Stores and publishing

The Chinese action RPG Phantom Blade Zero, developed by S-GAME, showcased one of the biggest launches in Steam history. On October 30, the game reached 731,026 concurrent users (CCU). This achievement placed it at 15th in the platform’s historical rankings.

Indie developer Maddy Makes Games has removed the titles Celeste and TowerFall from Xbox platforms as part of its endorsement of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The Chinese action RPG Phantom Blade Zero by S-GAME studio showcased one of the biggest launches in Steam's history. On its release day, October 29, its peak concurrent players reached 723,876. This allowed the game to secure 15th place in the platform's all-time rankings

The developers of the action-platformer Heart Abyss revealed that the publisher decided to keep an image created with the help of a neural network on the game's main page in Steam, even though the team had an alternative drawn by an artist. The reason was the results of advertising promotion: the AI art turned out to be more clickable

Valve acknowledges that the proliferation of generative AI has exacerbated the issue of game cloning on Steam. However, the company does not intend to combat this by banning specific tools or tightening publication rules.

Microsoft surpassed expectations in the first quarter, revealing a revenue of $92.3 billion alongside growth in both net income and earnings per share

Microsoft reported a decline in gaming business revenue in the third calendar quarter of 2026. Xbox revenue decreased by 2% year-over-year, dropping to $5.38 billion. Both console sales and content with services showed negative trends

The digital store GOG announced the launch of its own publishing branch. It has been named Retrovibe by GOG and was created in collaboration with the independent Polish publisher Retrovibe

This time, the Steam demo festival kicked off with alarmist statements about the overwhelming number of projects created using AI. However, the results present a much more interesting and complex picture. Learn more about this, as well as the top performers in terms of wishlists, subscribers, and other metrics, in our comprehensive report

Helen Chiang, who took on the role of Xbox's inaugural Chief Operating Officer, has departed the company just three months after her appointment

The number of games released on Steam through the Early Access program continues to grow, and for many studios, such a launch has already become as significant as a full release. According to SteamDB, as of mid-October 2026, 2,924 games have been released in Early Access on the Valve platform—18% more than in 2025 and 60% more than in 2020

Microsoft has launched a voluntary redundancy program with compensation. The offer applies to about 60,000 people, or 27% of the corporation's employees. According to Reuters, the Xbox division is among those participating in the program

Valve announced the full launch of the Personal Calendar, a tool that recommends upcoming and recently released games on Steam based on users' interests. The company also published detailed rules for how projects can be included in the calendar.

Microsoft has introduced a voluntary exit program for its employees

Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, has again criticized Steam's AI disclosure policy, describing the company's stance on AI transparency as "a political act"

Netflix is said to have proposed a $500 million deal to Microsoft to acquire a seven-year licensing agreement for Xbox intellectual property to create film and television adaptations.

It was developed by just one person using AI.

Netflix attempted to acquire exclusive rights for film and television adaptations of Xbox gaming franchises. According to Puck, the streaming service offered Microsoft $500 million for a seven-year license, but Microsoft asked for $800 million. Ultimately, the negotiations did not result in a deal

"Yandex Games" announced a reduction in the commission for topping up a Steam wallet to 2%. Users will not need to subscribe to a paid membership or fulfill additional conditions. Let's explore how competitive this offer is in the Russian market.

Xbox has disclosed the pricing details for the cloud gaming restrictions on Game Pass, which were announced in the previous month

Microsoft and AMD revealed that AMD's FSR 4.1 upscaling technology will be introduced to Xbox Series X|S consoles

Mobile game developers are facing increased review times for applications in the App Store. While Apple previously approved new projects and updates within 24–48 hours, the process now occasionally extends over several weeks. This was reported by Mobilegamer.biz, citing representatives from small and medium-sized gaming studios.

In the indie game market, there are publisher agreements that are extremely unfavorable for developers. This was highlighted by Forest Willard, co-founder of the studio Innersloth (Among Us) and head of the Outersloth fund.

Steam users are unhappy with the large number of AI-content games featured in the October Steam Next Fest. Some of them have called on Valve to add a filter to the platform that would allow hiding such projects from recommendations.

Analysts from the GameDiscoverCo service continue to survey Steam users. This time, they decided to find out which devices gamers usually play on—not just for titles from the Steam library, but video games in general

The CEO of tinyBuild, Alex Nichiporchik, shared the company's achievements on the social network X

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Microsoft continues to form new teams for Xbox. Following the launch of XP, it announced the creation of Xbox Labs— a division that will focus on researching current technologies for game development.

We continue our weekly series of YouTube interviews. The guest of the latest episode is Dmitry Kachkov, the founder of the gaming company Sobaka Studio

The head of XBOX made such a statement at an employee meeting at the beginning of the month, writes Windows Central

The indie studio Easy Fox has encountered financial difficulties due to the popularity of the demo version of the upcoming driving lesson simulator Teach My Little Sister How To Drive.

Most companies tend to consider the brands they have created or acquired in the past as their most valuable assets. However, today it may be more important to focus on what they are capable of in the future. The release of Gears of War: E-Day is an excellent opportunity to discuss how individual studios transform into independent and far more valuable IPs

Recently, Steam introduced a personal calendar featuring recommended upcoming and newly released games, curated based on gamers' own preferences. The store has not disclosed how exactly the calendar's algorithm works, but the CEO of Luden.io, Oleg Chumakov, has some guesses.

Microsoft announced the launch of another division within XBOX. It has been named XP

In the "Investor/Publisher Wanted" section — IT BEGAN, a single-player tactical horror shooter by CODE84 from Tashkent. The team is seeking $40,000 to complete a demo version and prepare the project for negotiations with publishers and investors

Xbox has introduced a new XP business unit focused on transmedia brand extensions, which encompasses projects like the Fallout television series and Minecraft World theme park activities

Social networks by themselves bring a rather modest number of wishlists. This was realized by Balancy's CTO, Andrey Apanasik, who recently announced his own game called Pocket Cat Desktop.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is said to have conducted an internal town hall meeting, informing employees that "after an all-time low, we've started to return to growth"