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The market value of Kalshi reached $40 billion following a new round of financing

The American prediction platform Kalshi has raised $1 billion in an investment round. Its market value is now estimated at $40 billion, which is an 82% increase compared to May 2026 during the previous round.

iGaming Today 12:03

Study: British Gamblers Are Not Turning Away From Legal Gambling in Favor of Illegal Options

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has discovered that users of illegal gambling platforms often continue to play on licensed sites as well. In other words, illegal gambling more frequently supplements legal gambling rather than replacing it.

News Today 10:56

“Lesta Games” is being encouraged to go public on the stock exchange

The developer of “World of Tanks” and “World of Warships” should consider going public, according to Indie GO Fund’s managing partner, Vladimir Varenik. He expressed this opinion in an interview with RBC newspaper.

News Today 10:07

Sales of Phantom Blade Zero have exceeded 4 million copies

Studio S-GAME announced this achievement on social media.

News Today 09:24

Weekend Highlights (October 31 – November 1)

Anthropic confirmed a ban in Claude on copying other people’s games, Jason Schreier found out why EA shut down BioWare, and the creators of Lords of the Fallen II took out a loan to complete the game — here’s a rundown of the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Premium Industry October 30

Phantom Blade Zero had a unique journey spanning 20 years: from RPG Maker to another AAA hit from China

The release of Phantom Blade Zero provides an opportunity not only to examine the impressive metrics of the new Chinese blockbuster but also to discuss the two decades leading up to this project. From RPG Maker, mobile platforms, investments from Tencent, financial discipline, and creative compromises.

Conferences October 30

On December 10, a summit for top managers in the gaming industry organized by WN Media Group will take place in Tbilisi

WN Media Group announced the next WN C-Level Summit — an event for owners, founders, and top managers of gaming companies. This year, the summit will take place on December 10 in the capital of Georgia.

News October 30

The developer of Trash Goblin explained why indie studios should abandon fixed budgets

Indie studios should finance game development gradually, increasing expenditure as demand is confirmed. This is the opinion of Nicholas Lovell, the Product and Strategy Director at Britain’s Spilt Milk Studios, known for Trash Goblin.

News October 30

Phantom Blade Zero’s peak online players surpassed 723,000, marking the 15th highest result in Steam history

The Chinese action RPG, Phantom Blade Zero, developed by the studio S-GAME, showcased one of the largest launches in Steam history. On its release day, October 29, the game reached a peak online count of 723,876 players. This achievement placed the game at 15th in the platform’s historical rankings.

iGaming October 30

Study: Illegal gambling in the UK more often complements, rather than replaces, licensed betting

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has released a study on illegal gambling in the country, questioning the notion that the use of unlicensed operators directly displaces activity from licensed companies.

News October 30

Playgama has launched the AI Game Index—a service for evaluating AI models based on the results of games created with their help

Playgama has introduced the AI Game Index—a service that compares AI models and game development tools based on actual player behavior. Unlike traditional AI benchmarks that assess specific task performance, this index considers user engagement in published projects.

News October 30

Media: Gears of War: E-Day sold over 400,000 copies in three weeks

The shooter Gears of War: E-Day, released by Microsoft on October 6, sold over 400,000 copies on PC and Xbox. This was reported by The Verge journalist Tom Warren, citing his own source.

News October 30

Xsolla has acquired the browser game platform GamePix, which features a catalog of over 10,000 projects

Xsolla announced the acquisition of the Italian platform GamePix, which is involved in the publishing and distribution of browser games.

iGaming October 29

Google has demoted iGaming sites associated with Clickout Media for “parasitic SEO”

Google has manually restricted the rankings in search results for several publications associated with Clickout Media.

News October 29

The publisher Heart Abyss preferred neuroart over the artist’s work—it turned out to be more clickable

The developers of the action-platformer Heart Abyss revealed that the publisher decided to keep an AI-generated image on the main page of the game in Steam, even though the team had an alternative drawn by an artist. The decision was due to advertising results: the AI art proved to be more clickable.

News October 29

Valve acknowledges the issue of AI clones on Steam but does not intend to restrict developers

Valve acknowledges that the rise of generative AI has exacerbated the issue of game cloning on Steam. However, the company does not plan to combat this by banning specific tools or tightening publication rules.

News October 29

Tim Sweeney accused Valve of hindering the development of the gaming industry for years

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has once again taken aim at Valve. This time, he claimed that the creators of Steam have been stifling the growth of the entire gaming industry for years.

Industry October 29

Xbox revenue decreased by 2% in the third calendar quarter of 2026

Microsoft reported a decline in its gaming business revenue for the third calendar quarter of 2026. Xbox revenues decreased by 2% year-over-year, down to $5.38 billion. Both console sales and content with services showed negative trends.

News October 29

GOG is entering the gaming publishing market — the company will be releasing indie games in collaboration with Retrovibe

The digital store GOG has announced the launch of its own publishing division. It has been named Retrovibe by GOG and was created in collaboration with the independent Polish publisher Retrovibe.

News October 29

“The Last Nail in the Coffin”: BioWare Co-Founder Blames EA’s New Priorities for Studio’s Closure

BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk believes that the studio’s fate was ultimately sealed by the change in ownership at Electronic Arts. In his opinion, the new EA investors are primarily interested in commercially predictable projects, whereas the development of large-scale role-playing games, for which BioWare is renowned, requires too much time and resources.