In mid-summer, the fourth session of the business conference “Gaming Industry” will open its doors. This time, it will be held on the banks of the Neva. The event is expected to host more than 600 participants. We’re sharing the first details.

Continuing our series on the video presentations (and their transcripts) from the Minsk session of the Game Industry Conference (GIC), held in April. Today, we’re featuring a talk titled “How to Check a Publisher Contract Without Stress: A Step-by-Step Guide from a Lawyer” by Irina Gushchina, Senior Lawyer at the IT and IP Transactions Practice in Semenov&Pevzner. Also, a reminder: on July 10, the “Game Industry Conference” will take place in St. Petersburg.

Take-Two Interactive has announced plans to issue 4.75 million new shares. The company aims to raise $1.04 billion through their sale.

Last week, Jade Raymond left Haven Studios, which she herself founded several years ago. This is a great opportunity to discuss top executives in gaming companies who often leave behind, if not a scorched earth, then at least a heap of problems.

We are conducting a brief—just a couple of minutes—survey of gaming top management. Its objective is to identify the challenges currently faced by the business in game development.

The date of the first full-fledged hearing, where the fate of the “Lesta Games” group of companies will be decided, has been announced. Its founder Malik Khatazhaev is accused of extremism. The proceedings will begin next Tuesday, May 27th.

Epic Games managed to bring Fortnite back to the App Store in the U.S. The game became available again in the American version of the store on the night of May 21st—1,741 days after Apple removed it due to rule violations.

The release of DOOM: The Dark Ages became the biggest in the history of id Software. The game needed less than a week for its audience to exceed 3 million people.

During the week from May 13 to May 20, DOOM: The Dark Ages reached the top position in the paid Steam chart — and the second overall. In the chart that also counts free-to-play projects, only the consistently leading Counter-Strike 2 surpassed it.

Continuing to share reports from the Minsk session of the “Game Industry” conference (KII), which took place in April. Today, we present a talk on the topic “Pitch Deck and Bad Advice: What Not to Do” by Daniil Kolesnikov, Business Development Manager at HeroCraft. Plus, a reminder that on July 10, the “Game Industry” conference will take place in St. Petersburg.

Catalis Group sold its subsidiary, British publisher Curve Games, to Indian technology company Nazara Technologies. Curve Games’ portfolio includes titles like Human Fall Flat, The Ascent, and For The King.

The revenue of the mobile puzzle game Royal Match by Dream Games continues to rise rapidly. According to the analytics service AppMagic, user spending in the game has already surpassed $6 billion.

The German company Wooga has laid off part of its staff, according to reports by PocketGamer and MobileGamer. They attribute the layoffs to the cancellation of the mobile card game Claire’s Chronicles: Solitaire.

The Smart Ranking agency compiled a list of the top one hundred Russian tech companies focusing on digital platforms and ecosystems that achieved the highest revenue in 2024, which includes game developers.

The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) believes that Epic Games and its subsidiary, Llama Productions, have violated American labor law. They perceived a violation in the addition of an AI companion in Fortnite, represented as Darth Vader, using the voice of the late actor James Earl Jones.

We’re starting to slowly share videos (and transcripts) of talks from the Minsk session of the “Gaming Industry” Conference (KII), which took place in April. The first presentation up is “IAP Monetization on the Web and Future Plans” by Nikita Bokarev, CBDO at Yandex.Games. Plus, a quick reminder that on July 10, the “Gaming Industry” will take place in St. Petersburg.

The developers from 1C Games Studios recently shared their early successes with the adventure action game “War of the Worlds: Siberia.” According to them, by mid-May, the game was added to the wishlist of 56,000 Steam users.

The Sunday Times has published a list of the 350 wealthiest residents of the United Kingdom. Among the top 10 are the founders of Playrix, brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman.

Neople Studio pays its employees significantly more than some other major gaming companies from South Korea. This conclusion was reached by journalists from ChosunBiz, who examined the audit report of the Dungeon & Fighter developers.