of a new global initiative from Shueisha, the publisher behind popular series such as One Piece, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and more. Manga Million is a new digital repository that makes over one million pages of Shueisha manga available in 100 languages. Launched to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary, Manga Million is available worldwide except in Japan.
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Details about this ambitious project have been revealed in a special one-shot chapter of the manga Onwards! The Expendable Expedition by Takeshi Sakurai. The manga, which has never been translated into English before, made its first appearance on Manga Plus, Shueisha's digital reading app for international readers. In the one-shot, the author appears alongside a group of Shueisha editors to explain the Manga Million initiative.
The project has been in development for five years, and it aims to make Shueisha's manga known all over the world, including countries that never received official translations into their languages. Manga Million launched with 400 series, with more to be added in the future. The huge volume of material to be translated meant that a lot of hard work was necessary to make this possible; as one of the editors says in the one-shot, what started as "an extremely extravagant plan" turned out to be "an endlessly boring data management project."
Still, immediately after its launch, Manga Million was saddled with controversy. On social media, some accounts pointed out that Flitto Japan, one of the seven translation companies used for the project, describes itself as "a leader in AI translation solutions." However, Flitto also advertises professional translations made by humans, so the claims about AI use remain unsubstantiated at the moment. Other fans are pointing out discrepancies in the translation credits for some series, but this could have nothing to do with AI. In the Onwards! one-shot, the editors clearly state that no AI translations were used for the project, and that the entire process was subject to ""a meticulous check system."
Focusing on the most exciting parts of the announcement instead, many series are getting their first-ever English translation thanks to Manga Million, including TochiKame: Tokyo Beat Cops, the third-longest running manga in history. Fans outside of the U.S. can now finally read manga that are missing from Manga Plus and were previously only available through the Shonen Jump Plus app, such as Kingdom.
However, keep in mind that not all volumes of the series are available. This varies by manga: One Piece has its first 12 volumes available, translated into 102 languages (because One Piece doesn't care about rules!), while series like Haikyu!! and Oshi no Ko got their first five volumes translated into 20 languages. Also, while Manga Million is completely free, the project will last until the end of 2027. It's unclear if the platform will disappear after that or, more likely, if it will simply require a subscription to access.
Manga Million is giving fans all over the world a chance to read their favorite manga in their native language for the first time, and even bringing outside of Japan some series that have been popular for a long time but never got an English translation. Let's hope that Shueisha will address the questions about AI soon, and that the platform will receive frequent updates to make even more chapters and volumes available for reading.
Firefighters conduct works to extinguish wildfires in Agia Paraskevi, West Attica, Greece on August 1, 2026.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
As wildfires, heatwaves, and extreme weather are becoming a permanent feature of European summers, insurers warn that the region faces a growing "protection gap" as disaster recovery costs outpace insurance coverage.
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A gigantic wildfire ravaging parts of France and Spain began in July and has destroyed over 300,000 acres of land, in what's been described as a "clap of thunder" for the local economies. More recently, Greece saw a wildfire outbreak worsened by 100 km per hour winds.
To top it off, the region has seen several heatwaves over the summer that have prompted red alerts, threat-to-life warnings, and droughts, as temperatures have regularly exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some of Europe's biggest insurance companies told CNBC this week that the region isn't adequately prepared to deal with the risks of wildfires and weather disasters, leaving a substantial share of financial damage uninsured.
Zurich Insurance Group's CEO Mario Greco said all weather risks are insurable, but it is becoming increasingly expensive to deal with the costs.
"We have a lot of experience from the U.S. and Australia that wildfires can be prevented, can be mitigated, but they require systemic intervention, which often countries, local jurisdictions, governments-they're not ready to do because they don't really visualize, they don't feel the risk yet, but the risk is there," Greco said in an interview with CNBC's Carolin Roth on "Squawk Box Europe," on Thursday.
Extreme weather can drag on the fiscal budget of countries, as costs related to cooling, healthcare, emergency infrastructure, transportation, and agriculture can weigh on the wider economy.
Additionally, Insurance companies paid out $56.3 billion in losses for wildfires in the 2010s, six times more than the $8.7 billion they paid in the 2000s, a report from Allianz Commercial noted in June. The sectors hardest hit include utility and energy, real estate, construction, agriculture, and transportation.
Protection gap
The devastating Los Angeles wildfires in January last year highlighted the destruction of assets of some of America's wealthiest residents, costing insurance firms Munich Re and Hannover Re a combined $1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2025.
According to the Swiss Re Institute, the LA wildfires were the costliest wildfire event globally, amounting to insured losses of $40 billion and driving total natural catastrophe insured losses for 2025 up to an expected $107 billion.
The total cost of wildfires and heatwaves up to the end of July cost around 3.1 billion euros ($3.5 billion), for five Eurozone countries most exposed to the fires, including Greece, Spain, Portugal and Romania, according to calculations by the Financial Times. That's above an average estimate of a 2.5 billion euro annual impact for the whole of the EU.
In comparison to the U.S., much of Europe's wealth remains uninsured against natural catastrophes, said Swiss Re's Chief Financial Officer Anders Malmström.
"There is still a protection gap, particularly in Europe, which means there's a lot of wealth here, but it's not protected through insurance. But it always starts with assessing the risk, then mitigating the risk, and then you can price the risk and make sure that insurance covers the residual risk here," Malmström said on "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday.
He added that the risk exposure has only increased as more wealth has accumulated in these exposed areas, and the houses have become more expensive.
"So you have this combination of both, more events with a higher kind of impact. At the same time, you have more that you need to protect in these areas, and that together increases the risk overall for society," Malmström said.
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Zurich Insurance's Greco said his company continues to talk to countries and local jurisdictions to make them aware of the risks, including setting up a unit called Resilient Solutions, which helps customers to create prevention and mitigation solutions for everyday problems from cybersecurity to climate change.
As Europe faces increasingly extreme weather, the insurance industry will play its part in building resilience and backstopping countries, Munich Re's Chief Financial Officer Andrew Buchanan added.
"There's a human and societal aspect to all of this," he said, adding that insurers can help liquidity to flow in times of distress when people and businesses are facing the most difficult moments in their lives.
Both Zurich Insurance and Munich Re said their companies have limited exposure to the European wildfires. %!s()
Yep, it really was that long ago. Classic FPS Quake turned 30 years old as of late June and to mark the occasion its 2021 enhanced version has gotten a free expansion dubbed Dawn of the Machine. Developed by both Id Software and MachineGames, it's all about hunting down a Nightmare Machine across new levels stocked with fresh enemies and weapons.
"Ranger is trapped in a dimension of endless illusion—reliving the same violent cycles for what feels like lifetimes, dying thousands of times in a futile attempt to escape. Wearied but unbroken, he has heard rumor of The Nightmare Machine," Id and Machine wrote in the notes for the update, which was revealed at this year's QuakeCon. "Beyond the hordes of monsters—twisted by an eternity in the Elder realms—lies the Machine. It is believed its destruction will shatter the illusion, finally breaking the loop."
Dawn of the Machine adds 19 new maps as part of its campaign, with a fresh soundtrack and a new deathmatch map tagging along. In terms of the new enemies, you can expect "deadly new twists on familiar foes, including the Rocket Ogre, Demo Dog, Blood Shambler" with the potential to challenge your killing abilities by leaning into overwhelming you with fire or setting explosive traps. Weapons-wise, there's a Super Axe that shoots lightning and a Laser Cannon with ricocheting projectiles.
Id and Machine are pushing the new episodes' replayability, with hidden secrets to find and plenty of ways the action can be shaken up on a second or third run through a section. Beyond the extra levels, there's a vault of development art and assets from back in the day to browse, a new cheat menu, and a couple of tweaks to how localisation is handled which are relevant to modders.
As of right now, Dawn of the Machine's only available for Steam or Microsoft Store/Game Pass copies of 2021 Quake. "If you’re playing Quake on GOG or the Epic Games Store, you may see a 'Disconnected from servers' message when accepting an invitation from a Steam or console player for Dawn of the Machine episode or maps," Id warned, though the fact they went on to say "the GOG and Epic Games Store versions do not yet include this content" seems to suggest the update'll arrive on those iterations down the line.
Of course, this anniversary and update come as Id Software are in a tough place, having just lost a bunch of staff to Xbox's mass layoffs. Doom: The Dark Ages director Hugo Martin subsequently denied the studio have been "nerfed into the ground" and said that they'll share more about what they're now working on "when it is appropriate and approved". %!s()
The "Fine" Dining Podcast is a comedy show hosted by Michael Ornelas where every fast-food joint and casual chain restaurant is humorously compared to Chili's—the ultimate bar of American mediocrity. How do people find a show like this using the new discovery tools available today?
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Fine dining Podcast
"There’s nothing on TV," was, and for some still hooked to cable, a common refrain despite our 400-channel universe. Of course, on TV we were subject to "bundles" which force us to consider channels on topics we have no interest in.
Radio has dials, buttons or touchscreens. You go up the dials and back down for your music or other content. If you go to AM radio, you can listen to angry white men rant about wokeness, books that turn people gay, and the specter of socialism. On FM, you can listen to almost any genre of music and a bunch of ads.
Books have libraries, Amazon, and independent bookstores. Movies have theaters, streaming channels, and TV.
What about podcasts? How do people find podcasts? Since podcasting began in the early 2000s, the discovery channels have been standard yet limited. Before the advent of video podcasting, audio podcasters marketed their shows via podcast apps and websites that played their RSS feeds. For a long time, the prime real estate for podcast discovery was Apple’s iTunes, where new podcasts were allotted their own row for a week.
In this article, we will review and examine new avenues for podcast discovery and how those newer processes are impacting the podcasting industry.
Needle meet Haystack
When you ask indie podcasters how listeners and viewers find their excellent podcasts, they express righteous indignation.
As one indie podcaster explained, "It's so much worse than finding a needle in a haystack. It's more like finding one needle among 1,000 haystacks."
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Podcast networks have the funds, resources, and connections to advertise their new podcasts. iHeart, for example, lets listeners know a new podcast is being released, especially in a genre in which they've shown past interest.
iHeart has a sophisticated architecture in place to market their large slate of podcasts.
iHeart
It's good business that networks like iHeart advertise and market their podcasts. After all, the company has invested a significant amount of money to start and maintain the podcast. If it's a celebrity, then an expensive contract has already been sealed in legal blood.
For a decade, indie podcasters used social media, podcast marketing companies with modest budgets, and podcast review sites. It’s a difficult process trying to build an audience to a point that the podcast can: 1. cover its costs 2. make money for the indie podcaster 3. make so much money that the indie podcaster can quit their current job and do podcasting full-time.
New Research, New Avenues
Recent research from Sounds Profitable and JAR Podcast Solutions highlights how audiences find and listen to new shows. First, the study identified key discovery channels, such as YouTube, which the study found dominates as the leading single platform for finding and consuming podcasts.
There this is Social Media, and these accounts for a massive share of organic recommendations, especially through content shared by followed accounts. Finally, there is still Word of Mouth, which constitutes traditional recommendations from friends, family, and colleagues remain a powerful driver when people act on suggestions.
What's interesting in this graph is that not all social media has the same impact on podcast discovery. Facebook, for all its lack of trust on accuracy, stills scores high as a legitimate discovery method.
Sounds Profitable
Podcast discovery is dominated by YouTube and social media, with YouTube alone accounting for 40% of show discoveries. Together, YouTube and social platforms drive 61% of how listeners find new audio programs
Social media, and podcast feeds (especially Apple) help listeners locate podcasts via a genre list, and legacy media are now much more likely to have a podcast review section.
This graph, which reveals where consumers look for their next podcast, is remarkably similar to the first graph, although podcast host recommendations trended much higher.
Sounds Profitable
The research also found that discovery is increasingly driven by organic content rather than paid promotion. Among listeners who discovered a favorite podcast through social media, 60% found it through content shared by someone they follow, compared to 33% who discovered it through sponsored content.
“Podcasting has spent years optimizing for podcast apps while audience behavior has been shifting elsewhere,” said Tom Webster, Partner at Sounds Profitable. “What this research makes clear is that discovery is happening where people already spend their time. YouTube, social feeds, search, and personal recommendations have become the front door to podcasting. If you’re relying primarily on trailers, chart positions, or cross-promotion within podcast apps, you’re missing where most new listeners are actually entering the medium.”
The study revealed that podcast discovery was a monthly habit. Because of the sheer number of podcasts available, consumers always have that feeling of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
Sounds Profitable
One area where this study can help indie podcasters, who produce the bulk of the limited-series, usually narrative, podcasts, is for these independent creators to have a new podcast option ready to go, or to recommend, as their current limited series is ending.
Suspicious Minds investigates issues around AI-fueled delusions, and aims to understand where it fits into humanity’s history of delusional thinking.
Suspicious Minds
For example, a show such as Suspicious Minds asks key questions about AI. Are we delusional for trusting AI technology? Or has AI already warped our thinking patterns? The podcast documentary was made by Agoric Media and Wondermind, and, given this new data, perhaps these two companies should have another limited-series podcast ready to go.
The study also revealed significant differences between discovery channels, demonstrating that platforms function not only as distribution channels but also as audience segments.
These findings include TikTok discovery is nearly seven times more common among listeners ages 18–34 than among those 55 and older. Spotify-discovered listeners represent one of podcasting’s most engaged and brand-responsive audiences, with 61% listening weekly. Apple Podcasts browsing remains a key discovery mechanism among affluent, audio-first listeners, particularly in news and technology categories. TikTok-discovered audiences are among the youngest and most diverse listener groups.
Host recommendations continue to deliver highly engaged “super-fan” audiences, despite representing a smaller share of overall discovery. The report also revealed the powerful role that personal recommendations continue to play in podcasting. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of podcast listeners receive recommendations from friends, family members, or colleagues, while 72% say they are likely to act on those recommendations.
“Discovery isn’t one challenge anymore, it’s many different challenges depending on who you’re trying to reach,” said Roger Nairn, Co-Founder and CEO of JAR Podcast Solutions. “What excites us about these findings is that they give brands and creators a much clearer roadmap. The audience discovering podcasts on TikTok behaves differently than the audience discovering them through Apple Podcasts, YouTube search, or host recommendations. Understanding those differences allows marketers to build smarter strategies and invest in the channels that actually align with their goals.”
For advertisers, the study found that listeners are increasingly receptive to branded podcast content. Brand-produced podcasts generated a 27-point net lift in trial intent overall, with significantly higher performance among highly engaged podcast audiences.
The full report explores how discovery channels shape audience behavior, which platforms deliver scale versus engagement, and what publishers, creators, and brands should prioritize when launching and growing podcasts in today’s fragmented media environment.
Are there podcast couch potatoes?
Recent industry studies and data reports from firms like Amplifi Media, Edison Research, Signal Hill Insights, and YouTube show that smart TVs have rapidly emerged as a primary screen for watching podcasts, transforming the living room into a major hub for video podcast consumption.
How does this trend relate t0 podcast discovery?
“Cable and broadcast TV have always been successful at promoting their own shows on TV, “ says digital media expert Carl Wickensham. ”People now watching podcasts on smart TVs are very accustomed to receiving recommendations on other podcasts to watch."
According to DigiDay, Amplifi Media, viewers in 2025 watched over 400 million hours of podcasts per month on YouTube’s TV app, according to a February YouTube blog post. Those figures continue to track upwards in 2025, individual podcasters and podcast production companies anecdotally told Digiday.
Pocket Casts has over 1.5 million active users every month, according to official data shared by its parent company Automattic. The platform also accounts for roughly 1.5% to 3% of total global podcast app market share and streams over 10 million hours of listening content every week.
Pocket Casts
In another interesting announcement that happened last week, Pocket Casts reported that it would be on Apple TV. A presence on Android TV is coming soon, the company also announced in a press release.
In its press release, Pocket Casts said, “Your podcasts, your Up Next, your place in every episode, right on the screen in front of you. Start something on your phone at the bus stop. Finish it on the couch that night, exactly where you left it. Nothing to re-find. Nothing to sync by hand.”
A new landscape?
The report from Sounds Profitable and JAR Podcast Solutions posits why “podcasting” is no longer one channel, one behavior, or one creative format, and why that single shift reorders almost everything about how a podcast is launched and then marketed.
“Everything we thought we knew on podcast discovery has been thrown into flux,” notes digital media expert Carl Wickensham. “It isn’t simply the advent of video podcasting and inclusion, or intrusion, of YouTube, it’s the evolution of formats such as social media clips.”
According to Command Your Brand, short-form video clips are essential for modern podcast marketing, acting as a primary discovery engine on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. They capture attention with visual and auditory hooks, build personal connection through human emotion, and drive long-term brand growth.
Social platforms favor short, vertical video formats, giving your content much higher organic reach than text or static images. A 15-to-60-second clip bypasses the friction of asking someone to commit to a full one-hour episode. Clips account for a large percentage of new listener discovery, acting as the front door to your broader ecosystem. Higher follower counts and active social engagement attract major brand sponsors, even if a viewer consumes clips rather than full episodes.
We began this article discussing the relative stability of podcast marketing since its inception. Then, we reviewed several studies on the impact of new tools for podcast discovery, such as YouTube and smart TVs.
There is no doubt that the large podcast networks are embracing the new methods. What we cannot forget is the impact these new discovery tools will have on independent podcasters, who do not have the resources of these corporate giants.
However, the battle is not lost. Independent, often niche, podcasts have their specialized set of skills, as Liam Nesson might say. Rather than competing for mass audiences, specialized shows build deeply loyal communities, yield higher listener intent, and attract targeted monetization that broad shows miss. Moreover, listeners of targeted shows report stronger personal connections and trust the host’s recommendations more than general listeners do.
According to Cue Productions, niche podcasts have smaller, focused audiences are often actively trying to solve specific problems, making their attention more valuable to precise advertisers. Listeners of these niche podcasts report stronger personal connections and trust the host’s recommendations more than general listeners do.
Despite all the latest methods for podcast discovery, I personally still use the old-fashioned method. I ask people who listen to a lot of podcasts. In fact, I’ve been given podcast recommendations by Wil Williams and Devin Andrade for several years, and they have yet to be wrong. %!s()
Image: Shueisha
