The EU antitrust regulator is trying to figure out how Microsoft‘s purchase of Activision Blizzard will affect the market. To do this, the authorities are also interviewing developers, publishers and distributors of games.

The European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education proposed to increase support. In particular, officials want the European authorities to invest more in developers — this year they were allocated only €6 million under the Creative Europe program.

The first place again went to GTA V, writes GamesIndustry.biz with a link to GSD data.

The ISFE and EGDF organizations have prepared a detailed report on the European gaming market for 2021. We have selected a few facts from it.

In the third quarter, European users spent $4.6 billion on mobile apps and games, according to Sensor Tower. This is 21% more in annual terms. At the same time, Russia became the leader in the number of downloads, and the UK took the first place in terms of revenue.General data

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic boosted the revenue of the video game industry around the world. The markets of European countries were no exception, whose total revenue in 2020 for the first time exceeded the €23.3 billion mark. Console titles brought the most money, and FIFA 21 became the best-selling game.

South Korean Pearl Abyss continues its expansion into the Western market. The company known for MMO Black Desert Online is opening a new office in Europe. A few years earlier, she acquired CCP Games.Pearl Abyss CEO Junghee Jin told about his plans in an interview with VentureBeat.

IO Interactive shared its plans for the development of the company. She has already opened the third studio in a row, which will help them, among other things, in working on an unannounced project on a new IP. In addition, the authors of the Hitman series have announced their intention to engage in publishing.This was announced by the CEO of IO Interactive Hakan Abrak (Hakan Abrak) in an interview with the publication GamesIndustry.biz .

The European Commission considered that Valve’s actions to link games to regions violate the antitrust legislation of the European Union. Together with her, five other publishers were fined for a total of almost €8 million. Valve plans to challenge the injunction.The fine was imposed based on the results of an investigation that began seven years ago.

Last year, the revenue of the European mobile games market grew by almost a third and amounted to $ 9.6 billion, according to Sensor Tower. At the same time, most of the revenue came from Google Play users.The big Sensor Tower report, published on January 8, is dedicated to the European mobile market as a whole, including games and applications.

The Latvian Game Developers Association has prepared a report on the state of the local gaming industry for 2019. Over the past six years, it has grown several times, and last year its turnover exceeded €30 million for the first time.Basic data on the Latvian gaming industry for 2019

Alexey Slabukhin, CEO of the HellRaisers esports organization, spoke about the process of creating a team and the salary level of professional players. According to him, in the CIS, only a couple of people receive $ 15-20 thousand.In his blog on Cybersport.ru .

Newzoo together with PayPal conducted a study of the European esports market. It is expected that the number of women in the industry will continue to grow, and the total audience of esports will exceed 90 million people by the end of the year.

A new survey showed that 24% of European residents were introduced to video games for the first time during quarantine. At the same time, after the lifting of strict restrictions, the number of hours spent in games began to decrease.The British company Ipsos MORI has published a new study of the European gaming market, comparing the involvement of gamers during and after quarantine.

Last year, there was neither a COVID-19 pandemic nor global self-isolation. About how the gaming market developed Europe before the world quarantine, told in the annual report European Interactive Software Federation (ISFE). Spoiler: The market itself grew by 3%, and the best—selling game turned out to be FIFA 20.

The European government is eyeing the video game market. The other day, his Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection published the results of an investigation on the topic of loot boxes. The document suggests a different look at the control of this area. Among the key proposals: not to be limited by gambling legislation.

The European Union has launched an official antitrust investigation into the Apple App Store. The government is concerned that it is possible to sell content in the Apple store only through its own payment system, whose commission is 30%.

On July 12, a new regulation began to take effect in Europe concerning how digital distribution platforms should work with applications and games (first of all, we are talking about the App Store and Google Play).

The positive impact of the coronavirus on the metrics of mobile games was revealed by Sensor Tower. Last March was recognized as the best month in terms of installations and user expenses in Europe in history.