News about the absence of news. On July 18, the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard from Microsoft was supposed to be completed. But now it is unclear what the parties have come to (although everyone understands everything).

The author of the popular YouTube channel GameRiot (1.84 million subscribers) on his Twitter page announced the possible budget of Grand Theft Auto 6. According to him, the game will cost Take-Two $ 2 billion.

It became known about the non-standard practice on the part of 505 Games. The publisher has signed an agreement with One More Level studio, under the terms of which it will allocate € 0.59 million for the release of updates and additions to the yet-to-be-released Ghostrunner 2 premium game.

Alex Seropian, who launched Bungie Studios in 1991, together with colleagues from other gaming companies, formed a new studio. It’s called Look North World.

Steam has published top sales for the period from July 11 to July 18. According to him, Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian Studios earned the most money in a week as a premium game. This is without taking into account free games and devices, so it is in third place in sales – after Counter—Strike and Steam Deck.

The analogue of Twitter from Meta* has just appeared on the market, but game developers are already looking at it. Artie claims that the release of high—quality games for Threads is its main focus.

On July 18, the period in which Microsoft planned to close the acquisition of Activision Blizzard expires. Bloomberg sources admit that the papers will not be signed today.

Litigation between Microsoft and British regulators in connection with the purchase of Activision Blizzard continues unabated. In addition, they only become more confusing.

Another piece of news that has just come to the attention of the industrial media. In mid-June, the Council of the European Union adopted new regulations concerning the production and processing of batteries.

Missed the important news. We are correcting ourselves. On Friday, the complaint of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was rejected. She filed an appeal against the decision of Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who refused to impose a preliminary injunction on the purchase of Activision Blizzard.

Dan Pinchbeck, co-founder and creative director of The Chinese Room studio, has announced his retirement from the company. Dan called the reason for his departure “a desire to see what is happening in the world outside the studio, which I have devoted the last years to creating.”

Another piece of news indicating the end of physical media. British supermarket chain Tesco has said it will no longer sell physical versions of video games in its 2,800 stores.

Last week, an interview with Yukio Sugino, president and Chief operating officer of Sega Group Corporation, was published on the pages of the Japanese gaming site Famitsu. We tell you about the most interesting of the material.

On July 14, the multiplayer AAA shooter Exoprimal from Capcom was released. The project started unsuccessfully — the game has a low online.

According to a joint report by analysts Newzoo and Carry1st, last year the sales volume of video games in Black Africa (the part of the African continent located south of the Sahara desert) reached $863 million. This is 8.7% more than the year before.

The studio-developer of the game Genshin Impact responded to accusations of non-payment of salaries to voice actors.

The studio has become part of the North American team People Can Fly, which has been creating an AAA game based on a new franchise for the past few years.

Analytical platform data.ai analyzed the impact of two viral advertising campaigns, which were filmed with the participation of live actors, on the performance of the game Merge Mansion from the Finnish Metacore.