Several times a year, Valve hosts the Steam Next Fest, a festival of demo versions, also known as the “Play What’s Next” event. Although the event has many advantages, Hans Haave, a producer at Oro Interactive, believes that developers shouldn’t rely solely on it.

Just under a week ago, the racing simulator JDM: Japanese Drift Master was released on PC. The game launched on May 21 on Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. This amount of time was enough for it to recover a substantial portion of the development and marketing costs.

Elden Ring is one of the most successful games in recent years. The analytical company Alinea Analytics shared its statistics on the project, including sales, revenue, and audience engagement levels.

The Roblox game “Grow a Garden” attracted nearly 9 million simultaneous players, “Star Wars Battlefront II” set a new online record on Steam, and “FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time” was purchased by 500,000 people. Here’s a recap of the main events in the gaming industry from this past weekend.

Another update on wishlists. Hypnohead Studio announced that its game The King is Watching has surpassed 200,000 additions to wishlists on Steam.

We continue to share video presentations from the Minsk session of the “Game Industry” conference (GIC), which took place in April. Today’s feature is a presentation on the topic “Development of Mobile Game Publishing on Alternative Platforms” by Artur Beresnev, head of the alternative stores division at Mamboo Games. Additionally, we remind you that on July 10, the “Game Industry” will be held in St. Petersburg.

Another game by MY.GAMES is set to launch in China. The company announced that the local regulator has issued a license to release the mobile game Rush Royale in the country.

Under the sanctions, developers and game publishers from the CIS find it challenging to generate revenue from foreign markets. To address this issue, one can establish a new company abroad that could accept revenue from foreign users. Roman Motorin and Nazar Volkov, lawyers at FUTURA, explained how to approach this and what to pay attention to in their guide for App2Top.

While some gaming companies are reducing their workforce, Capcom is expanding it. As noted by the Japanese portal GameBiz, in a recent financial report, Capcom announced plans to hire at least a hundred new developers annually.

Based on the experience of numerous games, not all studios are adept at working with Early Access. To better understand the essence of this model, we’ve gathered detailed statistics on Early Access releases, including their revenue, “survival” rate, and average development time. The article also features practical advice from industry experts and Valve itself.

Just a few days ago, the developers of the zombie checkpoint simulator, Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, boasted that their game had been added to the wishlists of over 500 thousand Steam users. Now, it has reached a new milestone — 650 thousand wishlists.

Activision Blizzard will indeed remain a part of Microsoft. The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially announced the closure of the case regarding the acquisition.

We continue to share videos (and transcripts) of the talks from the Minsk session of the “Gaming Industry” conference (GIC) that took place in April. Today’s featured presentation is “The Most Common Disputes in GameDev and How to Resolve Them Without Going to Court” by Kristina Voinilovich, a lawyer from REVERA. Plus, just a reminder that on July 10, the “Gaming Industry” will be held in Saint Petersburg.

On June 19-20, a business event for video game developers and publishers, WN Conference Istanbul’25, will take place in Turkey. It will feature an exhibition of games created by indie teams.

On May 8, another crime simulator was released on Steam—Cash Cleaner Simulator by indie studio Mind Control Games. The game about money laundering caught the attention of gamers, and by the end of its debut week, sales surpassed 100,000 copies.

A letter was sent to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, requesting his attention on the investigation concerning the group of companies “Lesta Games.” It was signed by the leaders of three IT associations (APKIT, “Domestic Software,” and RUSSOFT), as well as one video game association — the Gaming Industry Association (AII).

The last financial year (April 2024 — March 2025) was mixed for Embracer Group. The holding company’s revenue across all sectors decreased, but this did not prevent it from turning a profit and achieving a net income.

Last spring, the management of Embracer Group announced a plan to split the holding into three public companies. One of them, Asmodee Group, has already gone public. Soon it will be Coffee Stain Group’s turn.

While Alkimia Interactive continues to work on Gothic 1 Remake, Steam users are actively adding the game to their wishlists. As of today, the Gothic remake has garnered over a million wishlists on the platform.