"The main issue with AI is the players' rejection of generated content," Sergey Efremov from Astrum Entertainment on the outcomes of 2025

We continue to summarize the results of 2025 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams and experts. Up next is an interview with Sergey Efremov, the Chief Operating Officer of Astrum Entertainment.

How did 2025 turn out for your business? What are the highlights in terms of achievements? What conclusions have you drawn?

Sergey Efremov, Astrum Entertainment: This year we formed several significant partnerships and began gearing up for major launches in 2026, such as the MMORPG Bellatores from the South Korean studio NYOU. We will soon announce other releases set for next year.

In 2025, we actively developed our mobile gaming sector with the game “World of Domovyata”: by the end of the year, the game garnered over 10 million downloads, topped the free games chart in Google Play several times, and won in the “Family Hit” category at the RuStore awards.

Earlier, we launched the game distribution platform Astrum Play. This platform expanded the Astrum Entertainment ecosystem, which includes developing our own products and operating overseas games. In 2026, we plan to enhance the functionality of this platform to offer maximum convenience and comfort to our players.

The year was rich with major partnerships. For example, we recently introduced a cross-game collaboration of two of our hits — Atomic Heart and Warface. Also, an interesting collaboration in Atomic Heart involved various mechanics with the food category of the “Pyaterochka” stores. We embarked on long-term cooperation with the comic publisher MOLOT and collaborated with brands like “Beeline,” MTS, “Sberprime,” “Yandex Plus” and “Yandex Browser,” Kaspersky, Zone 51, Acer, “Oclick,” PREMIER, “Dom.ru,” among others. We participated in events alongside “Rostelecom,” Bloody, and Positive Technologies. These projects allow us to expand our gaming universes and help partners reach new audiences.

How do you see the situation changing in the gaming market for publishing?

Sergey: The global situation for publishers remains unchanged for many years: genres and mechanics come and go, player preferences evolve, but the main thing remains constant — it is crucial to find “your” game developers and, in collaboration with them, offer players the best gaming experience and quality in-game support.

This year, several new publishers entered the market, mostly small but with a clear vision of their portfolio. These are positive changes for the industry: strong competition leads to improved service quality, and the market becomes enriched with a wider variety of games.

Have practices in working with developers changed? Has it become easier or more difficult to work with them? Perhaps they themselves have changed in some way?

Sergey: Overall, the practice of collaboration has not changed; the key for both publishers and developers is to see each other as partners from whom mutual cooperation brings maximum benefit. From our perspective, more developers are understanding this, significantly simplifying negotiations.

This year, there's been a shift among developers towards a more conscious and business-oriented approach to creating their projects. Whereas many indie developers were once focused solely on making their dream game, now they are more likely to analyze market trends and attempt to create games that players are eagerly awaiting. This market understanding by developers also greatly aids in fruitful cooperation with publishers.

How did 2025 turn out for the niche in which you release games?

Sergey: For the MMO genre, the year was eventful with both major releases and scandals. Despite predictions of MMORPG decline for several years, there are still countless players worldwide who play and anticipate new projects in this genre. We support the development of this direction and are preparing to release several projects in this genre in 2026.

What conclusions and lessons from 2025 would you highlight for developers preparing for release?

Sergey: For developers of single-player games: it is crucial to understand your strengths and capabilities, as well as analyze the market and track player preferences. Gamers' demands are important for service games too; this year, we've repeatedly seen situations where developers misjudge their audience, leading to gamer disappointments.

What trends in your niche do you anticipate strengthening or emerging in 2026?

Sergey: Players are seeking more niche experiences, leading to the strengthening of the A- and AA-game segments, with small and medium single-player games performing well. This is vividly demonstrated by the success of the game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. This trend is also supported by the growing interest in indie game genres and experimental forms of gaming experiences.

• This year saw a boom in discussions about using AI in the gaming sphere, although the technology has been in use for years. AI plays a significant role in game development at all stages — from content creation to testing. At Astrum Entertainment, we use AI for creating concept art and marketing assets, while many developers also use neural networks for dialogue development, animation, and character voiceovers. AI helps analyze player behavior, adjust balance and economy, and forecast project interest.
• In the future, AI should help not only accelerate content production and deepen game mechanics but also reduce production costs.
• The main issue for AI currently is the rejection of AI-generated content by players. Even manually created assets that look like something made by neural networks provoke active community dissatisfaction.
• Another trend is UGC (User-Generated Content). This includes relatively simple things like co-op games suitable for play with friends or streams, or even just creating short videos for social networks; as well as complex platforms like Roblox and Fortnite where players can create game worlds within the platform themselves.
• The active development of eSports: the number of teams, both professional and amateur, is growing, as is the number of tournaments and interest from partners and sponsors. This year, Astrum Entertainment held over 350 competitions for the game Warface, with more than 24,000 teams and 110,000 eSports players participating and a prize pool exceeding 36 million rubles.
• Cross-platform capabilities: more developers are creating games considering releases on multiple platforms. The ability to play on different devices enhances audience engagement, leading to a significant increase in activity across all involved platforms.
• Diversity of events (mechanically): to ensure player growth and retention, developers are mixing more mechanics into projects and diversifying metagameplay with various events.
• Collaborations with brands and other IPs. Merging universes, characters, or elements from different franchises or products makes the gaming experience more unique and memorable, strengthening the image and popularity of both sides. It’s clear that next year will bring new partnerships, offering players a more varied and interesting content experience and a broader interaction with the product or brand.
• Session-based gameplay: even in complex genres like MMORPG, elements of session-based gameplay are being introduced to attract the modern gaming audience.

What are the company’s plans for 2026?

Sergey: In 2026, our focus is on expanding and diversifying our portfolio and creating an ecosystem that strengthens our market position.

In brief, these include:

1. Launching new games.
2. Expanding the portfolio by finding and publishing promising domestic and international projects.
3. Continuing to develop the mobile sector, primarily the "World of Domovyata" project, including entering international markets.
4. Developing our own distribution platform, Astrum Play.
5. Strengthening our eSports direction — the number of participants and the prize pool in our Astrum League for Warface grow annually.
6. Continuing to work with Russian indie teams, participating in projects to support budding developers, like prototype.indie.
7. Participating in educational programs in the game development field. For example, collaborating with MIPT, “Synergy University,” XYZ School, and others.