Several key Blizzard and Respawn Entertainment developers lost their jobs yesterday. We are talking, among other things, about the leading game designer Diablo IV, who was indirectly involved in the ongoing harassment scandal. Game designer Apex Legends has also resigned from his post. This is due to his statements of 14 years ago, in which racism and sexism were found.Dismissal of the leading game designer of Apex Legends

The St. Petersburg studio Unfrozen has raised $ 1.7 million for further development. She is known for the tactical role-playing game Iratus: Lord of the Dead. The investor was GEM Capital.

The US has prepared a bill that could seriously reshape the business model of mobile stores. If accepted, it will allow developers to add third-party payment systems to applications and tell users about discounts outside of stores. The initiative has already been approved by Epic Games.

Natives of AppQuantum have announced the launch of their own game publishing house. A new company under the label 10k Riders Publishing is going to launch mobile freeplay titles. 8 studios have already been announced among the partners.

The first half of the year passed for the editors of the Play Store in shock mode. She removed about 115 thousand apps from the app store. Such major purges have not happened in it since 2018.

Google Corporation will strengthen the protection of children. She said that in the coming months she will start blocking targeted advertising for minors. The restrictions do not end there. Google will also secure YouTube, its search engine, app store and much more for teenagers.

Unity has prepared a financial report for the second quarter of 2021. Its revenue has grown to $273.6 million, but the company still does not make a profit. Operating losses amounted to $149.2 million at once, or 55% of revenue.

John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic, spoke out against digital metaverses. He called them a “dystopian nightmare” and offered an alternative idea for the development of this concept. We are talking about endowing the real world with additional digital information using AR technologies.John Hanke, photo: TechCrunch

A new day, a new report. This time from App Annie, which has prepared a giant document about the mobile games market. It covers the first half of 2021. We have prepared a squeeze in Russian.

Unity has announced a new purchase. The streaming service Parsec has passed into her hands. With this deal, the company intends to expand the “cloud” capabilities of its engine.

Publication PocketGamer.biz published a list of the 10 highest-grossing mobile games in history. The rating is based on data from the Sensor Tower analytical company. In the first place is the Chinese MOBA Honor of Kings, whose revenue is approaching $ 10 billion.Note: The data are taken for the period from January 1, 2014 to July 31, 2021.

The solitaire/mahjong subcategory is rarely mentioned. The casual direction dedicated to collecting cards/knuckles seems to be underestimated. At the same time, it performs well in commercial terms, as the Sensor Tower analytical company clearly shows in the latest study.

YoYo Games has decided to change the payment options of the GameMaker Studio 2 game engine. They became easier to understand.

Until 2020, the Australian government almost did not support video game developers. Because of this, all AAA studios were closed in the country and there was a shortage of specialists. Ron Curry, head of the local Association of Interactive Games and Entertainment (IGEA), told what the authorities are doing now to fix the situation. Among the measures are a 30% tax deduction and a simplified procedure for obtaining work visas.

The VERSUS.legal law firm continues a series of articles on jurisdictions for doing business. This time we will talk about the Kaliningrad region — a special economic zone (SEZ), where there are tax breaks for IT companies.

A few years ago, the indie apocalypse almost turned Steam into a “garbage dump”. Valve managed to defeat the invasion of low-quality games, while continuing to let everyone into its store. However, due to the new Steam algorithms, small titles actually have no place left on the site. Marketing consultant Chris Zukowski told about this problem in his material for the website How To Market A Game.

The PUBG developer entered the stock exchange, but immediately after that his shares sank in price. Within an hour, Krafton’s capitalization dropped by 20%. Investors regarded it as a one-game company.

Hideo Kojima is sure that CDs will disappear soon. He believes that in the future, games, movies, music and books will completely switch to digital format. That’s just according to the game designer, it carries certain risks. For example, due to unforeseen circumstances, gamers may one day lose access to digital collections.

NFT and video games are increasingly attracting the attention of luxury brands. Companies like Louis Vuitton and Burberry produce small mobile titles, create virtual characters and sell digital clothing. The Business Insider edition told about the latest developments in this market.Burberry