Last August, the game Flippy Knife from the Russian team Beresnev topped the world charts. The studio’s debut project, which previously specialized in graphics and animation, was downloaded 20 million times, and its revenue amounted to a six-figure sum. We publish a story by the founder of the studio Oleg Beresnev about where the team started and how it achieved success.

Streaming platform Twitch has launched Indie Amplifire — a program to promote the popularity of games from independent developers. As part of the program, Twitch promised to divide $ 175 thousand between the authors of the three best indie titles that users of the service will choose by voting.

The Russian government was offered to create a ministry for the development of new technologies and virtual reality. This initiative was made by Boris Chernyshov, Deputy head of the Education Committee of the State Duma.

The revenue of the mobile segment of the German company InnoGames increased by 62% last year. The developers of the Forge of Empires strategy earned €54.5 million on mobile, according to the company’s 2017 results report.

Polish studio CI Games fired a significant part of the developers, reducing the development group to 30 people. The company explained the reduction by the desire to speed up and optimize work on titles, as well as high competition in the industry.

Outsourcing company Glass Egg Digital Media from Vietnam is in litigation with mobile publisher Gameloft. Glass Egg accuses the French company of copyright infringement, unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets.

Unity Technologies has acquired the ProBuilder tool. ProBuilder is designed to create levels on the Unity engine. The tool was included in the official Unity development kit.

On February 14, the White Nights conference ended. Its winter session was held in Prague for the second year in a row. A quarter of the audience was represented by guests from the USA, Great Britain and Germany.

In February, the PvP shooter PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS faced an outflow of the audience for the first time. Prior to that, the number of PUBG players had been growing continuously for almost a year since the game appeared on Steam Early Access.

February 19 investment division Mail.Ru Games Ventures and developer studio Epic Games have announced the beginning of a joint collaboration. One of the main objectives of the partnership is to find and support promising gaming products. Both financial and expert assistance is planned.

Game Key Store G2A.com launched its own production of video games for virtual reality. The marketplace has opened the Monad Rock studio.

The French mobile publisher Gameloft has published financial results for 2017. According to the report, Gameloft Advertising Solutions’ own advertising network earned €36.3 million — 93% more than a year ago.

The Swedish company G5 Games, founded by immigrants from Russia, has published a financial report for the 4th quarter of 2017. In October-December, the company’s revenue amounted to $44.7 million. This is 93% more than a year earlier.

A selection of the most profitable publishers of applications on the mobile market for 2017 has appeared on the web. The most interesting thing about it: the emergence of new names and the high position of the casual colossus Playrix, based in Russia.

The South Korean media company Kakao has raised $130 million to develop its gaming division Kakao Games. About $100 million of this amount was invested by the Chinese corporation Tencent and the Korean mobile publisher Netmarble.

Atari shares rose by 60% after the announcement of the company’s plans to create an entertainment blockchain platform and issue the Atari Token cryptocurrency.

Half of the employees of the French studio Eugen Systems went on strike. The developers accused the company’s managers of violating labor laws. 21 out of 44 Eugen Systems employees joined the campaign.

In the Hangar 13 studio owned by the 2K publishing house, cuts have been made. According to Kotaku, the owners laid off “a significant part” of the workers. The first and so far the only Hangar 13 game remains the Mafia III action adventure.

The term “advertising inventory” is widely used in mobile marketing. What is meant by this term, as well as what it is characterized by, – said Herman Kapnin, head of the traffic purchase department at Mobio.