M&A and Investment

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is a 2D metroidvania developed and published by Adglobe’s subsidiaries, Live Wire and Binary Haze Interactive. The game recently reached a new sales milestone.

PlayCap, described as a "pioneering angel investment syndicate led by women," aspires to "significantly enhance the representation of women" in the gaming investment sector. Founded by angel investor Bibbi Wikman, PlayCap seeks to bring together experienced investors and newcomers, fostering a "collaborative environment where women with industry experience can make impactful investments." While PlayCap's mission includes supporting women in the industry, it does not limit its investments to women-led gaming companies and "remains open to any promising opportunities identified within the gaming industry"

Agora Gaming Partners, a newly established global advisory firm, has secured $600,000 at its inception. The firm, founded by Pontus Mahler, formerly the vice president at Global Top Round, and Jacques Benchetrit, previously head of M&A and fundraising at the same company, aims to offer publishing and equity deals alongside fundraising services tailored for gaming startups and developers. AGP will kick off operations with an initial roster of six clients, supported by investment from several undisclosed angel investors specializing in the gaming sector

GiantX, a prominent name in the gaming and esports sector, has finalized the acquisition of AI esports coaching start-up iTero Gaming. The financial specifics remain confidential, but the deal is described as being worth "multi-million dollars." Following this acquisition, iTero's founder, Jack J. Williams, who established the company in 2022, has been named the head of gaming technology at GiantX

French publisher Red Art Games reported that its website was subjected to a cyberattack. Hackers managed to steal some user data, including player names, birth dates, email addresses, places of residence, and phone numbers

Capcom is targeting a rise in the proportion of female managers to 15%. During a recent shareholders meeting's general Q&A session, the company revealed that currently, women account for 21.2% of its employees, with 13.6% of its core talent being female. The specific distinction Capcom makes between employees and core talent remains unclear

AppMagic has successfully secured $3 million in a Series A funding round spearheaded by GEM Capital. The investment firm allocated $2.5 million to the mobile market intelligence tool, with venture fund Vibranium adding $500,000. The raised capital will be directed towards research and development of AppMagic's software and will aid in setting up new sales teams in the United States, China, Korea, and Japan

The media company Warner Bros. Discovery has become the owner of another gaming team. It announced the acquisition of Player First Games, the studio that developed the fighting game MultiVersus

European players continue to actively spend money on games. Sales in the region remained strong in the first half of 2024 despite a slight decline compared to the same period last year.

Blue Scarab Entertainment is a new indie studio formed by a group of industry veterans. The team has already secured funding in a seed round for its debut MMORPG.

Exactly one week from now, the organizers of the WN Conference will collaborate with ChinaJoy, the largest gaming expo in Asia. On July 25, the WN x ChinaJoy International Summit industry event will take place in Shanghai. We share the details about the event and the program in our material

On July 25, the organizers of the WN Conference and ChinaJoy, the largest video game conference in Asia, will bring together games industry professionals at a special international summit in Shanghai. Here are the details about the event’s program.

After leaving Valve and going indie, veteran game designer Matt T. Wood found success with his studio Double Dagger and cute adventure title Little Kitty, Big City. Here is some new data about the game’s commercial performance.

The Steam Summer Sale has been a success for Bohemia Interactive. Here is how the studio’s tactical shooter Arma 3 performed during the event.

Bohemia Interactive announced that thanks to a recent sale on Steam, the audience for the shooter Arma 3 has grown by more than half a million people. Of those, 100,000 bought the game on the first day of the sale

During Develop Brighton last week, Jamie Brayshaw, Ripstone's head of partnerships, delivered a presentation on how the studio persuaded Netflix to permit the development of a Queen's Gambit game. This marks the developer's inaugural mobile project and the first Netflix game to utilize Unreal Engine. Despite their prior experience with chess games, including 2017's Chess Ultra, the realization of The Queen's Gambit game stemmed from a determined approach by the studio. Brayshaw recounted the process, from a very tight pitching deadline to the hurdles encountered while developing a mobile game with Unreal. "Before working on The Queen's Gambit, we were well-versed in creating games using Unreal," Brayshaw remarked. "We had previously developed mobile games, primarily with proprietary technology and custom engines. However, this was our first venture in using Unreal for a mobile game"

The newest GamesIndustry.biz Microcast can now be downloaded or viewed. This week's episode features James and Chris discussing Microsoft's alterations to Xbox Game Pass, which include price hikes across all existing tiers and the launch of a new Standard tier that excludes day one releases. The discussion delves into the company's strategy for its subscription service, in addition to its fresh 'You don't need an Xbox to play Xbox' ad campaign. The episode also touches on the atmosphere at Develop Brighton 2024 and Nintendo's unconventional teaser campaign for an upcoming horror game

Murky Divers has achieved a milestone of 100,000 sales in under a month. For more details on this story, please visit the official source using the link below

Nexon has addressed allegations that The First Descendant borrowed designs from Destiny 2. A recent Forbes article pointed out resemblances between iconography and weapon designs in Nexon's free-to-play game and Bungie's title. In a statement shared by Forbes contributor Paul Tassi on social media, Nexon acknowledged the concerns and stated that it will make "adjustments to ensure that the imagery that may appear similar clearly reflects the unique identity of the game"

Slava Gris, an independent developer and author of games such as Fearmonium and Catmaze, gave a talk during the first session of the "Gaming Industry" conference. Drawing from personal experience, he provided detailed insights on how to work with Steam from Russia in the current realities

Shift Up has finally gone public. The Stellar Blade developer’s IPO was the largest in South Korea for a game company in almost three years.

Ex-employees of Nintendo and Sega have established a new firm called First Break Labs, focused on supporting independent game developers. The company intends to offer funding and marketing assistance to partnered studios, leveraging over 20 years of its team's experience with both indie games and major AAA titles. Alfonso Cubias, the chief publishing officer, has a background of over five years as head of product marketing at Sega and has held senior marketing positions at Digital Extremes and SmileGate

Microsoft has revealed plans to raise the prices of its current Xbox Game Pass tiers and to launch a new Standard tier, which will not feature games upon their initial release on the service. According to a post on the company's support site, Game Pass for Console will be discontinued for new subscribers. The new Xbox Game Pass Standard option will be priced at $14.99 per month and is expected to become available "in the coming months"

Steam’s seasonal sales are definitely one of the best events to boost interest in older hit games. And Frost punk developer 11 bit studios has some nice stats to prove it.

The metaverse-specializing company Infinite Reality announced the purchase of Landvault. This is a studio that creates virtual spaces and games in Decentraland, Sandbox, and Roblox to promote various brands

According to recent data from Brightmine, which specializes in salary benchmarking for the video games sector, the average basic salary for men in the UK games industry surpasses that of women by more than £8,000. This analysis, drawing from over 25 video game companies and encompassing more than 3,000 employees, reveals that men earn an average of £49,695, while women receive £41,174. Consequently, the gender pay gap in the UK's gaming sector stands at 17.1%. This is notably higher than the 14.7% average across all industries but lower than the 25.8% gap observed in the technology industry, based on data from Brightmine

A few days ago, Devolver Digital announced plans to issue 23.9 million new shares on the stock exchange and to raise £7.9 million ($10 million) from their sale. It seems that in the end, they exceeded their investment target

Kwalee has revealed a minority investment in Devolver Digital, acquiring a 3.58% stake. This move aligns with Kwalee's strategy to broaden its reach in the PC and console market. The investment comes shortly after the release of Robobeat, a PC rhythm shooter created by Insanity Games. Kwalee plans to launch additional PC and console titles, such as The Precinct from Fallen Tree Games, The Spirit of the Samurai by Digital Minds, and In Sink from Clock Out Games

"Vintorog" is a game developer and publisher founded by employees of IThub Group and HSE. The company announced that it has raised 12 million rubles from a business angel

Rooftops & Alleys, a parkour game focused on freerunning through concrete jungles, has been another indie success this year. It has gathered a strong community around it and performed well commercially in its debut month.

Another indie hit has appeared on Steam — the parkour simulator Rooftops & Alleys: The Parkour Game by German solo developer Michel Losch. In a conversation with gaming expert Simon Carless, the game’s creator shared how the project managed to achieve success

Keywords Studios has announced it has reached an acquisition agreement with Swedish investment firm EQT, valued at approximately £2.2 billion, pending shareholder approval. Keywords, a company that provides integrated creative and technology services to industry giants like Activision Blizzard, EA, Epic, and Square Enix, expressed satisfaction with the terms of a recommended cash acquisition at £24.50 per share. CEO Bertrand Bodson stated, “I am extremely proud of our passionate world-class teams and the leading technology-enabled global platform we are building together, which have enabled us to develop innovative solutions and foster strategic partnerships with our clients,"

Nearly two-thirds of PC gamers in China in 2024 allocated more spending to games on this platform compared to others, as detailed in a recent Niko Partners report. The China Gamer Behaviour and Markets Report, which included responses from 1,079 gamers surveyed in April 2024, indicated that 19% of PC gamers acknowledged at least a 30% increase in their gaming expenditures compared to the previous year. The research also revealed that Steam continues to dominate as the leading PC distribution platform in China, with almost 80% of gamers playing premium titles utilizing it

Keywords Studios will soon become part of Swedish private equity firm EQT Group. The video game outsourcer’s board of directors has now approved the final bid worth more than £2 billion.

Surgent Studios, the developer of the action-platformer Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, has conducted layoffs. It has parted ways with "more than a dozen" employees

Steam is home to games of many unusual subgenres, and the niche of titles simulating various professions and (sometimes not-so-legal) occupations is becoming increasingly populated. The recent success of Drug Dealer Simulator 2 fits well into this trend.

Daybreak Game Company, a subsidiary of Swedish holding company EG7, has announced a new M&A deal. The publisher has purchased indie studio Singularity 6, known for its online life sim Palia.

The studio Singularity 6, which developed the life simulator Palia, has joined the Daybreak Game Company, which is itself a subsidiary of the Swedish holding company EG7. The amount and terms of the deal are not disclosed

According to prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo has its own approach to measuring the success of its games. And it strives for this high standard with every game it is produces.

Capcom has acquired Minimum Studios and made it a subsidiary. The Taiwanese animation studio, established in 2018, has contributed to notable Capcom games such as Resident Evil Village, the Resident Evil 4 remake, and Dragon's Dogma 2. Minimum Studios focuses on keyframe animation and motion capture

Capcom has another subsidiary. It is the Taiwanese company Minimum Studios, which specializes in creating animations for games

Gameloft continues to downsize. A month after announcing plans to close its office in Cluj-Napoca, it has let go of a "significant portion" of the staff from its Toronto office

It’s been a year since the launch of Dave the Diver. To celebrate the anniversary, developer Mintrocket shared an updated on the game’s sales, as well as other stats.

The franchise of surgical simulators, Surgeon Simulator, has changed ownership once again. It now belongs to Infogrames, the revived publishing brand of Atari that re-emerged a few months ago

Currently, four AAA game ports are available on iPhone and iPad — these are Assassin's Creed Mirage, the remake of Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, and Death Stranding. According to analysts, all of them are selling very poorly

Shift Up has revealed the first data on its recent PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade. The South Korean company considers the game successful based on its commercial performance.

For the second time this month, we're turning to the topic of adult games. This time in an interview format. We discuss the niche of adult projects with Andrey Postnikov, Senior Business Developer at Nutaku

The Canadian indie studio Cut to Bits has parted ways with most of its employees. This was announced on social media by its co-founder and general manager Masao Kobayashi, who was also among those laid off

CD Projekt has agreed on the dividend payment for the last fiscal year. Shareholders will receive PLN 99,910,510 ($24.8 million).

Meta Corporation* has restructured its Reality Labs division, which focuses on mixed reality technologies. It has split the division into two business groups — Metaverse and Wearables