"Asiatic teams have started to pay closer attention to us," said Andrey Mayakin from "Fogeim" about the results of 2025
We are summing up the results of 2025 with gaming experts. Next up is an interview with the director of the publishing company "4Game," Andrey Mayakin.
How was the year 2025 for your business? What achievements can you highlight? What conclusions did you draw for yourself?
Andrey Mayakin, 4Game: The year 2025 was emotional and eventful for our company. 4Game became part of Hobby World, the largest publishing holding in Russia, specializing in board games and other geek culture domains. This is a significant event not only for our companies but also for the Russian gaming market. Being part of the holding, we will be able to create more value for users and strengthen our market position. The company has gone through the main integration stages, but there's still much work ahead and ambitious plans.
For 2025, we planned several releases: there were many projects wishing to enter the CIS market with our help. For example, we launched Blade & Soul NEO in Russia and the CIS. However, reality made some adjustments. The release of Rememento: White Shadow was postponed by the developers. Several other projects did not materialize for various reasons: some were not ready to adapt to legal requirements, while others "fizzled out" and lost the support of major publishers in the Western market, so we saw no sense in taking those risks.
We held in-depth discussions with our key partners and several potential ones at the highest level to identify opportunities for expanding cooperation in various fields.
The main conclusion at the end of the year is perhaps that, overall, nothing changes: major market players have the resilience to experiment, let studios operate independently, and still create good games.
Blade & Soul NEO
How do you think the situation in the gaming market for publishing has changed?
Andrey: I wouldn't say that the situation has changed radically over the year. Players have high content quality demands. Meanwhile, projects capable of retaining an audience for a long time are rarely released. Therefore, the main priority for a publisher, as always, is to put maximum effort into current projects, retain the core audience, strengthen the community, and maintain a high level of engagement.
Have the practices regarding working with developers changed? Has it become easier/harder to work with them? Perhaps they, in general, have changed in some way?
Andrey: There is a noticeable trend towards being more open to dialogue: developers have started looking more actively at our market. Previously, for many, it seemed too small and associated with high risks, but now, primarily Asian teams are paying closer attention to it.
What conclusions and lessons from 2025 would you highlight for developers preparing for a release?
Andrey: The advice for all times: if you lack experience in publishing and LiveOps, find an experienced publisher — the sooner, the better. Building expertise independently is long and costly.
What trends do you expect to strengthen or emerge in your niche in 2026?
Andrey: I believe that cross-play support and having a mobile version will become mandatory requirements. Work with current IPs will intensify. Additionally, I hope that the trend of creating so-called Lineage-like games by Asian developers will end: the industry is waiting for fresh ideas and original mechanics.
What are the company's plans for 2026?
Andrey: We will continue to actively develop our publishing direction and aim to launch several major projects. At the beginning of the year, the CCG "Berserk Heroes Online" based on our holding's IP will be released — the game showed excellent results in testing. Moreover, 4Game has become the official distributor of Crimson Desert keys for Steam in Russia and the CIS. This is one of the most anticipated releases of 2026.
We will continue to strengthen our work with current IPs on our part and develop collaborations with developers. There are many ideas — and they will be implemented.