The Swedish Embracer Group is getting bigger. This time, eight companies joined the ranks of the holding, among them 3D Realms, CrazyLabs and Ghost Ship Games. All purchases cost the Swedes $213.8 million.

Alexander Agapitov, CEO and founder of Xsolla, held a press conference related to the dismissal of 150 employees. He explained the layoffs by the fact that the company stopped showing 40% growth.

Sony has prepared a report for the first fiscal quarter of 2021. In April-June, the company’s gaming direction earned over $5.5 billion. This was achieved largely thanks to the PlayStation 5 — the console stopped being sold at a loss.

Against the background of changes in tax policy in some countries, Apple has revised pricing in the App Store. Apps will become cheaper in the UK and South Africa. And in Georgia, on the contrary, they will cost more.Apple announced this to developers on August 3.

The media controlled by the Chinese authorities have softened criticism of video games. They no longer call them an “electronic drug”, but still urge society to fight gambling addiction. Against this background, Tencent shares managed to recoup almost half of yesterday’s fall.

Activision Blizzard is facing a class action lawsuit from investors who have suffered losses due to falling shares amid the harassment scandal. Bobby Kotick, meanwhile, assured that the company will soon change and become an example for the entire industry. And the employees talked about how the HR department systematically hushed up the problems.

A letter from the founder and CEO of Xsolla Alexander Agapitov to employees leaked to social networks. In it, he abruptly announced the dismissal of a large number of employees. As can be understood from the letter, the company monitored their activity and made a decision to dismiss them based on the collected data.

Activision Blizzard shared the results of the second quarter of 2021 (ended June 30). Although the company’s overall revenue grew, its only division that earned more than a year ago was King. Also in the report there was a place for measures that the publisher is going to take because of the current scandal.

A new technological solution from Green Grey has been announced. The company, which recently announced itself with a series of investments in Russian gaming startups, has taken up analytical solutions. She introduced a service that searches for suitable bloggers using AI.

Take-Two reported on the results of the first fiscal quarter of 2022 (ended June 30). Although its net revenue decreased by 2% during this period, thanks to strong sales of key franchises, the company managed to increase profits by 72%.

It became known about the possible plans of the Chinese Tencent to acquire the publisher 1C Entertainment, known for such series of games as “Behind enemy Lines”, “Space Rangers” and King’s Bounty. CEO of 1C Entertainment Nikolay Baryshnikov in an interview with App2Top.ru stated: “I have no comments on this topic.”

Blizzard Entertainment has announced a change of leadership. J. Allen Brack is no longer the head of the company. Instead, it will be managed by two top managers who recently joined the studio. One of the new leaders is a woman.

Chinese authorities continue to look for new ways to regulate online business and video games. In just a day, the shares of local giants like Tencent and NetEase have sharply lost in price. This is due to an article in a state newspaper that equated games with drugs and called for stricter control measures of the industry.

Chinese giant Tencent is preparing new restrictions for underage gamers in Honor of Kings. The company said it plans to further reduce the time they can spend in the game. She also intends to ban children under the age of 12 from spending money.

South Korean mobile publisher Netmarble has become the owner of SpinX Games. This is a social casino developer from Hong Kong, known for the games Cash Frenzy, Jackpot World and Lotsa Slots. The size of the transaction is $2.19 billion.

By the end of July App2Top.ru Together with AppMagic, I have prepared a report on the most popular and earning mobile games in the world.

Israeli gaming giant Plarium has entered the Finnish market. The company has acquired the Helsinki-based Futureplay studio. The amount and terms of the transaction are not specified.

Over the weekend, a lot of fresh details appeared in the Activision Blizzard scandal. Several women have shared new stories about harassment in the company. And the former developer of Diablo and World of Warcraft called for the creation of trade unions in the gaming industry.New posts about working at Activision Blizzard

Russian officials have prepared a plan for the development of cloud gaming. According to their estimates, by 2030, the export of domestic services should grow to $160 million — 55 times more than it was in 2020. The Innovation Promotion Fund, which will allocate special grants, should help in this.