The Chinese launch of the cooperative shooter Valorant from Riot Games is scheduled for this Wednesday. Tencent is responsible for the local release, which plans to spend more than a billion yuan ($138 million) over the next three years to promote and develop the title as an esports discipline. She also calls Valorant “the most important game published this year.”

The US Video Game Manufacturers Association (Entertainment Software Association) has published an annual Essential Facts study dedicated to the American gaming audience. We share the figures from it.

Yesterday, a California court refused to impose an injunction on the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard deal, as required by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This decision had a positive impact on the value of the shares of the gaming company.

The studio that developed the Uncharted and Last of Us series is waiting for a reshuffle. Evan Wells, who held the position of its co-president, announced his imminent departure from the company in which he had worked since 1998.

Immediately after the news of Microsoft‘s victory in court over the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which demanded an injunction against the purchase of Activision Blizzard, it became known about the progress in another important trial. We are talking about the confrontation between Microsoft and the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom (hereinafter — CMA).

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the FTC‘s request to impose a preliminary injunction on Microsoft‘s purchase of Activision Blizzard.

A couple of hours after our publication about Dave The Diver, it became known that the game officially sold one million copies. This was stated by her developer studio Mintrocket, which is one of the Nexon sub-brands.

Israeli developer and publisher of mobile games Playtika received a higher investment rating. The company’s rating was raised from an unsatisfactory level (Underperform) to an average (Neutral). The stock market immediately reacted positively to this.

According to the Steam sales chart for the last week, the main hit of July is the role—playing pixel adventure Dave The Diver from Mintrocket studio (owned by Nexon).

According to Game Developer, Jay Watamaniuk announced his departure from Bioware on July 7. He has been working at the company since 2001. The reasons for the dismissal were not disclosed.

The results of the vote became known the day before. 117 out of more than 200 eligible employees took part in it. 91 participants spoke in favor of forming a trade union called Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS-CWA).

According to GeekWire, the current stage already goes beyond the massive global cuts announced by the company in mid-January (then Microsoft announced the dismissal of 10 thousand people).

The American Video Game History Foundation has published a study according to which only 13% of classic video games released in the United States remain available for purchase or review.

The Polish Agency for Entrepreneurship Development has published a report on the state of the gaming industry in the country.

It has already been formed and is based in Seattle. It is headed by Kevin Stephens, who has worked for more than eighteen years (including in leadership positions) at Monolith Productions. The studio’s first game will be a single third-person action game about the Marvel character Black Panther.

This information became widespread only after the Japanese theater troupe Takarazuka Revue, which is currently preparing a musical based on Final Fantasy XVI, casually mentioned it.

The British edition of GamesIndustry published the top 10 best-selling video games in physical retail in the UK last week. It was once again headed by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

In India, a plot unfolds that is worthy of a Bollywood film adaptation. A brief plot of the real story sounds like this: a Pakistani citizen runs away from her husband with her four children to India to reunite with a young man she fell in love with while playing with him online in PUBG.

The coordinators of the free open source Godot engine have announced the release of its new version — 4.1. It is reported that more than 300 developers have been working on it for four months.