In recent years, production budgets for mobile games in Japan have significantly increased, according to a study by the Japan Online Game Association (JOGA). In 2024, the average cost of creating such a title in the country reached 492 million yen ($3.3 million).

Developers from GFA Games announced on the official social media pages of the game that the MMO shooter PIONER has reached a significant new milestone in wishlists.

The MobileGamer portal has obtained details about the layoffs at King, which are part of the major reductions at Microsoft. To gather this information, they spoke with sources close to the company.

The company GDEV continues to highlight the successes of its games. Just three weeks ago, it announced that the mobile game Hero Wars earned $1.7 billion, and now it has shared data regarding the desktop version of the title — Hero Wars: Dominion Era.

The portfolio of the Everplay Group of companies (formerly Team17 Group) has expanded. It announced the acquisition of “all rights and assets” related to the Hammerwatch franchise from the Swedish indie studio Crackshell.

The GOG team announced that on July 17, the games Limbo and Inside will disappear from its store. The official reason has not been disclosed, but there are speculations online that this could be due to legal disputes between Playdead’s founders Dino Patti and Arnt Jensen, which have recently escalated to the courts.

The Buzz Around Grow a Garden, along with the summer holidays, has led to an increase in online activity for games on Roblox. As noted by Creator Games founder David Taylor, currently, 24 titles have an average of over 50,000 concurrent players.

The FBI shut down seven pirate gaming websites, the audience for Lords of the Fallen reached 5.5 million people, and RimWorld broke its record for peak online players on Steam almost 12 years after its release. Here’s a recap of the major events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Wrapping up the week with a comprehensive piece on the most successful game releases over the past six months. Today, we will discuss the best-selling new releases, sales leaders, and the top indie games on PC and consoles. If a particular title didn’t get its own section, you’ll likely find it on one of the many charts featured.

A temporary manager has been appointed for the “Lesta Games” group of companies. According to data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, it is JSC “IT Technologies,” which was established quite recently—on July 1, 2025.

Sultan’s Game is a card-based RPG inspired by the tales from “One Thousand and One Nights.” In just three and a half months since its release, it has been purchased over a million times worldwide.

Since the beginning of the year, CD PROJEKT’s shares have increased by 37%, Bloomberg noted. According to analysts interviewed by the publication, investor sentiment toward the Polish company has improved due to the hype around the next installment of The Witcher.

The situation with the resignation of the creators of Subnautica has escalated into a full-blown scandal. KRAFTON is facing a lawsuit from the fired executives of Unknown Worlds studio.

MY.GAMES announced a strategic partnership with Crazybit, a recently revived Cypriot studio that developed mobile and browser games in the early 2010s. As part of this collaboration, they have established a joint venture.

In a recent investment report, Aream & Co. did not list the biggest gaming deals of the first half of 2025 but did compile a list for April-June 2025.

Analysts from Aream & Co., based on InvestGame data, prepared a report on the state of the gaming investment market in the first half of 2025. Below are the main conclusions summarized.

Members of SAG-AFTRA ratified an updated agreement with major game developers, including Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two. It went into effect “immediately.”

Game File journalist Stephen Totilo examined data on Microsoft employee payouts for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. He noted that CEO Satya Nadella earned hundreds of times more than others.

Vinit Agarwal, the game director of the multiplayer game set in The Last of Us universe, which was canceled at the end of 2023, left Naughty Dog a few months ago. It has now become known that the developer intends to establish his own studio.