Weekend Highlights (October 19-20)

Let's briefly cover the news from this weekend. We'll talk a bit about the extension for Google, the sales of Witchfire, and some absolutely incredible retention statistics for Fate/Grand Order.

Witchfire

• Google has secured a temporary delay in complying with a mandate that requires them to allow third-party Android stores on Google Play. This delay will remain in effect while the U.S. federal court examines the company’s appeal. Recall that on October 7, Google was definitively declared a monopoly in the Android app market. The court ordered the company to enable competing app stores to distribute through Google Play and to grant these stores access to its library.
• The shooter Witchfire has had a successful release in Early Access on Steam. In just under a month of sales (from September 24 to October 17), the game accumulated over 3,000 reviews, most of which are positive — 91%. The developers have not disclosed specific Steam sales figures, but according to analytics services like VG Insights, Gamalytic, and PlayTracker, the game's audience exceeds 100,000 players. Based on this, it can be estimated that the players' expenditures on the game may have exceeded $3 million. Witchfire is the first game by the Polish studio The Astronauts, founded by Adrian Chmielarz, Michał Kosieradzki, and Andrzej Poznański, who previously held key roles in creating Painkiller, Bulletstorm, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.
• Fate/Grand Order continues to show impressive results despite its considerable age. The mobile battler from Lasengle and Aniplex (the latter, surprisingly, owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan) was released in the summer of 2015. According to Sensor Tower, the game's MAU in Japan alone maintains a level of one million people, with an astounding 30-day retention rate of 30%.