The consulting firm Naavik and the investment fund BITKRAFT Ventures have estimated that this year the revenue of the video game industry will be $336 billion — twice as much as previously forecast*. They received such a figure after they took into account the income of the gray market, blockchain, advertising, iron sales and many other things that analysts had previously ignored.

AppsFlyer has presented a large report on the audience of mobile applications in the Scandinavian countries. Mobile titles are most often played by women, but men spend money more actively in them. At the same time, Scandinavian gamers in general are extremely reluctant to entrust their personal data to games.Note: AppsFlyer collected data based on a survey of 4,039 users from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway over the age of 18.

Bandai Namco reported on the first successes of the RPG Tales of Arise. In the first week of sales, the title sold over 1 million copies. Thanks to this, sales of all games in the series exceeded 25 million in more than 100 countries.

Raising funds for future sales is a common scenario in the mobile f2p games market. However, it also works with premium titles on Steam. That’s how the Russian role-playing blockbuster Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous received money for marketing. We talked about the mechanism of attraction and the deal with GamesBoost42, which acted as a financial partner of the game.

tinyBuild has announced the purchase of another Russian studio. Bad Pixel, the developer of the multiplayer shooter Deadside, passes into her hands. The maximum transaction amount may be $17.1 million.

Mike Rose, head of the indie publisher No More Robots, spoke about the principles of development planning. These tips can be useful for aspiring indie studios who have yet to release their first game. Rose gave several formulas for calculating the budget and explained why long-term development risks not paying off.

The publisher of mobile games Azur Games has invested in a previously non-core asset for itself. The company acquired a 15% stake in Neosus Studio, which develops mobile applications of a wide profile (from answering machine to document scanning and wallpaper installation).

AppMagic analysts found out which mobile publishers in Turkey collected the largest box office, and which — the most downloads in the first half of 2021.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused the analytical company App Annie and its former CEO Bertrand Schmitt of fraud. The regulator said they were selling confidential information about customers without their consent.

Activision Blizzard is facing a new lawsuit. This time, the company was sued by its own employees. They accuse her of intimidating employees, suppressing the organization of trade unions and using unfair labor practices.According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed by Activision Blizzard employees in conjunction with the large Communications Workers of America (CWA) union.

In August, American gamers spent $4.37 billion on video games, hardware and accessories, according to a recent report by NPD Group analysts. Ghost of Tsushima returned to the top three best-selling games, which rose 108 points in the ranking at once. But the first place went to the recently released Madden NFL 22.

Google could have violated labor laws in dozens of countries. The media found out that the corporation for at least two years consciously paid freelance employees less than those who were on the staff. To hide this, she distorted quarterly financial reports.

Alana Pearce, who is currently working on God of War: Ragnarok, decided to remind the players that the writers are also part of the development team. It was supported by many developers from other companies. They stressed that games are made not only by programmers, but also by all studio employees — be they marketers or HR specialists.God of War: Ragnarok

Wanted: A 2D middle-level artist in Deus Craft, a creative producer in RoasUp and a level designer in ElbrusLab.

Deathloop, a new Arkane Studios project about a mysterious island whose inhabitants are stuck in a time loop, was released today. The game received many top marks from critics. They call it one of the best and most inventive titles of the year, which largely develops the successful ideas of Dishonored.

While Epic Games is preparing to appeal the court’s decision on the lawsuit against Apple, Apple itself has not decided what to do. The company said it was still considering whether or not to appeal.

Adjust has presented a detailed report on the main trends in the mobile market of the Asia-Pacific region (APR) in 2021. We have selected basic information about the games. Key metrics include downloads, installation cost, game session length, and retention.Note: In its study, Adjust used data for the period from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2021.

In the first half of 2021, the main advertisers in the mobile gaming market were games made by developers from China. The analytical company SocialPeta analyzed, using the example of Genshin Impact and Lords Mobile, how betting on creatives helps Chinese projects with promotion in the West.

Stillfront Group has made another deal. A Swedish company has acquired a studio from the United Arab Emirates, Jawaker, which specializes in card games for mobile platforms. The transaction amount was $205 million.The Stillfront Group paid 74% of the amount in cash, and the remaining 26% in shares.