Stores and publishing

In a comprehensive interview with Game File, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma highlighted Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's decade-long vision, which positions Xbox as a key target audience for the company. This conversation underscored Microsoft's dedication to enhancing Game Pass subscription revenue and investing in capabilities for its upcoming console, Project Helix.

The head of Microsoft’s gaming division, Asha Sharma, and the content director, Matt Booty, published a statement detailing plans for the future development of their team.

Under its new leadership, Microsoft Gaming has announced a rebranding back to Xbox. This change is part of a comprehensive new mission statement communicated to employees.

Head of Microsoft's gaming division Asha Sharma and content director Matt Booty released a statement detailing plans for further development of the team

At the beginning of the year, a bill was developed in Turkey, establishing a number of requirements for gaming platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store. After thorough consideration, the country’s parliament decided to approve it — but with some minor concessions.

In 2022, Microsoft announced its desire to create its own mobile game store that would compete with the App Store and Google Play. Four years later, the store has still not been launched, but the corporation assures that the project is alive

At the beginning of the year, Turkey developed a draft law that establishes a series of requirements for gaming platforms like Steam and Epic Games Store. After thorough consideration, the country's parliament decided to pass it, but with some minor relaxations

The authorities have made the same demand to the owners of Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox. They appealed to them directly.

The authorities made the same request to the owners of Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox

At the end of last week, Polden Publishing announced a new game — Cartel Pilots Wanted by the indie team OldYacht. It immediately caught the attention of the audience

A year and a half ago, former editor-in-chief of StopGame, Dmitriy Kungurov, along with a group of colleagues and creators of several popular YouTube channels, founded the creative studio RULER Productions, which assists developers with game trailers. Now, the team has decided to go even further and venture into the publishing business.

Toei, a Japanese entertainment company, has launched Toei Games, its own internal publishing brand.

Sony is beginning to implement age verification for PlayStation users in the United Kingdom and Ireland to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA)

On April 20, developers from the Russian-speaking studio Far Far Games, with support from the publisher Digital Vortex Entertainment, released their debut game—"Bylina." The initial users were mostly satisfied with it.

This conclusion was reached by the analytical platform HushCrasher*.

This conclusion was reached by the analytical platform HushCrasher*

Wishlists are one of the most important pre-release metrics for any game. We are publishing a comprehensive report to determine how their numbers correlate with the number of followers on Steam today. To do this, we gathered and analyzed data from several hundred games, including those whose developers have publicly disclosed their figures

Microsoft's Xbox first-party studios are set to work in close cooperation with the company's hardware team in the development of its upcoming next-generation console

On the evening of April 14, the studio with Belarusian roots, Sad Cat Studios, released their debut game—a cyberpunk platformer called REPLACED. Within the first few hours, the new release garnered over 500 reviews on Steam, 87% of which were positive

As a result, the game climbed to the 143rd spot on the list of the most anticipated projects on Steam

Microsoft may reduce the cost of Game Pass and implement a number of changes to the subscription, reports The Verge, citing an internal memo for Xbox employees

Asha Sharma, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has reportedly indicated that the cost of Xbox Game Pass is expected to be adjusted, acknowledging that it has "become too expensive for players."

A 40-minute interview with Andrey Postnikov from Nutaku, discussing what the adult video game market on Steam looks like today

This was reported in X by the CEO of tinyBuild, Alex Nichiporchik

New indie publishers continue to emerge in the market. Just a few days ago, the co-authors of Peak announced the launch of a publishing house, and now the creators of Slay the Princess from Black Tabby Games have shared similar news.

The Swedish studio Landfall Games has officially announced the launch of a publishing label called Evil Landfall.

The Swedish studio Landfall Games has officially announced the launch of a publishing house called Evil Landfall

Snail Games is a Chinese company known outside of China primarily for the ARK series of games. It turns out that the company is not doing very well, which might soon lead to its shares being delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange in the United States

On April 1st, many companies make humorous announcements and generally play tricks on their audience. GameDiscoverCo, an analytical service, also joined in and launched the Insights Lab tool, which allows users to explore various atypical statistics on Steam.

On April 1st, many companies make joke announcements and generally try to prank their audience. The analytical service GameDiscoverCo also joined in the fun and launched the Insights Lab tool, which allows users to explore various atypical statistics on Steam.

March turned out to be perhaps the most eventful month of the first quarter of 2026. In our traditional section, you'll find plenty of data and charts on revenue, sales, and other metrics of the main new releases, as well as information on interesting records and the most anticipated games of April

The studio Unfrozen and the publisher Hooded Horse have set a release date for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.

Mark Gerhard, CEO of Build a Rocket Boy, discussed the conclusion of the company's publishing agreement with IOI Partners, expressing a preference for maintaining control over its future as an independent studio.

Headup Games has changed ownership once again. It is now under the wing of Reforged Studios.

It is reported that within two weeks of its release, Slay the Spire 2 has grossed over $92 million.

The Russian mobile app store is doing well, according to VK's financial report from last year.

It is reported that two weeks after its release, Slay the Spire 2 has earned over 92 million dollars

On the night of March 20, the release of Crimson Desert took place—a new action-adventure game from the creators of Black Desert at the South Korean company Pearl Abyss. The game had a mixed start on Steam.

Tandem Events, the organizer of Develop:Brighton, has announced the initial lineup of speakers for this year's event

Steam users are massively pre-ordering Crimson Desert, report analysts from Alinea Analytics.

IOI Partners, the publishing arm of IO Interactive, has ended its publishing agreement with Build a Rocket Boy regarding the game MindsEye

Steam users are pre-ordering Crimson Desert en masse, claim analysts from Alinea Analytics

The announcement about the introduction of native support was made by James Stone, the Technical Director for Platform Products at Unity, during the GDC conference.

Google Play has unveiled a range of new features designed to enhance the discoverability and attractiveness for purchasing its PC and mobile games.

This year, Microsoft's Gaming Copilot AI assistant will become accessible on the latest generation of Xbox consoles

Apple Corporation has decided to make concessions for China. It announced that starting March 15, the commission rate for apps in the regional version of the App Store will be 25% instead of the current 30%

The German solo developer Matthias Linda decided to sue the company First Press Games. He stated that the publisher has yet to release all the promised physical versions of the role-playing game Chained Echoes

Xbox has disclosed a few technical specifics about its forthcoming console, known by the codename Project Helix.

Valve presented at the GDC 2026 conference with a talk where they shared some fresh figures regarding the Steam store. The full presentation is not yet publicly available, but some slides were published on social media by Game Developer journalist Chris Kerr.

Valve Corporation presented at the GDC 2026 conference with a report sharing some fresh figures regarding the Steam store. The entire presentation is not yet publicly available, but some slides were published on social media by Game Developer journalist Chris Kerr.