It’s been a year since the announcement of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. Throughout this time, Unfrozen has actively promoted the game using various channels and tools. We examined the studio’s marketing approach and successful communication strategies that positively influence interest in the game.| App2Top
The analytical company Niko Partners forecasts that the year 2025 will be extremely successful for the Chinese gaming market. According to their calculations, residents of China will spend $50.7 billion on games over the year — $1.5 billion more than in 2024.| App2Top
Another union has been established at Blizzard Entertainment. This time, it was formed by specialists working on the Diablo series of games.| App2Top
A month ago, the Swedish holding company Thunderful Group reported that its affairs were not going well, with bankruptcy looming on the horizon. In an attempt to save itself, one of its measures was to sell a majority stake in the company — 81.7% — to Atari. However, to make the deal happen, it first needed the support of existing shareholders, which it now has.| App2Top
The companies Xsolla and Futura Digital have announced a free webinar for mobile developers and publishers. The discussion will focus on the impact of the Epic Games conflict with Apple on working with iOS applications. The situation will be examined from two perspectives—legal and business.| App2Top
On the evening of August 28, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was officially released on PCs and consoles — the game was available to Deluxe Edition holders two days earlier. According to SteamDB, within a few hours, the peak online count for the remake on Steam reached 19,634 players.| App2Top
The Polish corporate group CD PROJEKT released its financial report for January-June 2025. They announced that their revenue reached 443 million zlotys (121.1 million USD), which is 4% more than the previous year. The main source of income was Cyberpunk 2077.| App2Top
Moving forward with our study of what’s happening in Russia’s web games market. This time featuring platforms like Yandex Games, VK, and Pikabu Games.| App2Top
Valve’s Business Development Manager Erik Peterson spoke at the Devcom developers conference held during Gamescom 2025. He revealed some fresh data about the Steam store.| App2Top
Continuing our column “Developer/Publisher Wanted,” where indie teams share about themselves and their projects. Next up is the Eternal Troops Team, which is creating an original isometric shooter set during World War I.| App2Top
The analytical company VG Insights shared its data on the audience of the Chinese Soulslike Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.| App2Top
Colombia is another country that has initiated an antitrust investigation against Apple due to its App Store policies. The local regulator suspects that the corporation has violated free trade principles.| App2Top
The studio Crystal Dynamics announced a new round of layoffs on LinkedIn. This time, they did not disclose the number of affected employees.| App2Top
Let’s explore together with Xsolla what direct sales are, how the mobile gaming market has arrived at this point now, and why they demand adaptation from both developers and users.| App2Top
Many learned about PlayStack after the phenomenal success of Balatro, although the company has been around for nearly 10 years. Since 2019, the publisher’s revenue has increased 40-fold, and its unique approach to project searching has helped amass an impressive catalog. This and more about PlayStack’s business is covered in today’s article.| App2Top
Analyst Mat Piscatella from Circana released his monthly report on the state of the U.S. gaming market. We’ve highlighted the key figures.| App2Top
In the summer of 2023, a group of former developers from Fallout 76, Doom, and Star Wars: The Old Republic launched a new studio under the wing of NetEase, called T-Minus Zero Entertainment. Two years later, they faced difficulties.| App2Top
The authorities in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward have initiated an unusual tax campaign. They announced that residents of Japan could receive a tax deduction in the form of in-game currency if they allocate part of their taxes to the ward’s budget.| App2Top
Over the last two decades, the turnover of Finland’s gaming industry has significantly increased, reports Neogames in a recent report. According to their estimates, in 2024 the figure amounted to a near-record €2.85 billion.| App2Top
Rec Room Studio, the developer behind the eponymous social sandbox reminiscent of Roblox, has announced significant layoffs. The company has decided to let go of nearly half of its staff—approximately 100 employees.| App2Top
Just over two weeks remain until the start of the gaming business conference WN Conference Cyprus’25, which will take place on September 11-12. Among other things, an indie game exhibition will be held, where developers will showcase their projects.| App2Top
Atari’s portfolio has expanded with more games. The company announced a deal with Ubisoft, resulting in its acquisition of intellectual property rights related to five projects.| App2Top
The team at Klukva Games, currently preparing for the release of the steampunk roguelike Dead Weight, shared in detail about how they gathered wishlists on social network X.| App2Top
The chart of the highest-grossing games on Steam for August 19-26 has been released. Below are the key changes compared to the previous week.| App2Top
The Google Corporation has decided to make Android safer. It announced that in the near future, all developers will be required to verify their identity, otherwise their applications will become unavailable for download.| App2Top
In July, Microsoft conducted mass layoffs, which also affected developers from King. The MobileGamer portal discovered that not all terminated King employees parted on good terms. At least some of the former employees have gathered to sue the company.| App2Top
Maxim Babichev, CBDO of PlayDeck, shared with App2Top which genres are in demand and what the main features of the platform are.| App2Top
The South Korean studio Epid Games recently applied to register the trademark “EPIDGames” in several countries outside of its homeland. Noticing this, Epic Games filed an objection with the registration authorities.| App2Top
A week ago, journalist and producer Geoff Keighley hosted Opening Night Live — a ceremony that kicked off the Gamescom 2025 gaming exhibition. The analytics company VG Insights reported which games mentioned at the event collected the most wishlists from August 18 to 23.| App2Top
The recruiting agency WN Talents conducted a survey of game studios regarding the hiring landscape. According to the responses, over half of the studios found it more challenging to approve hiring budgets over the past year. Marina Lopatina, the agency’s Business Development Director, provided more details to App2Top.| App2Top
This conclusion was reached by the analytical company Ampere Analysis. In their study, they examined the price tags of 150 games with the highest average monthly active user base* (MAU) on Steam from January 2024 to June 2025.| App2Top
Matej Lancaric, who previously led the marketing teams at Pixel Federation, BoomBit, and SuperScale, wrote an extensive article about the importance of prolonged soft launches for mobile games. He believes that projects without proper testing are at risk of failing upon release.| App2Top
The failure of individual games is an unavoidable part of business for large corporations like Sony, whose internal studios work on dozens of projects. Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, approaches this philosophically.| App2Top
I talked with Kesha about how he manages to single-handedly develop and promote an experimental project for Steam with the help of AI today.| App2Top
Roblox has surpassed Steam in peak concurrent users, Dreamhaven is facing significant challenges, and the creators of The Rogue Prince of Persia are urging not to release games in early access unless they are 90% complete. Here’s a rundown of the major events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.| app2top.com
In nearly 30 years in the gaming industry, Rod Fergusson has earned a reputation as the “fixer” of troubled projects—from the console version of Counter-Strike to Diablo IV. In light of his return to the BioShock franchise, we have gathered some striking quotes that reflect his philosophy and could serve as lessons for other game producers.| App2Top
The analytics company Newzoo has compiled the top-grossing and most popular PC and console games for July 2025. Take a look at what’s included.| App2Top
At the end of July, the strategy game The King is Watching was released on Steam and quickly achieved great results— it was purchased over 200,000 times in just two weeks. Vladimir Tolmachev and Arnaud Richard from tinyBuild discussed with GameDiscoverCo the factors that influenced the game’s sales.| App2Top
Static Dread: The Lighthouse is a lighthouse keeper simulator developed by the studio solarsuit.games, inspired by the stories of Howard Lovecraft. The game was released on Steam on August 6, 2025, and quickly recouped its costs.| App2Top
Gearbox Entertainment’s CEO Randy Pitchford forecasts strong sales for the next installment of Borderlands. He shared his insights in an interview with Insider Gaming at Gamescom 2025.| App2Top
Pete Parsons, the CEO of Bungie, the studio behind Destiny and Marathon, has left the company after over 20 years with the team.| App2Top
The topic of the latest episode of the monthly deconstruction show “What’s the Game?” was Blue Prince, a first-person quest with roguelite elements. This time, expert opinions were divided. It was intriguing to observe two completely opposing perspectives on the game design and other elements of a single project.| App2Top
In recent years, there has been a surge of activity in the web games market. This is true for Russia as well, where this segment has historically held a strong position. App2Top spoke to market experts Alexander Shchevelev, Eduard Kumykov, and Yan Yankelowitz about what drives developers’ interest in web games and how much one can earn from such games.| app2top.com
Frost Giant Studios CEO Tim Morten does not rule out the possibility of layoffs at his company due to the weak launch of the strategy game Stormgate.| App2Top
On August 19, 2025, Riot Games and Tencent released the mobile version of Valorant in China. According to Bloomberg, citing data from the Appfigures service, the game’s launch was successful.| App2Top
The service “Yookassa” conducted a survey about video games among Russian residents. It found that a significant portion of Russians prefers free-to-play games, and the most popular platform in the country is smartphones.| App2Top
The scandal surrounding the three dismissed executives of the studio Unknown Worlds, which is working on Subnautica 2, continues to unfold. The studio filed a lawsuit against them, presenting several allegations.| App2Top
Recently, it became known that there were layoffs at the Cloud Chamber studio, although the number of employees let go was not disclosed. Now, Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier has discovered the extent. According to his information, over 80 people lost their jobs.| app2top.com
In the 90s, ego and emotions buried Hasbro’s video game ambitions. Now, the company is transforming its business with a focus on producing its own titles and centralized management by Wizards of the Coast. Learn about the company’s new strategy and financial standing in our comprehensive article.| App2Top
Recently, G5 Entertainment shared its financial results for the second quarter of 2025, which spanned from April to June. Here’s what the report reveals.| App2Top
This was reported by the analytics company Sensor Tower, citing information from its subsidiary service VG Insights.| App2Top
Microsoft is spending tens of millions of dollars on promoting games. The analytics company Sensor Tower estimated that from January 1 to August 3, 2025, the corporation invested $44.2 million in game advertising in the United States alone — and this is only for projects on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam, excluding Nintendo Switch, mobile, and other platforms.| App2Top
Google, following Apple’s lead, has decided to update its store rules for developers distributing apps in European Union countries. The corporation announced these changes in an attempt to avoid fines for violating the Digital Markets Act.| App2Top
Continuing with our column “Developer/Publisher Wanted,” we share projects looking for investment, publishers, or promotional assistance. This time, we present a project from the Midnight Crew team. They are seeking a partner to help with the marketing of their visual novel, Cursed Memory.| App2Top
Former head of Striking Distance Studios, Glen Schofield, in an interview with The Game Business, shared that a poor reception at launch did not hinder the horror game The Callisto Protocol from eventually selling excellently.| App2Top
In less than a month, on September 11-12, the WN Conference Cyprus’25 will take place in Limassol. The preliminary program of the event has been announced. Here’s what’s in store.| App2Top
In the latest Steam top grossing products list, there are significant shifts. For the first time since early summer, the top spot did not go to Counter-Strike 2 — the game was overtaken by PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS.| App2Top
Alex Mochi is one of the creators of the economic strategy game Rise of Industry and the founder of Dapper Penguin Studios. Recently, he released a video on YouTube, where he talked about an unsuccessful partnership with Kalypso Media and the forced sale of the IP to avoid bankruptcy.| App2Top
On August 19, the Web Shop Arena kicked off, a competition-reality show for mobile free-to-play game developers. This is a comprehensive workshop where shortlisted teams gradually implement Xsolla’s Web Shop into their games under the guidance of experts. Winners will receive cash prizes — $50,000 for first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place.| App2Top
In the first half of 2025, Wargaming’s division in Lithuania paid 5.8 million euros in taxes to the country’s treasury, reports dev.by, citing data from the State Tax Inspectorate under the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance. This is slightly less than the previous year — approximately 160,000 euros less.| App2Top
The update that added a desert biome and a major discount have significantly boosted sales of the co-op climbing hit Peak, report analysts from Alinea Analytics.| App2Top
Valve has made changes to the rating system on Steam. Now, along with a unified rating based on all written reviews, separate ratings are also generated for different languages in the store.| App2Top
In mid-October, the next business conference “Game Industry” will open its doors in the capital of Russia. We are sharing the first details.| App2Top
The analytical company The Harris Poll reached this conclusion after conducting a study commissioned by Google. A total of 615 developers from the USA, South Korea, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, primarily working in large studios, participated in the survey.| App2Top
On June 12, the studio Flazm and publisher Polden Publishing released the railway economic puzzle game Train Valley Origins on Steam. According to Polden Publishing co-founder Kirill Oreshkin, “the game didn’t succeed at all.”| App2Top
This was announced by Marvelous in an official press release.| App2Top
An analyst has stated that the main competitor to GTA VI will be GTA V, animal rights activists have urged Nintendo to remove the nose ring from the Cow in Mario Kart World, and the creators of Sword of the Sea have admitted that their collaboration with Sony saved their studio. Here are the main events in the gaming industry from the past weekend.| App2Top
We spoke with Vitaly about how medicine, billiards, and filming a music show led him into game development. A gigantic personal interview.| App2Top
The studio Blackbird Interactive has announced that the rights to the spaceship dismantling simulator Hardspace: Shipbreaker now fully belong to them. Previously, they shared these rights with the publisher Focus Entertainment.| App2Top
Gamers have been anticipating the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong since 2019, and if nothing changes, it will happen by the end of this year. According to estimates by analysts from Alinea Analytics, over the long wait, more than 4.8 million Steam users have added Team Cherry’s game to their wishlists — more than any other upcoming release of 2025.| App2Top
The management of AppsFlyer is planning to sell the marketing company, according to Calcalist, citing sources. The portal reports that managers are already in talks with a private investment firm, whose name has not been disclosed.| App2Top
The news that the new installment of Mafia sold this number of copies was shared by VG Insights in a LinkedIn post.| App2Top
For the past 20 years, AAA game prices have stayed roughly at the same level, despite a significant increase in development costs, stated former PlayStation Studios head Shawn Layden in an interview with GamesIndustry. He believes that this has been a mistake for the gaming industry.| App2Top
The first half of 2025 was a good period for NetEase’s gaming division. The company reported an increase in its revenue.| App2Top
A Chinese lawyer, Sun Qianhe (孙千和), believes that the player selection system in Honor of Kings operates unfairly: in his opinion, it intentionally adds weaker teammates to teams periodically to lower the win rate. He is attempting to defend his position in court against Tencent.| App2Top
The Swedish holding company Embracer Group, which will soon be rebranded as Fellowship Entertainment, has published its report for April-June 2025. Some key metrics came in lower than last year.| App2Top
We analyzed data from over 60 public gaming companies to examine how their standings have changed since the beginning of 2025. In this special feature, we include graphs, tables, as well as numerous interesting insights and information about specific publishers and general trends across various markets.| App2Top
Aaron Greenberg, the Vice President of Marketing at Xbox, shared this achievement of Grounded 2 on social media.| App2Top
While the mobile gaming market stagnates, the market for non-gaming apps is growing. This is reported by analysts at Sensor Tower, who studied the situation in Google Play and the App Store from April to June 2025.| App2Top
The shooter Delta Force is extremely popular in its homeland. In a recent report, Tencent boasted that in July, the number of daily active users (DAU) in the Chinese version alone exceeded 20 million.| App2Top
Tencent released its financial report for the second quarter of 2025, which ended on June 30th. The company reported growth in key metrics for both the entire holding and its gaming division.| App2Top
MGVC Publishing, the mobile publishing division of MY.GAMES, announced that in July, the puzzle game Fable Town earned over one million dollars in a single month for the first time.| App2Top
Gamers are eagerly anticipating the new installment of Battlefield, according to data from the analytics company Alinea Analytics. Their calculations show that Battlefield 6 has already amassed over 2.7 million wishlists on Steam alone, placing the shooter in seventh place among the most wished-for upcoming releases on the platform.| App2Top
A new chart of the best-selling games on Steam has been released, covering sales from the week of August 5 to August 12.| App2Top
Analysts from Newzoo and Tebex have released a report on gaming expenditures of residents in North America and Europe. Below are some key findings from the report.| App2Top
Epic Games announced that a court in Australia has ruled in its legal battle with Apple and Google. The court found that both corporations had abused their dominant position in the mobile store market and in the in-game payment sector to restrict competition.| App2Top
In late July, the non-existent “International Satanism Movement”* was added to the list of extremist organizations in Russia. Considering that many games use imagery related to the occult, we spoke with lawyers from Futura Digital, Semenov&Pevzner, and i-Legal about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision for the gaming industry.| App2Top
The annual turnover of the game cheats market is measured in tens of millions of dollars, reports Wired, citing data from researchers at the University of Birmingham. The researchers estimated that in North America and Europe alone, revenue from cheat sales could range from $12.8 million to $73.2 million annually.| App2Top
On August 11, the cooperative climbing simulator Peak received its first major update, which added a desert biome, dynamite, cannons, and other new content to the game. A significant number of players were eager to try all of this, and as a result, Peak’s peak online presence on Steam reached a record high for the project.| App2Top
In its semi-annual report, Remedy Entertainment also shared updated sales figures for Control. They proudly announced that the game has been purchased more than 5 million times to date.| App2Top
The cooperative shooter FBC: Firebreak — Remedy Entertainment’s publishing debut — disappointed both professional critics and gamers. In its report for the first half of 2025, the Finnish company acknowledged its unsuccessful launch. However, it noted that the lukewarm reception of the title did not hinder revenue growth.| App2Top
July was a relatively calm month for Steam in terms of new blockbuster hits, according to the founder of GameDiscoverCo, Simon Carless, who compiled the lists of the most successful new releases in July*.| App2Top
The mobile card strategy game Castle Duels celebrated its first anniversary. On this occasion, MY.GAMES revealed the game’s current metrics.| App2Top
The release of the PC version of Stellar Blade helped its creators achieve record-breaking quarterly figures. In the report for April-June 2025, Shift Up announced that its operating profit and revenue were the highest in the studio’s history.| App2Top
Battlefield 6 has already become one of the most popular games in Steam history, Rod Fergusson has left Blizzard Entertainment, and the studio behind Thomas Was Alone has laid off most of its staff. Here are the main events in the gaming industry from the past weekend.| App2Top
Summarizing the previous month, we’re analyzing the metrics of July’s main new releases on PC and consoles. Inside, you’ll find extensive data on major releases like Wuchang and Donkey Kong Bananza, as well as successful indie titles such as Mage Arena and The King is Watching.| App2Top
But they still ended up in the red.| App2Top
Sudden announcement. Corresponding reaction.| App2Top
Spoiler: you can’t do without market analysis.| App2Top
During a conversation with investors, Sony acknowledged that the transformation of the PlayStation business towards game services is not going “completely smoothly.”| App2Top
