Among the most popular games on Steam, Banana—a free clicker game where you need to click on a picture of a banana—has burst onto the scene. According to SteamDB, on June 10, Banana’s online presence on Valve’s platform reached a record 220,621 users.

The gaming company Geeky House and the Dagestan authorities have officially agreed to create a city-cluster in the region for the development of the IT sector in general, and the gaming industry in particular. They signed the corresponding agreement at SPIEF 2024.

In an interview with IGN, head of Microsoft’s gaming division Phil Spencer commented for the first time on the recent closure of four Bethesda studios, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin.

On June 6, the Polish studio Live Motion Games and publisher Frozen Way released a simulator in Steam that deals with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster — Chornobyl Liquidators. According to Frozen Way’s CEO Mateusz Jeleń, the game failed to meet the expectations placed upon it.

Head of Microsoft’s gaming division Phil Spencer gave an interview to the IGM portal. During the conversation, he mentioned that sales of third-party studio games on Xbox consoles are steadily increasing.

The creators of Among Us have launched a fund to support indie developers, MY.GAMES has introduced a new publishing label, and the success of Gray Zone Warfare has saved its developers from bankruptcy. Here’s a recap of what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Apple has announced the winners of the 2024 Apple Design Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in mobile app and game design. Below are the winners in the games category.

The Japanese company Gumi, specializing in mobile games and known in the West for Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, intends to part ways with 80 employees. It has decided to downsize in light of growing losses.

Ghost of Tsushima is Sony’s latest game on PC. It was released on Steam and Epic Games Store on May 16, 2024, almost four years after its console release on PlayStation. The VG Insights service studied the game’s performance on Steam.

Since 2020, Sony has released 14 PlayStation exclusives on Steam. In total, they have generated $830 million for the company, according to a report from VG Insights.

Participating in the Summer Game Fest presentation is expensive for gaming companies. Esquire magazine, citing sources, revealed how much developers pay to show trailers as part of the main show.

It’s been just over a week since the release of Squad Busters. We turned to data from the analytics service AppMagic to look at the initial results of Supercell’s new game.

Blizzard Entertainment announced that the total audience for the Diablo series has surpassed 100 million players worldwide. The company revealed this number in honor of the first anniversary of Diablo IV.

The release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a failure—Warner Bros. Discovery, the game’s publisher, stated in its latest financial report that the game resulted in losses of $200 million. Journalist Jason Schreier spoke with people close to Rocksteady Studios and found out what went wrong.

New companies continue to emerge in the gaming industry. Developers Megan Ralph and Joel Herber have announced the launch of their own studio.

The National Press and Publication Administration of China (NPPA) has published a list of 15 foreign games allowed for release in the country. One of the most notable games on the list is the mobile version of Valorant, which received the subtitle Operation Primal (无畏契约：源能行动).

Another analytical report was released by the data attribution service Tenjin. It detailed the state of the advertising market in mobile games from January to March 2024.

Niko Partners analysts have published a forecast for the gaming markets in Asia and the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). According to their estimates, the total revenue of these markets will increase at an annual growth rate of 2.5% in the coming years.

NetEase and Marvel Games announced that users of Steam and Epic Games Store have added the superhero PvP action game Marvel Rivals to their wishlists over a million times.