GTA 6 digital pre-load opens tomorrow, 10 November, at midnight local time on PS5 and 12 a.m. GMT on Xbox Series X|S, with the download at up to 212 GB; our pre-load page has the dates. Take-Two reports its second quarter tonight, with the call at 9:30 p.m. UTC. Before either, the week’s news: a German education provider sold out a three-day course that lets employees take paid leave over launch week, Reuters reported a $25 billion approach for Unity by Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Mass Effect’s voice cast fronted a campaign video on N7 Day, Epic published a drop rate of 1 in 137,500, and Alinea Analytics ranked God of War Ragnarök the PS5 generation’s top earner at $1.4 billion.
A €119 course gives German employees three days of paid leave over GTA 6’s launch
Dein Bildungsurlaub, a Berlin-registered provider of educational leave courses, is running Open World Games from 18 to 20 November, six teaching hours a day online, for €119. Because the course is certified for Bildungsurlaub, Germany’s statutory educational leave, employees in 12 of the 16 federal states can attend on paid leave; Bavaria, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have no such scheme, and Baden-Württemberg does not accept online courses. The provider’s page lists the course as sold out; secondary reports put the places at 60. The conditions are full attendance, research tasks and screenshots uploaded to a shared board, and a certificate of participation for the employer that is withdrawn if the tasks are not completed. Participants bring their own licensed copy of GTA V; GTA VI is listed as optional, “subject to availability”. Launch day, 19 November, is the course’s second day.
Zelnick on the delay, and on the Borderlands film
Strauss Zelnick told the Wall Street Journal on 5 November that he does not regret the delay to 19 November, saying “there was a very high profile release that fell into this category” of shipping unfinished and being pulled; he did not name it, PC Gamer reports. In the same interview, asked whether Take-Two relies on one hit, he answered that “we have 15 franchises that have each sold at least five million units” and told the interviewer to “examine the facts”. Separately, at a Business Insider Live event reported by GameSpot on 6 November, he said of the 2024 Borderlands film, which took about $33 million worldwide, “We failed”, adding that Lionsgate funded it and Take-Two lost no money.
Silver Lake and the PIF approach Unity at about $25 billion
Reuters reported on 5 November that Silver Lake, which holds about 8% of Unity Software, and the Public Investment Fund have approached Unity about a buyout at a valuation of about $25 billion, against a market value of $21.5 billion, Kotaku and PC Gamer report. Talks are continuing and there is no agreement; neither Unity nor the funds have commented. The same two investors, with Affinity Partners, completed the $55 billion purchase of EA this summer, and a Silver Lake partner sits on Unity’s board. Unity’s engine runs a large share of mobile and independent games, so the Rumour Ledger logs this on Friday at Likely, on Reuters’ sourcing.
Mass Effect’s cast fronts the Save Mass Effect campaign on N7 Day
On 7 November, N7 Day, the We Are Mass Effect campaign posted a video featuring most of the original trilogy’s voice cast, including Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer as Shepard, Ash Sroka as Tali and Courtenay Taylor as Jack, closing on “We’re going to save Mass Effect”, Destructoid reports. The day before, the campaign sent a mobile billboard carrying SaveMassEffect.com around EA’s Redwood City headquarters, and it plans another at The Game Awards in December, per Windows Central. The Change.org petition passed 300,000 signatures, up from the 260,000 we reported on 28 October. In Canada, House of Commons e-petition e-7989, sponsored by NDP MP Don Davies, asks the government to fund BioWare’s return as an independent Canadian company; it has passed the 500 signatures that force a government response within 45 days of presentation, and is open until 4 March 2027, PC Gamer reports. A documentary, Massive Effect: The BioWare Story, by Shane Fennessey and Adam Scorgie, was announced for 2027 with Casey Hudson and John Riccitiello among the interviewees. EA closed BioWare on 21 October.
Fortnite’s Pirate Shop token drops 1 in 137,500 times per chest
Epic published the odds on 7 November through its Fortnite Status account after a week of players, led by streamers Jynxzi and Stable Ronaldo, demanding them under #ReleaseTheOdds: Pirate Shop Access, which lets a player claim Item Shop cosmetics free for 14 days, has a 1 in 137,500 chance per chest in a normal match, with a 1.5x or 2x multiplier in scheduled Treasure Hours, Dexerto and Vice report.
God of War Ragnarök is the PS5 generation’s top earner at $1.4 billion, Alinea estimates
Alinea Analytics’ list of 6 November, covering PlayStation, Steam and Xbox since the PS5 launched: God of War Ragnarök $1.4 billion and 21.6 million copies; Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 $1.3 billion and 19.1 million; Gran Turismo 7 $841.9 million; Helldivers 2 $786.3 million and 23 million copies, two thirds of them on Steam; Horizon Forbidden West $485.8 million; Ghost of Yōtei $410.1 million and 5.5 million; The Last of Us Part I $341.3 million; Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart $334.9 million; Stellar Blade $316.9 million; Astro Bot $292.6 million. Alinea calls these its estimates and gives no method. Ragnarök is $29.39 in the PlayStation Store’s Black Friday sale until 20 November.