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Developers at Star Wars Zero Company faced layoffs, the audience for the Death Stranding franchise reached 28 million people, and sales of Probably Stolen surpassed one million copies — we recap the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend

SAG-AFTRA has launched a video game agreement that permits creators to involve professional actors at the pre-funding pitch stage of development.

The company Unity is being targeted for acquisition. According to sources from Reuters, a consortium of investors, including the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake, has shown interest.

The analytics company Newzoo, in collaboration with the G2A platform, studied gamers' purchasing habits. It turned out that many players are not in a hurry to buy new releases and increasingly prefer to wait for sales.

Keeping track of the numerous developments in the gaming industry can be challenging. To assist, we create semi-regular summaries of the latest changes.

In 2026, a special category of projects focusing on mass sorting emerged within the niche of organization games. Today, we'll explore how this new wave differs from the traditional cleaning and renovation simulators, with numerous charts, data, and observations about what is happening with the offerings amid growing interest

Recently, developers have been complaining that Steam moderators are taking longer to review games before publication. The store itself has officially acknowledged the issue. This situation has greatly disappointed Jacob Navok, the former director of business development at Square Enix

In the second quarter of 2026, Sega surpassed expectations, buoyed by a remarkable 331.6% increase in operating income from its pachislot and pachinko machines segment.

On October 30, the release of Queen’s Domain took place — a fantasy action RPG with a retro aesthetic, set on a mysterious island. Less than a week after this, the game broke even and started generating profit

The Swedish publisher with Russian roots, G5 Entertainment, joined the parade of financial reports and shared the results of the third quarter of 2026. We have highlighted the main points from the document

Unity reported its most robust third-quarter performance to date, fueled by a 126% year-on-year increase in its AI-driven ad network Vector.

Creating the next Mass Effect could require hundreds of millions of dollars, warned one of BioWare's founders, Trent Oster. In his opinion, those interested in the continuation of the game's development should keep this in mind.

According to reports, Unity has entered into discussions regarding a possible acquisition with private equity company Silver Lake as well as Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Both entities completed the acquisition of Electronic Arts earlier this year for $55 billion.

In early April, Playtika decided to explore "strategic alternatives" for business development—one of which was the possibility of selling the company. Six months later, Playtika announced that it was abandoning this option

As of January-September 2026, the revenue of the iGaming market in Latvia reached 138.53 million euros, which is 12.9% more than the same period last year, according to the data from the State Revenue Service (VID) of the country

Six years ago, Unity held its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. Since then, it struggled to achieve quarterly profitability for quite some time until the situation turned around between July and September 2026

Unity is being targeted for acquisition. According to Reuters sources, a consortium of investors is interested in the company, which includes the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake

Denmu, which earlier this year set out to raise its inaugural fund with a target of $50 million, has surpassed expectations by closing the oversubscribed fund, exceeding its original target.

In just two weeks, the eagerly awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to launch, with recent figures indicating that pre-orders are nearing the eight million mark.

The Sony Corporation reported a successful second quarter of fiscal 2026, which spanned from July 1 to September 30. Its gaming division managed to increase many key metrics, with some showing significant growth.

Fenris Creations, formerly known as CCP Games, is also downsizing its staff. This information was initially shared by its employees on social media and later confirmed by the studio itself in comments to the media.

Emotions continue to run high around the closure of BioWare. Now, Canadian gamers have started gathering signatures for a petition to the country's House of Commons, demanding that the studio not be destroyed

At the end of July, sales of Beholder: Conductor began to rise sharply. In just two weeks, the game sold over 81,000 copies, comparable to its initial launch results, even though it had been 15 months since its release. In an article for GamesIndustry, Alawar's Head of Marketing, Artem Bashutin, explained the reasons behind this development

Following an increase in net sales and operating income during the second quarter, Sony has revised its full-year outlook for its gaming division upward.

Mob Entertainment studio has conducted a round of layoffs. It decided to reduce the staff working on Escape From Playtime, a cooperative horror game set in the Poppy Playtime universe

Gaming industry veteran Sebastian Cardoso studied the fate of three hundred studios that develop games for PCs and consoles and were acquired by major companies over the past 26 years. A significant portion faced a grim fate

Nintendo announced a 12.1% drop in net sales for the six-month period concluding on September 30, 2026, largely attributed to a decline in hardware sales.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the display of mobile game advertisements from King, Scopely, Omnilojo, and Vistrex in the country. However, the ban does not apply to the promotion of the titles as a whole, but specifically to the distribution of certain individual ad creatives.

Following Sony, Nintendo has reported its financial results. It revealed its earnings for the first half of fiscal year 2027, which corresponds to April-September of calendar year 2026

Sony Corporation reported strong results for the second quarter of fiscal 2026, which spanned from July 1 to September 30. Its gaming division was able to increase many key metrics, in some cases quite significantly.

The Bankruptcy Court in Delaware has restricted transfers from the American accounts of Papaya Gaming. The decision comes amid its legal dispute with FIRY (formerly known as Skillz), to which Papaya Gaming owes approximately $730 million.

Valve has made changes to the game review process that precedes their publication on Steam. The requirements have become slightly stricter, with the expectation that ultimately they will help reduce review times

The French union STJV has criticized Microsoft, claiming that the corporation itself created financial problems for Arkane Lyon.

Tripwire Interactive's publishing arm, Tripwire Presents, is broadening its scope to provide publishing assistance to smaller indie developers

A French union representing workers at Arkane Lyon has accused Microsoft of undermining the development of Marvel's Blade. The union alleges that a 19-month hiring freeze led to delays that are now being cited as reasons for the decision to close the studio.

A recent analysis of more than 300 game studios acquired by large corporations since 2000 reveals that one-third of these studios have been entirely closed, with half of those closures occurring within five years post-acquisition

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has prohibited mobile advertisements from developers including King and Scopely for allegedly misleading consumers by showcasing gameplay that does not accurately represent the actual game experience

Reports suggest that Ubisoft is in the process of pursuing the acquisition of Arkane Lyon. This development comes after an extended consultation period with Xbox.

Before the market collapses under the weight of GTA 6, now is the perfect time to discuss the October releases for PC and consoles. In Japan, home console releases continue to dominate, Call of Duty is making a comeback, and Steam is setting new records

In 2025, Guy Blomberg and Shay Leighton established The Game Club, a community network modeled after classic book clubs. Participants engage with the same game each month and then convene in small groups to share their experiences.

The third quarter of 2026 was extremely successful for Remedy Entertainment financially. As the company reported in the financial report, this was made possible by the excellent launch of Control Resonant.

The itch.io team conducted a comprehensive cleanup of the store, removing low-quality content created using artificial intelligence technologies. They announced on social media the deletion of "a couple of terabytes" of such projects

The founders of miHoYo, the company behind Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and several other popular games, continue to increase their wealth. It has been reported that all three have entered the new top 100 richest residents of China according to the Hurun Research Institute's rankings

In-app purchase (IAP) revenue was last dominated by mobile games in 2016, but since then, non-gaming platforms like TikTok and AI chatbots have overtaken them.

TelecomDaily Agency has assessed the situation in the Russian mobile gaming market. The data looks optimistic

Although the action-adventure game South of Midnight was well-received by audiences and critics, it did not become a commercial hit. In an interview with MinnMax, the game's creative director David Sears stated that this was predictable and that South of Midnight was fortunate to secure support from Microsoft

The indie team Ahaha Studio shared with App2Top the story of launching their miniature MMO called Piworld

The third quarter of 2026 was extremely successful for Remedy Entertainment financially. As reported by the company in their financial statement, this was made possible by the excellent launch of Control Resonant

Remedy's revenue for the third quarter jumped by 226% after the launch of Control Resonant on September 24. CEO Jean-Charles Gaudechon described the event as "a defining milestone for the company."

The iGaming market in the US continues to grow, albeit more slowly. In the third quarter of 2026, its revenue increased by 12% year-over-year, according to analysts from Citizens JMP Securities. This is the lowest growth rate ever recorded in their observations