In Finland, the Ministry of Games, a gaming startup that once raised $1.9 million, went bankrupt. The company managed to create four mobile games in five years.

On May 23, a free Unreal Meetup #2 developer meeting will be held on the WN Hub platform. There will be lectures on animation, narrative design, content management and prototyping.

Startup Ziva Dynamics has closed the seed round of financing. The authors of the tool for creating realistic characters raised $7 million.

Many gaming companies have increased revenue thanks to the pandemic. But the coronavirus can still negatively affect the gaming industry, according to the head of Xbox Phil Spencer (Phil Spencer). This impact will become noticeable by March 2021.

Localization of the game is not only the translation of content into other languages, but also its integration into the product. Sometimes it takes no less time than working on the same text. How to make it so that the game can be easily and quickly localized for any market, — says the company Alconost.

As part of the announcement of Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games announced changes to the licensing policy. Now she will take royalties for using the engine exclusively from those games that have already earned their first million dollars.

Epic Games has introduced the next generation of Unreal Engine. The developers will have access to the new numbered version of the engine in 2021.

The analytical company App Annie presented the top Chinese mobile games, segmented by spending by foreign users for the first quarter of 2020.

A little bit about the big numbers of Playrix. The company’s product downloads have crossed the 1 billion line. Most of the downloads came from the adventures of Austin the Butler. The Gardenscepes and Homescapes dilogy has collected about 600 million installations.

Wanted: Game designer at MYTONA, lead tester at Axlebolt Publishing and senior 2D artist at Skytec Games.

Publisher Slitherine has launched a fund to support indie developers and a publishing label. Their common name is K—Project.

A new opportunity for monetization of frituplay will appear on the Google platform. Mobile publisher Multiscription has announced the Android application Unleashd. This is a catalog of free-to-play games distributed by subscription.

Sony has introduced a new generic brand for its in-house game developers. Its name is PlayStation Studios.

A difficult time. Today, game developers are forced not only to stay at home, but also to work in new conditions for themselves. The companies MYTONA, Belka Games, Frag Lab and Deus Craft told how they help employees in the circumstances.

Space strategy Stellaris has sold 3 million copies on PC, PS4 and Xbox. This was announced by publisher Paradox Interactive in honor of the 4th anniversary of the game.

Veterans Respawn and Infinity Ward have opened the AAA studio Gravity Well. At first, she will have to do without an office because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another piece of news from China. The local PlayStation Store has suspended operations due to security breaches. It is unclear when the site will open again.

At the end of April, Epic Games, together with our colleagues from Disgusting Men, announced the Second nationwide competition for game developers on Unreal Engine 4. We discussed with Alexey Savchenko why it is needed and how it will take place.

China’s largest gaming conference — ChinaJoy 2020 — will take place. The organizers did not cancel the event, despite the coronavirus pandemic.