In 2016, the number of Russian virtual and augmented reality companies increased from 60 to 183. The number of investments in this industry has increased from 200 to 500 million rubles.

In mid–January, the open beta of the mobile MOBA from Fast Forward Studio – Planet of Heroes was released. We talked with the head of the studio Ivan Fedyanin about where he was looking for people for the team, why he decided to make a MOBA and how the story campaign is embedded in it.

Russian players spent 4% more in online games in 2016 compared to the results of the previous year. The largest growth occurred in November-December.

Why are there two producers on the project, what is wrong with product marketing and why a Wiki is needed during development, – App2Top.ru Olga Abashova, head of the Kaliningrad office of G5 Entertainment, told.

In Russia, the Federal Tax Service (FTS) announced the registration of 18 companies. Including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Wargaming, Valve and Nintendo.

In Russia, the latest generation of Sony consoles is the leader in sales. But the Xbox One game console has recently been showing great growth rates.

How users of Russia and China relate to game abbreviations, mat and small print in localizations, the company All Correct Games told.

At an extraordinary meeting, shareholders of the Megafon operator approved the purchase of 15.2% of the Internet giant’s share capital Mail.Ru Group for $740 million.

Sergey Kopov, who headed the publishing division of HeroCraft, announced his departure from the company.

During the week of global promotion on Google Play, the game from the Russian developer Pixonic received a million downloads.

Chinese players know English quite well, while Russian players prefer Action to other genres. The localization company All Correct Games came to these and other conclusions as a result of its research.

In 2016, about 40 VR and AR projects were launched in Russia. Most of them received investments in the amount of $ 15 thousand to $ 30 thousand.

Creative Director of Playrix Igor Elovikov told App2Top how the year went for the company and which projects became central for him in 2016.

The VKontakte social network selected the best projects of the year and presented a list of top games released on the site in 2016.

Last week, the mobile version of Punch Club, following the version for desktop devices, received a new – easy – passing mode. We talked to the authors of the game about why this was done.

Russian telecom operator Megafon has started preparing to buy 63.8% of the Internet giant’s management shares Mail.Ru Group. The transaction amount is less than $1 billion with the market capitalization of the IT company of $9.5 billion.

Viktor Zakharchenko, executive director of KamaGames Studio, is leaving the company after five years of work.

Kaliningrad company HeroCraft continues to share with App2Top the story of how, despite the loss of the license for the famous Disciples brand, it was working on the game Lords of Discord.

The founder of Strategic Music in his personal YouTube channel during a skirmish with users said that he spent the money collected during crowdfunding on Fallout 4 on vacation. As it turned out: the service with which the money was collected, Strategic Music did not give them away.