The Main Events of the Weekend (August 17-18)

Tim Sweeney announced that many exclusive deals made by the Epic Games Store turned out to be poor investments. Ubisoft conducted new layoffs, and the founders of Playrix topped the list of the wealthiest individuals in the UK gaming industry. Here's what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Homescapes

• Ubisoft laid off 45 employees from Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft San Francisco. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company explained the layoffs as a necessity to "align the studios' organization with business goals and future development plans."
• During a recent press conference, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney revealed that his company spent "a lot of money" on exclusives for the Epic Games Store. According to him, while some exclusive deals performed well, many were not the best investments. At the same time, the free games program at the Epic Games Store has shown "magical results." Sweeney explained that the program attracted users to the store at a fraction of the cost compared to working with advertising services like Google Search Ads.
• The Sunday Times published a top 30 list of the wealthiest individuals in the UK gaming industry. The founders of Playrix, brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, took the top spot, with their combined fortune estimated at £12.54 billion. It was no surprise they led the list, as The Sunday Times had previously included the Bukhman brothers in the top 30 richest people in the UK. Also, in the top three of the gaming ranking were Improbable CEO Herman Narula with £780 million and King founder Riccardo Zacconi with £410 million. Other notable figures in the list include Rockstar Games co-founders Sam and Dan Houser (£350 million), Garry’s Mod creator Garry Newman (£345 million), and Vampire Survivors developer Luca Galante (£40 million).
• The crime scene cleaning simulator Crime Scene Cleaner sold 103,000 copies within three days of release. This was announced on X by PlayWay's head Krzysztof Kostowski. He also mentioned that the net revenue of the game on Steam has already reached $1.4 million, with the project's budget being 1.4 million PLN (approximately $360,000). Crime Scene Cleaner was released on Steam on August 14, and it currently has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating, with 97% of player reviews praising the title.