M&A and Investment

On the evening of March 5, the early access of Steam saw the launch of Slay the Spire 2— the sequel to the hit card "roguelike" by Mega Crit studio. The release of the sequel has caused quite a stir

Cheer Games successfully secured $4.5 million in its initial pre-seed funding round.

Vento Games, a Turkish mobile development company established in 2024 by former executives of Peak Games, Fungo, and Zynga, has secured $4 million in its most recent seed funding round.

According to a report by the Financial Times, the Trump administration is currently deliberating on whether to permit Tencent, the Chinese giant, to retain its ownership stakes in gaming companies. This issue has reportedly been a topic of discussion among top officials in recent weeks. A meeting scheduled for Tuesday, which was intended for cabinet officials to address the issue, has been delayed due to scheduling conflicts. These considerations are taking place in anticipation of Donald Trump's upcoming visit to China later this month

The game reached this milestone in less than a week after its release, which took place on February 27

Minit Games is a German startup working on its own gaming platform featuring HTML5 games. The company recently successfully secured investments in a pre-seed funding round

According to Bloomberg, it is in talks to acquire a ‘small’ stake in Hungry Studio.

Layoffs continue in the gaming industry. Now, the wave of mass cuts has hit the studio Halfbrick.

She is negotiating the purchase of a "small" part of Hungry Studio, Bloomberg reports, citing sources

Splash Damage has taken over Gamepires, the creator of Scum, from Jagex, the company behind Runescape, in a deal supported by Emona Capital

The Chinese Room, an independent UK game developer that separated from Tencent's Sumo Group last year, has revealed a collaboration with Lyrical Games. This newly established publishing label was introduced last year by veterans from the ex-Take-Two label Private Division.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is reportedly engaged in "advanced talks" to sell the developer of Mobile Legends, Moonton Technology, to Savvy Games Group, with the deal valued between $6 billion and $7 billion.

At this week's DICE Summit in Las Vegas, leaders and creators from the gaming industry honored Vince Zampella.

The deal will cost the Barbie manufacturer $159 million.

The Chinese studio miHoYo, known for Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero, announced that four of its former employees have been imprisoned. They were found guilty of abusing their official positions and accepting bribes.

Developers from the French indie studio The Game Bakers shared new data on the sales of Cairn — a simulator centered around mountain climbing. The team announced that the game has already attracted over 300,000 people

Despite the ever-growing popularity of AI, along with the associated hopes and fears, investments in training specialists continue to flow. In their column for App2Top, Magdalena Stryjewski, the Chief Operating Officer, and Elena Räikkönen, a manager from WN Media Group, explained why this is happening

Another Western studio of NetEase has been affected by the Chinese company's decision to reduce its presence outside of Asia. This time, it's about NetEase Games Montréal.

The head of Hooded Horse, a publishing house best known for Manor Lords and the upcoming Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Tim Bender, gave an interview to PC Gamer. During the conversation, he criticized the vast majority of indie publishers and essentially urged developers to self-publish their games.

She owned 44.95% of the shares in Iron Wolf Studio.

We continue to wrap up the outgoing year together with representatives from gaming and gaming-adjacent companies. Up next is a conversation with Natalya Tolkacheva and Irma Novikova, representing the legal firm Prospectacy.

She did this as part of a strategic review of the gaming portfolio: recently, Aristocrat has been paying more attention to social casinos. For this reason, Aristocrat previously sold Plarium, known for RAID: Shadow Legends.

The Congressional Labor Caucus of the United States has expressed concerns to the Federal Trade Commission regarding the possible implications of the proposed $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.

The matchmaking platform MeetToMatch has been acquired by 1SP Agency, an international marketing firm.

Belfast XR Festival has introduced a new creative development fund totaling £200,000 aimed at "addressing a crucial gap in the UK's immersive media ecosystem"

The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is transferring billions of dollars worth of stock in gaming companies to its subsidiary, Savvy Games Group.

It has become known about another studio that has suffered layoffs at Ubisoft. Ubisoft Abu Dhabi has been affected by the cuts.

According to a recent report by investment bank Aream & Co, mergers and acquisitions activity in the video game sector amounted to only $500 million in the last quarter of 2025, marking an 89% decline compared to the same period the previous year.

We continue to wrap up the year 2025 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams. Up next is an interview with Danila Kamenev, Head of Publishing at Indie GO Fund

Already in the new year of 2026, we continue to sum up the results of the previous year together with gaming teams (or those connected to the gaming industry). Next up is an interview with Dmitry Beley, the game director at Solarsuit Games

CD Projekt RED (CDPR), a well-known developer and publisher, has sold the GOG distribution platform to one of its original founders for 90.7 million Polish zlotys, which is approximately $25 million or £18.6 million

Let's recall, "Video Game Factory" is an accelerator that launched in the summer of 2024 with the support of the Creative Industries Agency (CIA). It assists aspiring developers with game creation and pitching to publishers and investors

Dissatisfaction with Square Enix’s work does not prevent the 3D Investment Partners fund from continuing to purchase shares of the Japanese company. Recently, they increased their stake from 14.36% to 16.48%.

Discontent with Square Enix's performance does not prevent the 3D Investment Partners fund from continuing to buy shares of the Japanese company. Recently, it increased its stake from 14.36% to 16.48%

The purchase cost $103.8 million

NCsoft, a leading gaming company from Korea, has acquired a majority stake in the Singapore-based mobile publisher Indygo Group.

Shareholders of American publishing powerhouse Electronic Arts have approved the company's purchase by a consortium that comprises the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.

Bandai Namco is divesting Limbic Entertainment to "a private investor with expertise in the video game industry"

Santa Ragione's contentious horror game, Horses, has achieved sales exceeding 18,000 copies even after being removed from Steam and the Epic Games Store

Mythwright, the company behind TerraTech, has purchased the complete intellectual property of Thronefall from Grizzly Games

Gordon Van Dyke, a co-founder of the successful Swedish indie publisher Raw Fury, has revealed the revival of developer Stumpysquid, the original creator of the popular strategy game Kingdom: Two Crowns. Although Stumpysquid had been acquired by Raw Fury, which published the game, Van Dyke maintained ownership of the studio following Raw Fury's acquisition by Altor. He parted ways with the publisher in March

As we approach Christmas, we continue to summarize the year with experts in the gaming market. Next up is an interview with Lev Kobelev and Alexander Barabanov, authors of the analytical service SteamTrender.

We continue to wrap up the year 2025 with gaming teams. Today, we present to you an interview with Anton Mikhailov, the creative director of the indie studio Tortuga Team, known for the Braveland series of turn-based strategies

Warner Bros. Discovery has officially recommended that its shareholders reject the $108.4 billion acquisition offer from Paramount Skydance.

A new entry in the "Investor/Publisher Wanted" section. Today we are discussing the project "Backgammon 5XL PLUS." The project has already been launched on RuStore. The team needs funds for building a legal infrastructure and marketing efforts

According to GamesIndustry, the Chinese giant has acquired a minority stake in Drama Studios. Neither the exact size of the stake nor the amount of the transaction has been publicly disclosed.

According to the GamesIndustry portal, the Chinese giant has purchased a minority stake in Drama Studios. Neither the exact size of the stake nor the amount of the deal has been publicly disclosed

Tencent, the prominent Chinese conglomerate in technology and entertainment, has acquired a minority ownership interest in France's Drama Studios.

The terms and conditions of the deal are not disclosed.

Zoe Studios is a mobile game development studio founded last year by former Playtika employees. Recently, it secured backing from eight private investors.