Another cloud gaming service has appeared. It was launched by Sber, which continues to develop new business areas. Participation in the beta of the service is free, but there are a couple of nuances — it will last only a month and will require a special console.

A few days before the New Year, Valve decided to tell us which games were the most successful on Steam in 2020.

According to new data from IDC, the total revenue of the gaming industry for this year will approach $ 180 billion. This was influenced by both the release of next-generation consoles and mobile, which accounted for almost half of the total amount.The results of the IDC report were published on the MarketWatch website.

Almost four years after the release of NieR: Automata managed to overcome the milestone of 5 million copies sold. The statistics included both digital and disk sales of the title.

He spoke about the company’s successes in the past yearYuri Krasilnikov, Vice President of Business Development at Belka Games.

New changes in American legislation are designed to toughen penalties for illegal streaming of content (including video games). Now violators can face up to 10 years in prison. Against this background, many began to worry that streamers would face criminal prosecution.This became known from the new amendments to the Law on Consolidated Appropriations for 2021, which provides government funding for federal projects and institutions.

More than a third of teenagers and young people in the UK start buying loot boxes at the age of 13. Many of them spend their parents’ money without permission. In some cases, children’s gambling addiction drives their families into debt and forces them to mortgage property.In recent years, more and more organizations in the UK have been paying attention to the problem of loot boxes and their accessibility for children and adolescents.

Hyper-casual publisher Voodoo continues to show impressive results. In 2020 alone, users downloaded his games more than two billion times.

Not only Apple reduces the commission for developers with low income. The Chinese gaming store WeGame — a local analogue of Steam — said that it would not take deductions from games whose annual revenue is below 10 million rubles ($ 1.5 million).

He spoke about new trends in marketing and the company’s successes on the mobile sceneAlexander Derkach, Marketing Director of Playrix.

Apple‘s IDFA policy hasn’t officially started working yet, but it looks like some developers decided to play it safe. iOS 14 users said that they have already encountered pop-ups requesting permission for monitoring.

Indie publisher Raw Fury decided to take up educational activities. The company shared a sample of the publishing contract that developers sign when working with it. At the same time, the publisher launched a hub with a set of other useful templates.

As a result of the purchase of the Chinese company Leyou Technologies, several game studios came under the management of Tencent at once. Among them are Digital Extremes, the creators of the Warframe shooter. Now many are concerned about the question of whether developers will retain their creative independence.The deal, which was approved by 97.7% of Leyou shareholders, became known in the middle of the month.

Pavel Livshits, Regional Business Development / Growth at AppsFlyer, spoke about important trends in the mobile marketing market. 

One of the most significant transactions of December took place. Israeli developer and publisher Moon Active, known for the cash blockbuster Coin Master, announced the purchase of Belarusian Melsoft, noted for mobile hits Family Island and MyCafe.

This year, users supported video game developers on Kickstarter for a total of $22.9 million. The continuation of the Russian RPG Pathfinder got into the top three in terms of fees. However, this is still several times less than the crowdfunding fees of board games.This became known from the material that was published on the Polygon portal.

Direct replenishment of the wallet on Steam may not be available for some users from the beginning of next year. It’s all about “changes in Russian legislation.”

What legal issues should you pay attention to when releasing the game, — he said Anton Wise, Legal Advisor at Alawar.

Wanted: a level designer at MY.GAMES, Unity-a Middle-level developer at VIM Digital, a community manager at Plarium and a UI/UX designer at WN Media Group.