Last week, on October 15–16, the WN Conference was held in the capital of Armenia. The event was supported by App2Top and gathered 410 representatives of the gaming industry from 211 companies. Here’s how it all went down and what participants think about the conference.

It was developed by just one person using AI.

The CEO of New Blood Interactive, Dave Oshry, believes that the term “immersive sim” is not ideal for promoting games. In his opinion, developers would benefit from using more familiar genre labels that resonate with a broader audience, such as RPG or stealth.

Arrowhead Game Studios has no plans to develop Helldivers 3. In an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, the studio’s creative director Johan Pilestedt explained that the main issue with a potential sequel would be the competition with the already existing Helldivers 2.

Users of Claude Opus 5.5 have started to complain that the service is increasingly refusing to perform tasks related to reverse engineering software and games. The first such complaints appeared on October 21st.

The number of indie games that managed to sell at least 500,000 copies within the first month increased from 13 to 33 over the year. This is according to a study by Sensor Tower, prepared for GamesIndustry.biz. Analysts note that the growth was driven not only by cooperative friendslop games but also by original projects from other genres.

The petition SaveMassEffect on the Change.org platform has gathered more than 200,000 signatures in five days. Its authors are urging Electronic Arts to continue the Mass Effect series, despite the closure of BioWare and the cancellation of the next franchise game.

Roblox has surpassed Fortnite and Minecraft in total playtime on PC and consoles, Marvel’s Wolverine topped the U.S. sales chart in September, and Microsoft revealed the hourly cost for access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Here’s a rundown of notable events in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Netflix attempted to acquire exclusive rights for film and TV adaptations of Xbox game franchises. According to Puck, the streaming service offered Microsoft $500 million for a seven-year license, but Microsoft requested $800 million. As a result, the negotiations did not culminate in a deal.

The Swedish gaming group Stillfront has announced the appointment of a new CEO. Starting November 1, 2026, Marcus Jacobs, previously employed at Electronic Arts, King, and Embark Studios, will lead the company. He will succeed Alexis Bonte.

BioWare existed for nearly 32 years. The end of its story clearly demonstrates that games are not created by signs and logos, but by people. Today, we will trace how systemic issues gradually led the studio to lose its creative continuity and economic appeal to its owner.

The developers of GameMaker have announced a change to the engine’s licensing model.

The co-op game Peak arrived on consoles on October 22, 2026. Its price was set at $9.99 compared to $7.99 on PC. One of the game’s developers, Nick Kaman, explained why the team decided to increase the price.

On October 22nd, Epic Games announced the AI MegaJam, a competition focused on game creation using neural networks. However, the announcement stirred some discontent among developers. The same day, the company altered the participation rules.

The leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), Avi Lewis, has called on the federal government to assist employees of the closing BioWare studio in buying it from Electronic Arts. He believes developers should have the opportunity to run the company independently.

Brazil’s attempts to control the rapidly growing gambling market have not alleviated concerns related to household debt, gambling addiction, and organized crime.

CD Projekt co-head Michał Nowakowski, following the news about BioWare’s closure, stated that the Canadian studio played a significant role in the history of the Polish company and helped bring the first The Witcher to market.

Yandex Games announced a reduction in the commission for replenishing Steam wallets to 2%. Users won’t need to sign up for a paid subscription or meet additional conditions. Let’s analyze how competitive this offer is in the Russian market.

The investment fund Mika Games, founded by Wargaming co-founder Nick Katselapov, has announced the raising of an additional $10 million. The funds are planned to be directed towards financing mobile studios and their marketing.