Stores and publishing

Predicting the success of a particular game can be challenging, but it's often possible to foresee the lack of potential. Today, we'll discuss types of unsuccessful indie games and the mistakes developers make, supported by examples and data on the highest-grossing and most "overcrowded" subgenres on Steam.

Microsoft is halting price increases for its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription in certain countries.

Last week, Steam held its Autumn Sale. As a result, in the latest Steam chart, new releases are listed alongside old hits. Let's talk about the most notable changes in the rankings

Vedinad, the developer, has revealed that the uniquely named Megabonk has surpassed one million sales on Steam. This achievement demonstrates a strong ongoing interest in rogue-like survival games similar to Vampire Survivors.

It took Megabonk two weeks to hit the million mark.

At the beginning of the month, we traditionally share data on the most successful releases over the past 30 days. In today's report, you'll find plenty of figures and charts on revenue, sales, and other metrics of September's new releases, including titles from major studios, indie hits, and Japanese RPGs

Microsoft acknowledges that "price increases are never fun for anybody" after announcing its plan to elevate the prices of Xbox Game Pass tiers.

Capcom continues to report high audience interest in the next installment of Resident Evil. They announced that Resident Evil Requiem has been added to the wishlists of 2 million people, a number that includes wishlists on both PC and consoles

It took Megabonk two weeks to reach the million mark.

Microsoft plans to increase the cost of its Xbox Game Pass subscription, with the highest tier, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, set to rise from $19.99/£14.99 to $29.99/£22.99 per month.

SteamDB published a list of the top-grossing games on Steam for the week of September 23-30. Here are the main observations.

During its launch weekend, Hades 2 exceeded 112,000 concurrent players on Steam, surpassing its early access peak.

This is the result of less than a year of the company's existence: Polden Publishing officially opened in November 2024

A collective of experienced professionals from the gaming sector has introduced a new publishing entity named Midnighters

This was reported by Hideaki Nishino, the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment, at the Tokyo Game Show 2025.

Less than a day remains until the full release of Hades II. In anticipation of this, analysts at Alinea Analytics have decided to share what achievements the game has accomplished during its time in early access.

In celebration of the 12th anniversary of the franchise, Starbreeze has introduced a subscription service for Payday 2 on Steam.

According to recent data, Xbox users engage with more game titles on average each month than those on PlayStation or Steam

Costco has discreetly discontinued the sale of Xbox consoles in both the US and UK, affecting its online and physical retail locations

During the week of September 16 to 23, Counter-Strike 2 reclaimed the top spot in the Steam chart of highest-grossing games. Joining it in the top three were Dota 2 and Dying Light: The Beast.

Chris Charla, the head of ID@Xbox, has disclosed that Xbox has undertaken its most significant investment in Game Pass so far, scheduled for 2025

The founder of GameDiscoverCo, Simon Carless, decided to explore which games are popular among Steam Deck owners. He approached the task from an unconventional angle.

Simon Carless, the founder of GameDiscoverCo, decided to take a look at which games are popular among Steam Deck owners. He approached this task from an unconventional angle.

Microsoft has revealed a subsequent price hike for Xbox Series X|S consoles within the United States, with an increase ranging from $20 to $70 across its lineup of hardware.

The British holding TruFin released its financial report for the first six months of 2025. Among other things, it discussed the results of its subsidiary PlayStack, best known for publishing the card hit Balatro.

According to Newzoo, the release of Helldivers 2 on Xbox led to a significant increase in revenue, placing it fourth on the firm's overall revenue chart for August

Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk earlier this month, the U.S. Congress has issued formal invitations to the CEOs of Twitch, Steam, Reddit, and Discord. They are asked to testify at a committee hearing regarding the "radicalization of online forum users"

Valve is set to discontinue Steam support for 32-bit versions of the Windows 10 operating system starting January 1, 2026.

On the evening of September 18, the zombie action game Dying Light: The Beast was released. According to data from the SteamDB service, at launch, the peak online count for the Steam version of the game reached 89,927 players

Half of the applications currently being distributed on RuStore were created by foreign developers, claims the store's head Dmitry Pankrushev. He disclosed this information in an interview with TASS at the Kazan Digital Week 2025 forum

Valve has revamped Steam's revenue reporting system, aiming to simplify the process for developers to "see the monetary impact of each discount that you have run"

Darrell Gallagher, the former leader of The Initiative, has departed from Xbox after the studio was closed earlier this year

Hollow Knight: Silksong couldn't maintain its position at the top of the best-selling games chart on Steam for long. By the end of September 9-16, it had dropped to fourth place, giving up the lead to another newcomer—Borderlands 4

On the evening of September 15, 2025, the Russian indie studio Trioskaz, together with publisher Critical Reflex, released "No, I’m not a Human" — a horror game about creatures that mimic human appearance and attempt to infiltrate the homes of real people. The Steam community responded very positively to the project

Luca Galante, founder of Poncle and creator of Vampire Survivors, stated that the team launched the publishing division, Poncle Presents, to "give something back to the indie community"

On the evening of September 11th, the release of Borderlands 4 took place. According to SteamDB, shortly after its launch, the looter-shooter managed to attract 207,479 concurrent players on Steam, marking the best result in the series.

On the evening of September 11, Borderlands 4 was released. According to SteamDB, shortly after its launch, the looter shooter managed to attract 207,479 concurrent players on Steam, marking the best result in the series.

A conflict has erupted between the Polish studio Byterunners and the publisher Movie Games, which threatens to escalate into a legal battle. The developers of the Drug Dealer Simulator duology claim that the publisher is violating their rights and providing insufficient royalty payments.

Ubisoft has eliminated nine positions, mainly within its publishing team, to facilitate a "smooth" debut for its new subsidiary, backed by Tencent.

Sony has introduced the PlayStation Family App, a new mobile application designed for parental control, available on both Android and iOS devices

In the United States, Grand Theft Auto 5 holds the record as the top-selling PlayStation game of all time across all console generations.

Yesterday, on September 9, 2025, marked the 30th anniversary of the release of the PlayStation 1 in the United States. To commemorate this occasion, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella named the Sony console games that have performed best in the American market in terms of revenue and units sold over the years.

Xbox Cloud Gaming (beta) is being introduced to certain internet-enabled vehicles, enabling passengers to stream and enjoy games directly through the Xbox app

There is very little time left until the release of Borderlands 4, and in anticipation of it, the head of the analytics company Alinea Analytics, Rickard Linder, has calculated the game's pre-orders on Steam. According to him, more than half a million people have already purchased the game

Yesterday, September 9, 2025, marked the 30th anniversary of the release of the PlayStation 1 in the USA. On this occasion, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlighted the Sony console games that have performed best in terms of revenue and units sold in the American market over the past years.

We continue to share video presentations from the St. Petersburg session of the "Gaming Industry" Conference, which took place in July. Up next is a talk by Evgeny Mirkin, the editor of the gaming section at RuStore. He spoke on the topic "Invisible Pitfalls: Developer Mistakes That Hinder Organic Growth in RuStore"

The leader in the Steam sales chart for the week of September 2 to 9 was unquestionably Hollow Knight: Silksong. It secured the top spot both in the list of paid games and in the overall ranking.

A former vice president of publishing and marketing at Kepler Interactive has been appointed as the leader of Gambit Digital, a newly established independent publisher located in Montreal

This follows from the data provided by GameDiscoverCo.

Azur Games is entering the game analytics market. The company announced that it is granting third-party teams access to Azur Games Analytics—its internal platform for evaluating mobile game metrics, as well as for working with monetization and creatives.