Stores and publishing

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 revised the revenue reporting system on Steam, facilitating developers in assessing the financial effects of each discount they have implemented

Darrell Gallagher, previously in charge 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, the founder of Poncle and creator of Vampire Survivors, stated that the team launched the publishing division, Poncle Presents, as a way 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 from its publishing division, to facilitate a "smooth" start for its new subsidiary, which is supported by Tencent.

Sony has introduced the PlayStation Family App, a specialized mobile application designed for parental control, now available on Android and iOS platforms.

In the United States, Grand Theft Auto 5 holds the title of the best-selling PlayStation game 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 set to become available in certain internet-enabled vehicles, enabling passengers to stream and play games 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.

We continue to share videos of the talks from the St. Petersburg session of the "Gaming Industry" conference (KII), which took place in July. Today's feature is a presentation by HeroCraft's Business Development Manager, Daniil Kolesnikov. He spoke on the topic "Early Access Mistakes Using HeroCraft Games as Examples"

On the evening of September 4, 2025, the highly anticipated Metroidvania game Hollow Knight: Silksong was released on PC and consoles. The new release from Team Cherry created significant excitement.

On August 20, 2025, the Chinese action game Black Myth: Wukong finally arrived on Xbox consoles, exactly one year after its release on PC and PlayStation. Rickard Linder, head of the analytics company Alinea Analytics, shared on LinkedIn that the launch took place without much fanfare

On the evening of September 4, 2025, the highly anticipated metroidvania Hollow Knight: Silksong was released on PC and consoles. The new game from Team Cherry generated massive excitement

The studio Unfrozen announced this achievement on social media.

We continue to share video presentations from the St. Petersburg session of the "Game Industry" conference (GIC), which took place in July. Up next is a talk by Rostislav Fedorov, CEO and co-founder of Dream Dock Games. He spoke on the topic "The 7 Deadly Sins of Announcing on Steam (and How to Avoid Them)"

Lead marketer at Playstack Publishing, Shawn Cotter, and design director at Deep Field Games Studio, Geoff Keene, discussed the release of the cooperative survival game Abiotic Factor in a conversation with GameDiscoverCo. According to them, it had mixed success

Haruhiro Tsujimoto, president of Capcom, has pointed to the elevated cost of the PlayStation 5 as a factor contributing to the underwhelming sales of Monster Hunter Wilds.

Hollow Knight experienced a surge in popularity, reaching a new peak of over 71,000 concurrent players on Steam yesterday, just as anticipation builds for the launch of its highly anticipated sequel

Steam has stopped allowing adult games to be released in early access, claims the studio Dammitbird. They encountered this restriction when they tried to release the game Heavy Hearts.

Louise O'Connor, who previously held the position of executive producer at Rare, has been named chief of staff at Xbox Game Studios.

Curveball Leisure, a distributor based in Wales, has introduced Curveball Games, a new publishing arm dedicated to promoting "unique" digital and physical games from indie to AA studios worldwide.

This number was mentioned in a conversation with the newspaper "Izvestia" by Viktor Kondakov, the lead developer of "Of Ash and Steel" from the studio Fire & Frost

Steam users in the United Kingdom are now required by Valve to verify their age to access mature content on the platform

On the evening of August 28, the full release of Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater took place on PC and consoles — for two days prior, the game was available to owners of the Deluxe edition. According to SteamDB, a few hours later, the peak online player count for the remake on Steam reached 19,634 people.

Valve’s Business Development Manager Erik Peterson spoke at the Devcom developers conference held during Gamescom 2025. He revealed some fresh data about the Steam store.

Valve's Business Development Manager Erik Peterson spoke at the Devcom developers' conference, held as part of Gamescom 2025. He revealed some fresh data about the Steam store

Continuing our segment "Developer/Publisher Wanted," where indie teams share about themselves and their projects. Up next is Eternal Troops Team, which is creating an original isometric shooter set during World War I.

Hermen Hulst, CEO of PlayStation, has outlined the steps Sony is taking to reduce the impact of setbacks like Concord while enhancing the development of successful, original intellectual properties.

The team at Klukva Games, preparing to release the steampunk roguelike Dead Weight, shared detailed insights on how they gathered wishlists on the social network X

The Google Corporation has decided to make Android safer. It announced that in the near future, all developers will be required to verify their identity, otherwise their applications will become unavailable for download.

The chart of the highest-grossing games on Steam for August 19-26 has been released. Below are the key changes compared to the previous week.

Google Corporation has decided to make Android safer. It announced that in the near future, all developers will have to verify their identity, or their apps will become unavailable for download.

A week ago, journalist and producer Geoff Keighley hosted Opening Night Live—the ceremony that kicked off the gaming exhibition Gamescom 2025. The analytics company VG Insights reported which of the games mentioned at the event garnered the most wishlists during the period from August 18 to 23.

The failure of individual games is an unavoidable part of business for large corporations like Sony, whose internal studios work on dozens of projects. Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, approaches this philosophically.

This conclusion was reached by the analytical company Ampere Analysis. In the course of its research, it examined the price tags of 150 games with the highest average monthly active users (MAU) on Steam for the period from January 2024 to June 2025

The failure of individual games is an inevitable part of the business for large corporations like Sony, whose internal studios work on dozens of projects. Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, takes a philosophical approach to this.

Google, following Apple’s lead, has decided to update its store rules for developers distributing apps in European Union countries. The corporation announced these changes in an attempt to avoid fines for violating the Digital Markets Act.

Following Apple, Google decided to update its store's rules for developers who distribute apps in European Union countries. The corporation announced these changes in an attempt to avoid fines for violating the Digital Markets Act.