Steam introduced a return verification process for users from the United Kingdom, Blizzard Entertainment filed a lawsuit against creators of unofficial World of Warcraft servers, and the Gears of War: Reloaded audience surpassed one million players. We outline the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

It has been a year since the announcement of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. During this time, Unfrozen has actively promoted the game through various channels and tools. We analyzed the studio’s marketing approach and successful communication strategies that positively impact interest in the game.

The analytical company Niko Partners forecasts that the year 2025 will be extremely successful for the Chinese gaming market. According to their calculations, residents of China will spend $50.7 billion on games over the year — $1.5 billion more than in 2024.

Another union has been established at Blizzard Entertainment. This time, it was formed by specialists working on the Diablo series of games.

A month ago, the Swedish holding company Thunderful Group reported that its affairs were not going well, with bankruptcy looming on the horizon. In an attempt to save itself, one of its measures was to sell a majority stake in the company — 81.7% — to Atari. However, to make the deal happen, it first needed the support of existing shareholders, which it now has.

The companies Xsolla and Futura Digital have announced a free webinar for mobile developers and publishers. The discussion will focus on the impact of the Epic Games conflict with Apple on working with iOS applications. The situation will be examined from two perspectives—legal and business.

On the evening of August 28, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was officially released on PCs and consoles — the game was available to Deluxe Edition holders two days earlier. According to SteamDB, within a few hours, the peak online count for the remake on Steam reached 19,634 players.

The Polish corporate group CD PROJEKT released its financial report for January-June 2025. They announced that their revenue reached 443 million zlotys (121.1 million USD), which is 4% more than the previous year. The main source of income was Cyberpunk 2077.

Moving forward with our study of what’s happening in Russia’s web games market. This time featuring platforms like Yandex Games, VK, and Pikabu Games.

Valve’s Business Development Manager Erik Peterson spoke at the Devcom developers conference held during Gamescom 2025. He revealed some fresh data about the Steam store.

The analytical company VG Insights shared its data on the audience of the Chinese Soulslike Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

Colombia is another country that has initiated an antitrust investigation against Apple due to its App Store policies. The local regulator suspects that the corporation has violated free trade principles.

The studio Crystal Dynamics announced a new round of layoffs on LinkedIn. This time, they did not disclose the number of affected employees.

Let’s explore together with Xsolla what direct sales are, how it happened that the mobile gaming market has embraced them now, and why they require adaptation from both developers and users.

Many learned about PlayStack after the phenomenal success of Balatro, although the company has been around for nearly 10 years. Since 2019, the publisher’s revenue has increased 40-fold, and its unique approach to project searching has helped amass an impressive catalog. This and more about PlayStack’s business is covered in today’s article.

Analyst Mat Piscatella from Circana released his monthly report on the state of the U.S. gaming market. We’ve highlighted the key figures.

In the summer of 2023, a group of former developers from Fallout 76, Doom, and Star Wars: The Old Republic launched a new studio under the wing of NetEase, called T-Minus Zero Entertainment. Two years later, they faced difficulties.

The authorities in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward have initiated an unusual tax campaign. They announced that residents of Japan could receive a tax deduction in the form of in-game currency if they allocate part of their taxes to the ward’s budget.

Over the last two decades, the turnover of Finland’s gaming industry has significantly increased, reports Neogames in a recent report. According to their estimates, in 2024 the figure amounted to a near-record €2.85 billion.