Marketing

On April 10, WN Media Group will be hosting a summit for game developers and publishers focused on operating and supporting live games. Nexters, MY.GAMES, Playkot, and PLAYSTUDIOS have already joined the list of speakers.

In less than a month, the Serbian capital will host a summit for game developers and publishers dedicated to the operation and support of video games. Speakers already announced include representatives from MY.GAMES, PLAYSTUDIOS, Playkot, and Nexters

We return to the series of articles about games in need of investment or publishers. The current piece is dedicated to Enemy Inside, a single-player MOBA project with roguelike mechanics from the indie studio Six Ways Games.

Last month, AppLovin announced its decision to sell its video game studios to focus on its ad business. New details have now emerged about the deal and the buyer of the company’s assets.

A month ago, AppLovin announced its decision to sell all of its gaming studios for $900 million and focus on its advertising business. Business Insider discovered that the buyer will be the British company Tripledot Studios.

Two short-selling firms have issued reports on AppLovin, accusing the company of inflaiting its metrics and engaging in illegal practices. This led to sotck market turmoil, with the CEO refuting all the claims and calling them misleading.

The firms Culper Research and Fuzzy Panda Research released scathing reports focused on AppLovin. They claimed that AppLovin significantly inflates ad metrics and engages in unethical and even illegal practices.

AppLovin has decided to focus on its advertising business. It announced the sale of its entire gaming division.

In the Steam documentation for partner developers, a separate section dedicated to in-game advertising has appeared. The store listed which advertising practices it supports and which it does not support

The China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association (CADPA) has updated the standards for game advertising in China. One of the new provisions aims to combat advertising that misleads players

Balancy, a service that simplifies LiveOps for game teams, is expanding the number of supported engines. It has introduced an SDK for games developed using the Cocos Creator engine and TypeScript language

Gamelight is a mobile UA platform for game developers and publishers. We spoke with its founder, Günay Azer, about the startup's approach to working with data, its proprietary AI algorithm, rewarding ads, and much more

Dynasty Warriors: Origins, the first main installment in the long-running franchise in almost seven years, has been released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Let’s take a closer look at its early metrics.

Gamelight is a user acquisition platform for mobile developers and publishers. We’ve discussed the company’s data-driven approach, dedicated AI algorithm, rewarded UA/marketing, and more in an exclusive interview with founder Günay Azer.

Palestinian game designer Rasheed Abueideh has successfully wrapped up his crowdfunding campaign for a pseudo-3D stealth adventure game, drawing inspiration from a historic Palestinian folktale, with nearly $50,000 exceeding the initial funding target.

Together with top managers and experts from the gaming industry (and related fields), we continue to summarize the results of 2024. Up next is an interview with Dmitry Bobrov, the CEO of ZiMAD studio

We continue our review of 2024 together with top managers and experts from the games industry (and related fields). Up next is an interview with Patrik Wilkens, Vice President of Business Development at TheSoul Publishing.

We continue to wrap up the year 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams and experts. Up next is an interview with Konstantin Ivanov, the Brand Director of AdQuantum

We continue our review of 2024 together with top managers and experts from the games industry (and related fields). Up next is an interview with Marcin Marzęcki, CEO and co-founder of Kool Things.

We continue to wrap up the year 2024 with teams and experts from the gaming industry. Next up is an interview with Nikolay Borzov, co-founder of the PR agency FatPony

We continue to review the results of 2024 with teams and experts from the gaming industry. Up next is an interview with Konstantin Sakhnov, the director of Vengeance Games studio.

Charlie the Unicorn is a series of web cartoons about a unicorn named Charlie that went viral in the early 2000s. Recently, it was featured in an advertisement for new skins for MultiVersus. This did not sit well with Charlie the Unicorn's creator, Jason Steele.

Developers from China are investing significant amounts of money in advertising their games and applications on the Russian marketplace RuStore. According to VK's calculations, from January to November 2024, they spent over 60 million rubles on promotion through the "VK Advertising" platform.

In an article for Game World Observer, Appodeal Publishing shares three proven user acquisition (UA) strategies to help mobile devs and publishers make the most of the holidays. There’re also insights into how Join Blocks used these strategies to increase installs by 6x and revenue by 300% during Christmas.

Grinding Gear Games has finally released a sequel to its successful action RPG Path of Exile. Let’s take a closer look at its impressive metrics.

CI Games stated that its overall game sales have increased thanks to systematic updates and working with player feedback. This was reported by the company's president, Marek Tyminski, in an interview with the Polish agency PAP Biznes

Wishlists are one of the key metrics that developers pay attention to when preparing to launch their games. Here’s an interesting new analysis of how wishlists are converting to sales, and what that says about the state of Steam in general.

The marketing company AppsFlyer published a report on mobile app monetization for the third quarter of 2024

According to BBC, publishers of only two out of the 26 highest-grossing games with loot boxes on Google Play clearly indicate the presence of this mechanic in their UK advertisements. The others remain silent about loot boxes, thereby violating the requirements of the UK's advertising regulator.

Gamescom is one of the most prominent events in the gaming industry, and participating in it becomes more expensive each year. Journalists from GamesWirtschaft discovered how much it will cost to showcase a trailer during the main broadcast at the Opening Night Live ceremony in 2025

At the end of October, it became known that AppLovin and its subsidiary game studio Machine Zone had downsized some of their staff. The number of employees who lost their jobs was not disclosed at that time, but the portal SFGATE found these figures in a statement filed by AppLovin with the California state authorities last week

We continue our series of publications about games seeking investment or a publisher. Up next is a piece on the mobile parenting simulator Best Parent.

Games industry veteran Vladimir Nikolsky and online gambling traffic expert Alex Riddick have discussed the state of these two different markets during the recent WN Conference Cyprus’24. Here’re the main differences in terms of competition, user acquisition, and other issues.

Activision's Chief Marketing Officer, Tyler Bahl, shared details about the promotion of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. He stated that no less was spent on the game's marketing than on any of the major blockbuster films of this year

AppLovin and its subsidiary Machine Zone (known for Game of War and Mobile Strike) have conducted a series of layoffs

The newest whitepaper from GamesIndustry.biz, titled "A Complete Guide to Monetizing and Marketing Your Video Games Direct-to-Consumer," is now available for download

New information has surfaced regarding Epic's strategy for its mobile games store, revealing plans to feature up to 50 third-party games and extend its PC marketplace giveaway program before the end of the year

Update: Riot Games has stated that it is "not connected to the complaint mentioned in SAG-AFTRA's press release."

We continue to publish the findings of our salary survey, conducted from April to May 2023, chapter by chapter. This publication focuses on the income levels of Russian-speaking gaming marketers.

We continue our series of publications about games seeking investments or a publisher. Up next is a feature on the word game Word Masters, which is currently in soft launch

Unionized employees at Raven Software in Wisconsin have lodged a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the studio and its parent companies, Activision and Microsoft. The grievance, reported by Game File, was submitted last Friday, alleging "Refusal to Bargain/Bad Faith Bargaining." These workers have been seeking a contract with the company since they unionized through the Communications Workers of America in 2022. The complaint also mentions alleged "Changes in Terms and Conditions of Employment" and "Concerted Activities (Retaliation, Discharge, Discipline)" as additional concerns.

The data attribution service Tenjin released a report on the state of the mobile game advertising market in the second quarter of 2024. Here are the details

Sony has introduced the MENA Hero Project, an incubator initiative designed to discover and assist regional developers in the Middle East and North Africa gaming sector. According to a blog post, the program will extend support to developers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. This support encompasses mentorship, training, and investment tailored to specific projects

Playgendary may have laid off its entire marketing team, as well as the team working on arcade games. This was reported by a manager from one of the Cypriot companies on social media, citing their sources

The advertising service AdSense will soon completely stop operating in Russia. Google sent emails to Russian AdSense account holders, warning them about the impending deactivation of their accounts

We continue our series of publications about games seeking investments or a publisher. Up next is a piece about the St. Petersburg studio Selfish Snakes, which is working on a first-person shooter with roguelike meta elements called Hell over Me

Marvel Rivals, an upcoming PvP hero shooter from NetEase, is showing great numbers at the start of its closed beta. The game has already attracted tens of thousands of concurrent users on Steam alone.

Capcom has set a goal to boost the proportion of female managers to 15%. During a general Q&A session at a recent shareholders meeting, the company revealed that 21.2% of its overall workforce is female, with women comprising 13.6% of its core talent. It remains unclear how Capcom differentiates between employees and core talent

The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation has prepared a draft law that lists measures to support the Russian gaming industry, according to the news agency "Interfax," which has reviewed the document

Approximately one-third of the workforce at video game marketing firm Project N has been dismissed as part of a service consolidation effort. News of the layoffs surfaced when editorial team members, deputy editor Jack Ridsdale and senior staff writer Miri Teixeira, announced on social media that they were affected. GamesIndustry.biz later verified the additional layoffs after contacting Project N's parent company, Network N, which also manages media platforms like PCGamesN, Pocket Tactics, and The Digital Fix