Belka Games will soon undergo a leadership change. Its CEO, Alexander Bogdanov, announced plans to step down in January 2025.

The studio FromSoftware has announced that its employees will receive a salary increase. The higher pay will start from April 2025.

The company MIDiA Research attempted to determine which gaming modes are most popular. To find out, they surveyed over 9,000 people from the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland, and several other countries.

Ubisoft has lost another leading employee, claims insider Tom Henderson, citing a letter to the company’s staff. According to his information, Cameron Lee, the vice president of the Rainbow Six franchise, has resigned from Ubisoft.

Davide Soliani, the former Creative Director of Mario + Rabbids, left Ubisoft in July 2024 after more than two decades with the company, deciding to “embark on a new adventure.” It has now been revealed that he, alongside other industry veterans, has established a new game development studio.

In 2023, the PC gaming market in Japan generated 236.4 billion yen, or approximately 1.6 billion dollars, according to a report by the CESA association. Compared to 2019, its revenue has tripled.

After 11 years of operation, the French Studio Black Flag has ceased to exist. It is best known for the unreleased game Orphan Age—a grim life simulator about orphan survival in a cyberpunk world.

Canadian studio Red Barrels, known for its Outlast series, has reported a hacking attack. The perpetrators managed to breach its internal network and steal some data.

The Russian retail chain “M.Video-Eldorado” reported a high demand for the advanced version of the PlayStation 5 console. During the first week, pre-orders for the PlayStation 5 Pro were three times higher than expected.

Cloud Imperium Games studio has temporarily shifted to a seven-day work schedule. In an email to employees, the management stated that this is necessary for thorough preparation for the CitizenCon festival, which will take place on October 19.

The company “Rostelecom,” together with the game accelerator Indie GO, plans to establish a fund to support independent developers, reports the newspaper “Kommersant.” It is called Indie GO Start.

On September 26, the indie card hit Balatro was released on mobile devices. As noted by the MobileGamer portal, in less than a week, the game brought developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack several hundred thousand dollars.

The analytical service VG Insights has shared the latest data on the number of additions of Deadlock to wishlists on Steam. According to their estimates, Valve’s upcoming game has already been wishlisted by 3.4 million people.

Another piece of news from Unreal Fest 2024 — Epic Games announced the release of the early version of Unreal Engine 5.5. It’s available to try out now.

The upcoming “Gaming Industry” conference boasts a very packed schedule. Over the course of one day, there will be three tracks featuring 29 talks and round tables, presented by 47 experts. More details about the program are available in our publication.

Throughout the last year, Epic Games has been restructuring its processes, as shared by its CEO Tim Sweeney at the Unreal Fest 2024 event. According to him, this has yielded positive results.

In March 2023, Epic Games launched the public Unreal Editor for Fortnite, granting players the ability to create their own games directly within the battle royale. The company shares Fortnite’s revenue with creators of such content. To date, Epic Games has paid them $479 million.

Epic Games has announced the Launch Everywhere with Epic program. It is aimed at developers creating games using the Unreal Engine.

A group of former Electronic Arts (EA) employees has founded a studio in Melbourne called The Three Thousands. It is led by Joseph Donoghue — the former general manager of EA’s Firemonkeys Studios, known for mobile games like Need for Speed: No Limits and Real Racing.