On September 17, 2024, Electronic Arts (EA) held a large-scale event for investors, where it revealed its future plans. We’ve highlighted the company’s key points.

The Australian government has made changes to its game rating system. Starting from September 22, 2024, the country’s rating board will assign games containing paid loot boxes an “M15+” rating — recommended for individuals over 15 years of age.

By mid-September 2024, over 3 million people played the dungeon adventure sandbox game Core Keeper. This figure was revealed by the Swedish indie studio Pugstorm on social media.

The International Business Machines (IBM) company convinced a U.S. jury that several games by mobile publisher Zynga infringed its patent rights related to web communications.

In a month, with the support of App2Top, the second business conference “Game Industry” will take place. This time, it will be held in Moscow. The event is expected to host over 700 participants, including representatives from Astrum Entertainment, VK, 1C Game Studios, Herbarium Games, Sobaka Studio, and many other companies.

The action game about space marines has solidified its success in the Steam chart for the most profitable games. For the week from September 10 to September 17, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 once again secured the top spot in both the paid and overall charts.

The British company nDreams, specializing in virtual reality games, has decided to undergo a restructuring process. As part of this, up to 17.5% of the staff will be laid off. Some managerial positions will be among those affected.

The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has endorsed the project for the voluntary labeling of games in the country, developed by the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry (RVI). This information was reported by the newspaper “Izvestia,” citing the ministry.

In 2022, Sony was in negotiations with several companies regarding chip production for the yet-unannounced PlayStation 6 console, according to Reuters sources. One of the most likely candidates was Intel, but it failed to reach an agreement with Sony on the terms of cooperation.

Epic Games has decided to teach game development using the Unreal Engine. The company announced the launch of an educational course on game design on the Coursera platform.

Expanded set of links to social networks is not the only new feature in Steam. Valve has introduced several more changes to the platform.

Valve has expanded the list of social networks to which developers can link in dedicated fields on game pages in Steam. The list has grown by 11 entries.

European human rights advocates have proposed banning premium currency in games, a company co-founded by Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser has formed a studio with developers from Immortals of Aveum, and We Harvest Shadows has been added to over 100,000 wishlists. Here’s what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Last night, another news story emerged, at least indirectly connected to the success of Warhammer 40000: Space Marine 2. Its developer, Saber Interactive, announced it has received “significant equity investment.”

On September 12, it was reported that Microsoft’s gaming division is preparing to lay off 650 people. According to journalist Stephen Totilo from Game File, among those affected will be employees working on the mobile games Warcraft Rumble and Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile.

Developer Garry Newman has announced that his sandbox game Garry’s Mod has been immortalized in the Guinness Book of Records. It has sold more copies than any other PC-exclusive game.

The studios 4A Games and Zen Studios will remain with the Swedish holding company Embracer Group. Earlier, it was assumed that they would be acquired by Beacon Interactive — a company that in March 2024 purchased Saber Interactive.

A new gaming startup has emerged in Finland. Thea Chow, who led the Clash Royale development team at Supercell from 2021 to 2023, announced the launch of a studio called Redly Games.

Unity investors reacted positively to the company’s decision to cancel the Runtime Fee for game developers. By the market close on September 12, Unity’s share price had risen by 9.81% to $18.91 per share.