2015
Company
Documents about 2015
Decision Regarding Stock Acquisition Under Performance-Linked Stock Remuneration Plan
KADOKAWA Corporation (TSE Prime: 9468) announced on January 29, 2026 that its board resolved to make an additional monetary contribution to the trust underlying its performance-linked stock remuneration plan.
- KADOKAWA Corporation is acquiring 903,100 shares of its own common stock for approximately 2.935 billion yen to fund a performance-linked stock remuneration plan.
- The share acquisition will be executed through the disposal of treasury stock, with the transaction scheduled for completion on February 18, 2026.
- The program incentivizes executive officers of the parent company and directors of subsidiaries, specifically excluding outside directors, to align leadership interests with shareholder value.
State of African Games 2026
The State of African Games 2026 report from Video Game Insights (Sensor Tower) offers a data-driven snapshot of how African-developed games perform on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
- South Africa dominates the African game development sector, accounting for all top-ten selling titles and contributing to a 2% share of global Steam unit sales.
- The industry is shifting from volume-driven growth to longer development cycles, evidenced by a decline in annual Steam releases from a peak of 23 in 2023 to 11 in 2025.
- There is a significant genre mismatch in the market, as action titles dominate release volume while simulation games achieve the highest median sales at approximately 372,000 units.
Of Reviews and Women: A Study of Women Discourses on Gender in Videogame Magazines
Drawing on a sample of 14,836 reviews from 15 Western video game magazines published between 1981 and 2021, this study examines how women reviewers wrote about gender in the medium.
- Women wrote only 637 of the 14,836 reviews (4.29%) across 15 Western video game magazines from 1981 to 2021, while men wrote roughly 70% and anonymous authors about 24%.
- Women authored reviews in only 10 of the 15 magazines studied, underscoring how rarely women held a voice in the gaming press.
- Of the 51 reviews engaging with gender themes, mostly from the 1990s and 2000s, findings were mixed: some reproduced stereotypes such as 'games for girls' framings and sexualized character descriptions, while others were neutral or critical.
Europe's Gaming Reset
The European gaming industry is currently undergoing a significant transition, moving away from a decade of rapid, acquisition-led growth toward a period defined by operational discipline and sustainable engagement.
- The European gaming market has contracted to 18.0 billion in 2023, down from a 2015-2023 growth peak of nearly 20 billion.
- Industry growth is shifting from acquisition-led expansion to a focus on operational discipline, leaner business models, and sustainable engagement.
- CD Projekt has achieved profitability through internal reform and cost discipline, while Ubisoft is currently undergoing restructuring involving significant layoffs and a reliance on legacy intellectual property.
2024 Overview of the Mobile Games Market and User Behavior in Korea
The mobile gaming market in South Korea has transitioned into a mature, stable phase, maintaining its position as the dominant segment of the domestic gaming industry.
- The Korean mobile gaming market reached 13.61 trillion KRW in 2023, maintaining its position as the largest segment of the domestic gaming industry.
- Market growth has stabilized into a mature phase, with a 4.1% year-on-year increase in 2023 compared to peak growth rates of 43.4% in 2017.
- Mobile gaming is a daily habit for over half of the population, with 33.5% of users playing multiple times per day and 18.6% playing once daily.
The Hardware Nobody Asked For… That Might Change Everything
Valve is preparing to launch a new Steam Machine console in early 2026, marking a significant shift from its failed 2015 hardware experiment.
- Valve plans to launch an internally developed Steam Machine console in early 2026, priced between $550 and $700 with performance targets comparable to the PlayStation 5.
- The console will run SteamOS and utilize Proton to provide couch-based access to the existing Steam library, positioning the device as a strategic play to capture market share from Xbox.
- A major technical limitation is the inability to run competitive multiplayer titles that rely on kernel-level anti-cheat software, excluding many popular games from the platform.
How to Grow a Game Studio Through Challenging Times | Develop:Brighton 2024
Sustaining a game studio through long-term industry volatility requires a disciplined balance between creative ambition and pragmatic business operations.
- Studio growth requires a balance of three core pillars: a clear plan, a consistent pot of cash, and the right people to execute the vision.
- Glowmade scaled from three founders in 2015 to a team of over 60 developers by 2024, navigating significant financial volatility and project pivots along the way.
- Maintaining a studio culture based on core values—specifically 'nurture,' 'fulfill,' and 'be brave'—was critical to retaining staff during the 2020 pandemic-era furloughs.
What’s Going to Stop the Steam Machine Failing Again?
The reintroduction of the Steam Machine represents a strategic shift for Valve, aiming to establish a stronger foothold in the living room console market.
- Valve has announced a new cube-shaped Steam Machine featuring six times the horsepower of the Steam Deck, with a new controller and a release scheduled for next year.
- Unlike the failed 2015 iteration which relied on multiple third-party partners, the new Steam Machine is a single, internally developed hardware proposition from Valve.
- The addressable market for Steam has grown significantly, with user game entitlements increasing from roughly $9 billion in 2015 to $90 billion today.
Evaluating Multiplayer Game-Based Training for Earthquake Evacuation: A Systematic Review
This systematic review examines whether multiplayer game-based training can improve earthquake evacuation preparedness, with a particular focus on the group dynamics that shape evacuations in crowded settings such as schools and hospitals.
- The systematic review screened 71 records from Scopus and Web of Science (2015–2025) under PRISMA guidelines and retained 14 studies on earthquake-related serious games with educational or behavioral aims.
- The central finding is a gap rather than a conclusion: none of the 14 reviewed games were designed for multiplayer play, leaving multiplayer earthquake training largely unevaluated.
- Most reviewed games gave limited attention to social influence, leadership, role allocation, and collective decision-making, which are central to crowded evacuations in schools and hospitals.
The $100,000 Developer Surcharge
The introduction of a $100,000 surcharge on H-1B visas by the U.S. government is poised to significantly reshape the domestic video game industry by increasing operational costs and hindering access to specialized international talent.
- The new $100,000 H-1B visa surcharge creates a significant financial barrier that threatens to stifle innovation and creative experimentation within the U.S. video game industry.
- Smaller studios are disproportionately at risk, as they lack the capital to absorb these high fees, which may entrench large, risk-averse incumbents and reduce overall market competitiveness.
- Between 2015 and 2024, the gaming industry recorded 6,161 H-1B approvals, averaging 616 per year, highlighting a consistent reliance on specialized foreign talent for engineering-heavy workflows.
2025 Global Games Market Report
Newzoo's 2025 Global Games Market Report describes a maturing industry with moderate growth, and pairs its market forecasts with tactical analysis of launch strategy.
- The global games market is projected to reach $188.8 billion in 2025, a 3.4% year-over-year increase, driven by a player base that has expanded to 3.6 billion people.
- Mobile gaming remains the industry leader with $103.0 billion in revenue (55% of the total), while console gaming is expected to see the highest growth rate at 5.5%, reaching $45.9 billion.
- Average spend per player is declining, forcing a strategic shift toward long-tail engagement and retention rather than aggressive monetization in saturated markets.
Beyond the Headline: Unpacking the Reported Drop in Conscientiousness
This analysis examines the reported decline in conscientiousness among individuals aged 16–39, addressing the statistical validity of recent findings and the broader implications for societal behavior.
- Conscientiousness scores among U.S. adults aged 16–39 dropped from 35.51 in 2015 to 33.26 in 2025, representing a Cohen’s d effect size of 0.40.
- This decline in conscientiousness is occurring at a rate 2.4 times faster than the natural longitudinal development typically observed between the ages of 12 and 47.
- Quantic Foundry data corroborates these psychological findings, showing a parallel decline in the appeal of strategy-based gaming among 1.85 million users over the same decade.