Ocarina Of Time Remake Isn't GTA 6's Biggest Rival, Says Activision Exec

Activision Exec Says GTA 6 And MW4 Are 2026's Biggest Games, Not Zelda Published Oct 15, 2026, 11:01 AM EDT James Lucas is an Executive Editor at TheGamer who has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. An expert on FPS games, Soulslikes, RPGs, and survival horror, James has intimate knowledge of a wide variety of titles, providing in-depth coverage and exclusive profiles. Some of the games they have extensively covered include: Half-Life 3, Counter-Strike, Elden Ring, and Fallout. They pride themselves on their consistently thorough research, leveraging nearly a decade of industry experience. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Nintendo is taking a gamble and launching the Ocarina of Time remake in November, a month that pretty much every studio has left wide open for Rockstar to avoid getting completely dwarfed by Grand Theft Auto 6. In fairness, though, GTA 6 won't arrive on Switch 2 at launch, so there's not much crossover. Still, that positions the two games as November's heavy-hitters, with Zelda shaping up to be one of the biggest games of the year, even if the gap between it and the newest Grand Theft Auto is a Grand Canyon wide. The Game Business editor Chris Dring even compared GTA 6 and Ocarina of Time to Barbenheimer in an interview with Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl (though I'd argue it's more Doom Crossing), suggesting that both games will be the system sellers this year. Bahl disagreed, arguing that GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4 are shaping up to be the year's biggest releases, not Zelda. "Well, no offense to Zelda, but I think, you know, [GTA 6 and Modern Warfare 4] are the two biggest games of the year," he said. "And I think in a lot of ways, more people coming in to the dashboards, more people taking the dust off their Xbox or PlayStation and starting to play again, and loading up that experience is going to be more eyeballs for us, overall. And then I think at the end of the day, what makes Call of Duty the last test of time, I think, is the community and social experience. The idea of being able to play with your friends." Activision Suggests GTA 6 Might Drive Players To Modern Warfare 4 Unlike GTA 6, however, Modern Warfare 4 is launching day-and-date on Nintendo Switch 2. And this isn't one of those alternate DS versions like in the good old days, either. It'll be competing on the same platform as Ocarina of Time with complete parity, giving Nintendo players access to the same game as those on PlayStation, PC, and Xbox. Considering that Call of Duty typically ranks as the year's best-selling game, it's hardly a stretch to suggest it'll outperform Zelda, a single-system exclusive. The big difference this year is that Call of Duty has far more to prove after the disappointing reception to both Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 7, compounded by the AI controversy that Activision appears completely unwilling to back down from. Then there's the steep competition, which, as we saw last year with Battlefield 6 and even Borderlands 4, is likely to draw eyes away from Call of Duty. For all his confidence in Call of Duty's staying power, even Bahl can't say for certain how it'll fare against GTA 6. "We'll see how it plays out," he said. "We might actually see a slight uptick. It might go the other way of, 'Hey, I can take a little of this and I can also play a little of that' and stuff, so we'll see."