This year, the editorial team at App2Top.ru is hosting their own gaming awards. It's called the App2Top Awards and it honors the achievements of gaming teams from the CIS. The editorial team is inviting readers to select the nominees

Horror games represent a market with steady demand, a relatively low entry barrier for developers, and established conventions. In our new report, we will attempt to assess how commercially appealing this niche remains. As always, it includes numerous tables, data, and interesting observations

American Congressman Ritchie Torres is preparing to introduce the Power to the Players Act. Its goal is to protect gamers’ rights and prevent situations where publishers revoke access to purchased games.

The German studio Fishlabs announced on LinkedIn that it is forced to part ways with some employees

The 2026 edition of Gamescom Asia in conjunction with the Thailand Game Show has unveiled plans to include four more pavilions, increasing the total number to 20. These represent participation from 12 different markets spanning Asia, Europe, and North America.

Starting in January 2027, the so-called "IT Patent Law" will come into effect in Russia, expanding the possibilities of patent protection for software. According to Yury Zubov, the head of Rospatent, the innovations will also apply to game developers — for instance, they will have the opportunity to patent skins

Matt Webster, who leads Fuse Games, the developer behind Star Wars: Galactic Racer, has revealed that the Netflix series Drive to Survive served as an inspiration for the game from its inception.

American Congressman Ritchie Torres is preparing to introduce the Power to the Players Act. Its goal is to protect the rights of gamers and prevent situations where publishers deny access to purchased games

The developers from Wych Elm mentioned this on social media.

The number of attendees at Game Republic New Horizons 2026 increased by 78% compared to the previous year, rising from 259 to 461 visitors

Valve has decided to make further changes to the functionality of its digital store. This time, the company is focusing on updating the game achievements system — currently only available in the beta version of the Steam client

Developer Fishlabs in Germany has revealed plans to reduce its workforce, affecting both its development and support teams

Sega and Creative Assembly have temporarily removed Total War: Shogun 2 – Complete Edition from sale due to concerns related to AI upscaling and various performance problems

European gambling regulators, in collaboration with Google, are working on creating a list of legal operators in the iGaming sector. This was announced by the head of the Dutch regulatory authority (KSA), Michel Groothuizen.

DayZ creator Dean Hall published an extensive post on Reddit criticizing the state of the gaming industry. In his opinion, one of the main issues in modern game development is the greed of large tech companies and developers' reliance on third-party tools.

The "Lesta Games" group of companies no longer belongs to Rosimushchestvo. It announced its transfer into the hands of a consortium of private investors from JSC "Industrial Structures"

The action role-playing game reached this milestone three weeks after its release.

Dean Hall, a seasoned professional in the industry, has introduced Brutal, an open-source game development framework. This initiative is a joint effort by his two companies, Ahwoo and RocketWerkz.

In the professional game development community, there’s a theory suggesting that Steam wishlists have lost their former value. Game marketing expert Chris Zukowski explored this notion and shared his findings in the How To Market A Game blog.

The virtual reality market is still in its formative stages due to the uncomfortable form factor of VR headsets, according to Andrew Eiche, CEO of Owlchemy Labs. He expressed this view in an interview with Game Developer

4J Studios has revealed that its open-world survival sandbox game, Reforj, will launch a closed playtest on PC in the first quarter of 2027

In the professional game development community, there's a popular theory that wishlists on Steam have lost their former value. Game marketing expert Chris Zukowski tested this theory and shared his findings on the How To Market A Game blog

In April 2018, MY.GAMES released the mech-action game War Robots on Steam. Over the years, the game has performed quite well

Developer House House from Melbourne will not be launching its cooperative game Big Walk on Xbox, expressing its support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

How much they amounted to is not disclosed

Epic Games has introduced a beta version of its latest launcher, asserting that it outpaces Steam by 46% in speed when loading from a cold start to the store page.

Veteran of Japanese game development and creator of the Zero Escape series, Kotaro Uchikoshi, has officially introduced a studio called CRASH KEYS.

Ubisoft plans to cut around 100 positions within its German operations, affecting its studios in Düsseldorf, Berlin, and Mainz.

Chinese giant Tencent has made another investment, reports PocketGamer, citing its sources. This time, the company has backed Flow Games, a Turkish mobile game development studio.

The Argentine Revenue and Customs Control Agency (ARCA) calculated the amount of indirect taxes from licensed online betting and gambling platforms in the country for the period from January to September 2026, totaling 123.85 billion Argentine pesos (81 million dollars)

Funcom has announced another restructuring. The reason for this decision is the desire to focus on supporting and developing only two games — Dune: Awakening and Conan Exiles

Ubisoft has decided not to limit its actions to the potential closure of RedLynx and layoffs at Ubisoft Singapore. It has become known that the company also intends to significantly reduce the staff of its German studios

Google Play is introducing a series of new features designed to enhance game discovery and social interaction. These updates include a personalized Game Finder, timed competitive events known as Sprints, and the ability to share clips through its Sidekick overlay platform.

Richard "Levelord" Gray, the renowned level designer recognized for his contributions to Duke Nukem 3D, has passed away at the age of 68

Facepunch Studios intends to transition its s&box platform to a free-to-play model by the year's end. This shift marks a strategic change from focusing on a high volume of games to emphasizing the most successful and popular ones.

Funcom, a developer based in Norway, has initiated a restructuring process after deciding to concentrate exclusively on live operations for Conan Exiles and Dune: Awakening. The number of employees impacted remains unspecified. Rui Casais, who has served as CEO for 11 years and guided the company through its 2020 acquisition by Tencent, is set to depart by the end of the year. Scott Junior, the current Chief Product Officer, will take over as CEO.

Microsoft continues to build new teams within XBOX. Following the launch of XP, it has announced the creation of XBOX LABS—a division dedicated to exploring current technologies for game development.

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, in an interview with Nikkei X Trend, shared memories from the time when he served as the head of PlayStation. He mentioned that he had the courage to act independently and disregard the directives of top management.

Legacy Games, a casual game marketplace, has disclosed that its online store will cease operations on December 31, 2026

The Croatian studio Gamepires, primarily known for the survival game SCUM, is also conducting layoffs. They announced this on social media.

Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier published an extensive piece on the development of GTA VI and the changes within Rockstar Games. For this report, he spoke with both executives and regular employees at the studio.

Rockstar Games has significantly increased its staff to work on Grand Theft Auto 6 and is committed to ensuring that its subsequent release will not require another eight years to develop

Ubisoft is continuing its restructuring. Now, RedLynx, the studio behind the racing series Trials, and Ubisoft Singapore, which served as the lead developer for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Skull and Bones, are under scrutiny

Google announced major changes to the Google Play app store. We have compiled the main announcements.

The Defold Foundation announced the release of a new version of the open-source Defold engine, numbered 1.14.0. The main innovation is the addition of XBOX support

For some publishers, working with influencers has become a separate marketing strategy. But how do you choose the right blogger who will genuinely engage your game's audience? Let's find out with Ilya Svanidze, Head of Marketing at ESDigital Games, and Artem Akimkin, Lead Influencer Manager at Polden Publishing

Ubisoft has suggested closing down Finnish studio RedLynx, known for the Trials franchise, and intends to implement significant job reductions at Ubisoft Singapore, the primary developer of the troubled Skull and Bones project. These measures are part of Ubisoft's continued restructuring efforts aimed at sharply cutting costs and transitioning into a new Creative Houses model. Both studios were integrated into the Creative Network within that framework, offering central support to other teams

According to reports, Xbox executive Asha Sharma has cautioned that the company "will not survive" if it continues to depend solely on its current game franchises

In the first half of 2026, the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of Greece's legal gambling market reached 1.56 billion euros. This is an 8% increase compared to the previous year, according to the Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC)

The number includes both game purchasers and Game Pass subscribers