Todd Howard, head of Bethesda Game Studios, shared in an interview with blogger MrMattyPlays that since its release on September 6, 2023, over 14 million people have played Starfield. According to him, each user has spent an average of about 40 hours in the space RPG.

The studio that created Wizard with a Gun has closed, Russian authorities have begun searching for developers for a domestic game console, and Banana entered the top 15 games with the highest online player count in Steam history. Here’s what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Playstudios, specializing in social casino games, announced that Activision no longer owns its shares. It repurchased them from Microsoft, Activision’s parent company.

On June 13, Square Enix released the Kingdom Hearts series games on Steam. Previously, their PC versions were available exclusively on the Epic Games Store. However, the launch was most active for the collection with the first few games.

On the mechanics of options and possible conditions of option programs, specialists from the legal company REVERA, Nikolay Gorelik and Ekaterina Yakoltsevich, shared in their column on App2Top.

The South Korean company Com2uS is celebrating the tenth anniversary of Summoners War: Sky Arena, which was globally released in June 2014. In honor of the celebration, the developers announced that the MMORPG’s revenue has exceeded $3 billion.

The release of Squad Busters was the largest in Supercell’s history, company representatives stated in an interview with GamesIndustry. In less than a week, the game garnered over 30 million downloads and is quickly on its way to becoming profitable.

The wave of layoffs has reached Archiact Interactive — the VR studio responsible for games Journey to Foundation and FREEDIVER: Triton Down, and also involved in the development of DOOM 3: VR Edition.

General Manager of the Warcraft franchise John Hight has announced his departure from Blizzard Entertainment. He is leaving the company after nearly 13 years of service.

In the upcoming game from the Chinese studio miHoYo, more than 41.5 million players have pre-registered, according to data on the official Zenless Zone Zero website. It took a month and a half to reach this milestone. Pre-registration opened at the end of April.

The list of gaming companies downsizing their staff has welcomed a new addition. VRChat, the developer of the eponymous social VR game, has joined the ranks.

The South Korean studio Shift Up has encountered difficulties in going public. They postponed the collection of preliminary stock applications from early June to the end of the month. The developers did this after financial authorities indicated that Shift Up’s business relies too heavily on Goddess of Victory: Nikke.

Total downloads of the role-playing gacha game Wuthering Waves have exceeded 30 million, according to Kuro Games. The distribution across platforms is not specified.

The company GDEV boasted the metrics of its farm simulator Island Hoppers. Recently, it announced that the game has earned over $47 million and gathered 20 million downloads since its launch.

The Japanese government has enacted a law prohibiting tech giants such as Apple and Google from restricting the distribution of apps on their platforms. In compliance, Apple will be required to allow third-party app stores on iOS devices in the country.

French mobile publisher Voodoo has acquired a new asset. The company’s portfolio now includes the social network for photo sharing BeReal.

The British company Sumo Group, which has Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Team Sonic Racing, and many other games in its portfolio, is preparing for massive layoffs. It announced plans to lay off up to 15% of its employees in Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, and India.

An art-house adventure about a crazy nun from the studio Odd Meter has sold 55,000 copies in a month on the Steam platform. Considering consoles, sales might surpass 100,000 by the end of June.

A new game publisher has emerged, named Offbrand Games. It was launched under the content agency Offbrand, which was previously founded by streamers Ludwig Ahgren, Nathan Stanz, and Nick Allen.