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Итоги 2024 December 18

“The number of wishlists for ‘Diplomacy is Not an Option’ has surpassed one million,” says the Door 407 team on the results of 2024

We continue to wrap up the year 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams. Up next is an interview with the representatives of Door 407, the studio’s founders Oleg Sakharov and Andrey Belousov, as well as its marketing director, Stas Ignatov.

News December 18

The reissue of Utopia City is the worst release of the year according to Metacritic

The website Metacritic has published a list of the lowest-rated games of 2024. The shooter Utopia City topped the list, even though it initially came out way back in 2005 but unexpectedly debuted on Steam a month ago.

News December 18

Shigeru Miyamoto: Creativity in Games is More Important than Big Budgets

Nintendo believes that it is possible to create great games without incurring massive development costs. Focusing on the creative side of the process helps save money.

News December 18

20 million people have played Marvel Rivals

The Marvel Rivals audience is rapidly growing. NetEase announced that 20 million people worldwide have tried the team-based action game in less than two weeks.

News December 17

Sales of Tales of Berseria have surpassed 2.5 million copies

The Tales of series is celebrating its 30th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, Bandai Namco Entertainment has revealed the latest sales figures for Tales of Berseria, one of the most recent installments in the series, which was globally released in 2017 on PC and PlayStation.

News December 17

11 bit studios shut down Project 8 and laid off some of the game’s developers

The Polish company 11 bit studios has decided to shut down a game codenamed Project 8. They had warned about the possibility of this outcome last week when they initiated an audit of the project.

News December 17

Germany has tightened the age rating for games, placing projects with loot boxes, chats, and in-app purchases under scrutiny

Germany has updated its age rating system for games. The standard list of criteria now includes a category for “risk factors.” This was announced by the German ratings agency USK.

News December 17

Helldivers 2 and Total War: WARHAMMER III have returned to the top 10—here’s the situation in this week’s Steam sales chart

The service SteamDB has published a list of the top-grossing products on Steam for the week of December 10 to 17. Counter-Strike 2 took the top spot, displacing the former leader Path of Exile 2 to second place.

News December 17

The developers of Catly have denied allegations of using generative AI

Among the game trailers showcased at The Game Awards 2024 was Catly — an MMO featuring cats from the studio SuperAuthenti. Online speculation arose that both the trailer and the game might have been created using generative artificial intelligence (AI). However, in a statement to IGN, the developers of Catly claimed otherwise.

News December 17

The annual profit of the creators of Gakuen Idolmaster skyrocketed by 6214%

QualiArts is a Japanese mobile game development studio that is part of the internet company CyberAgent. The last fiscal year (October 2023 – September 2024) was extraordinarily successful for them.

News December 16

A new version of the UNIGINE engine has been released — 2.19.1

UNIGINE has released a new version of its engine — 2.19.1. It has been four months since the last update to version 2.19.

Итоги 2024 December 16

“Trying to find our audience in PC gaming,”—Oleg Beresnev and Yulia Barteneva from Beresnev Games on the results of 2024

We continue summarizing the year 2024 with teams from the gaming industry (or related to it). Up next is an interview with representatives from Beresnev Games, founder Oleg Beresnev and CEO Yulia Barteneva.

News December 16

We would like to remind you that App2Top is conducting a study on whether game developers are trading on the stock market.

Let us know if you have a brokerage account. No specific details or passwords needed—just general information. Not holding any stocks is an answer too!

News December 16

Veterans of CD PROJEKT have raised $3 million to develop an online action game about Japan

In 2022, a group of former developers from The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 founded their own studio — Dark Passenger. Recently, it secured seed investment of $3 million.

News December 16

“It’s like mixing rock and roll with hip-hop,” said SEGA’s Chief Operating Officer about the company’s business strategy

SEGA’s Chief Operating Officer, Shuji Utsumi, discussed the company’s business strategy with Eurogamer, highlighting a vision based on three main pillars: shifting focus from the Japanese market, embracing a transmedia approach, and reinvesting in forgotten franchises.

Итоги 2024 December 16

“Hand-drawn 2D art has once again become one of the most sought-after fields,” says Infinite Art Solutions reflecting on the outcomes of 2024

We continue summarizing the results of 2024 with teams involved in the gaming industry. Up next is an interview with representatives from the outsourcing studio Infinite Art Solutions — CEO and co-founder Alexey Pechenin, Business Development Director Oleg Rozhkov, and Art Director Alexander.

News December 16

Analytics: In 2024, the Chinese mini-game market volume will exceed $6.8 billion

The Chinese mini-game market is on the rise. According to estimates by the analytics company DataEye, by the end of 2024, its volume will exceed 50 billion yuan ($6.86 billion).

News December 16

Laundry Store Simulator recouped its production costs in three days

Laundry Store Simulator is another simulator released by the Polish company PlayWay. The game was launched on Steam and Google Play on December 9, 2024. According to PlayWay’s CEO, Krzysztof Kostowski, the game recouped its costs in just three days.

News December 16

The founders of Streum On Studio bought back their studio from PulluP Entertainment

PulluP Entertainment, the parent company of publisher Focus Entertainment Publishing, announced the sale of its controlling interest in Streum On Studio. The studio’s partners-founders have regained control over it.

News December 16

The main events over the weekend (December 14-15)

Online participation for Helldivers 2 on Steam increased by 557% following a major update, Elden Ring sales surpassed 28 million copies, and the head of Game Science was disappointed by Black Myth: Wukong’s loss in the “Game of the Year” category at The Game Awards 2024. Here’s a recap of the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.