🚨📢 BREAKING NEWS: 2026 State of Gaming Marketing, Turkish studio raises big, Meta shuts studios

Top advertisers pumped out between [music] 2,400 and 2,600 creative variations every quarter. Roughly a 30% year-over-year jump. And guess what? I have been talking about this for the past year because I see and live the UA data and the creative data as well. Two and a half gamers [music] exclusive breaking news. [music] Literally breaking.
Welcome back to the latest breaking news episode. My name is Mat Lantage and I'm your host today. The past week was anything but boring. The studios banked millions, marketers drowned in AI generated ads, and even Rockstar decided it was a time to make money off the mods once banned. So, let's go. Tail Monsters Series Astanbul's Monster Tail Monster

Games, a five founder studio [music] of big games veterans closed a 30 million series A led by Arcadia Gaming Partners. Kudos to Akin, our friend, and Anderson Horovitz. It seed money of 7 million already in [music] the bank and its match free puzzler matchi posting its impressive retention and monetization. The team is now one [music] of the best capitalized casual game studios around. More interesting news coming from Turkey incoming so stay tuned. CEO Iram Sumer says the goal is to deliver deeper more sophisticated gameplay that meets the rising expectation of mobile gamers. Obvious investors praise the team for doing more [music] than just following a template and copying other gaming and gaming studios. Hidabad based liquid nitro games snagged.1 million in series A founding funding from North Point [music] Capital

and Nexus Venture Partners. The studio positions itself as live services partner that uses AI to tailor game play and progression on the fly. Founded by Electron Arts, Alumni Nick Liquid Nitro not only builds and operates games, but also invests its own capital alongside publishing partners, betting on long-term performance. The new funds will expand its proprietary AI platform and global footprint. With the name like Nitro or Liquid Nitro, you would expect energy drinks, right? Not game analytics. [music] Apps Slayer dropped its annual report showing just how crowded mobile game advertising has become. They've done this with Unity and Yuzu and it's 2026 state of gaming marketing report. So, in 2025, top advertisers pumped out between 2,400

and 2,600 creative variations every quarter. Roughly a 30% year-over-year jump. And guess what? I have been talking about this for the past year because I see and live the UA data and the creative data as well. Again, I mean, we are staying two and a half steps ahead of the industry. I also published a TLDDR version of this report on my subst, but if you want this full report, there's going to be link in the show notes. So, go and check that out because paid installs climbed 10% while ad impressions [music] shot up 20%. Meaning more ads are chasing the same eyeballs. Nearly half of AI assistant quer queries in marketing department are [music] now about reporting and performance breakdown. In other words, marketers are drowning in their own data. I mean it's okay. I use also AI assistants to help

with reports because I don't really like making all those long reports. The report well this report also notes the global UA spend hit 25 billion with money shifting towards emerging markets like Turkey or Turkey and India. These publishers now command about third of UA spent outside of China. If you are listening to our audience uh to our podcast and you are [music] you know Chinese are ruling the top charts heavily in the 2025 and it's not going to change in 2026. The game developers conference introduced a luminary speaker series for its March 2026 festival in San Francisco because GDC it's not a conference anymore. It's a festival. Hey, great stuff. Oh my god, nobody cares. This 3-day program is pitched at

senior decision makers and will tackle macro trends such [music] as emerging platforms, AIP ecosystems and cultural shifts. Confirmed speakers from Google, Mattel, Nvidia, [music] Band Dynamo, Savvi Games and Light Speed Ventures session includes fire session with Savvi CEO Brian Wart and AI trends and futures panel [music] featuring Nvidia and Google Deep Mind leads. The catch, you will need a pricier game changer pass to get in. Of course, we are still living in the business gaming business industry. That's it. Meta [music] actually and their reality Labs division is closing three of its VR gaming studios. Saru Games, Twisted Pixel Games, and Armatur Studio, and letting

go roughly 10% of its employees. Meta says it's shifting investments from metaverse to variables and will reinvest the savings. Interesting. These studios produced acclaimed titles like Asgard's Wrath, Deadpool VR, and Resident Evil 4 VR. The shutdown underscores the company's broader [music] retreat from full-blown metaverse ambitions. Oh Sherlock. Rockstar rolled out the marketplace, which is an official store for mods on GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 roleplay servers. The marketplace launched with around 16 creator made modes and plans to add more. While some mods remain free, premium offerings such as theme park DLC cost about $130 [music] and creator bundles can fetch close to

400. It's notable pivot given Rockstar once deemed these servers unauthorized but later acquired CFX RE and embraced the community. Valva says the upcoming Steam machine will have looser verification requirements than the Steam Deck. Any game verified on the Steam Deck will automatically qualify for Steam Machine status. The company is also introducing a Steam controller pack to improve wireless pairing and reduce interference. The philosophy is just it just works. aiming to make PC gaming feel more like a console game, minus [music] the cable spaghetti. Ubisoft confirmed it laid off 29 employees at its Abu Dhabi studio after shelving projects to focus on Growtopia. The cuts actually happened in November

2025, but were only acknowledged last week. The studio [music] which employed around 60 people has worked on the titles like CSI hidden [music] crimes. The company says is offering support to affected stuff and it's continue operations with the leader team. In corporate speak restructuring meaning you're fired but we bought cupcakes. There is hoping to developers land on their feet or maybe start a next tail monster studio. Embark Studios celebrated the milestone extraction shooter. Arc raider [music] sold 12 million copies just 2 and 1/2 months after it's October 30th. Just 2 and 1/2 months. You know why we are talking about it. The studio studios holiday thank you note admitted they would they would prepared a giveaway for 10 million players only to see sales blow past that mark. It's a bright spot for their new

IP in the market dominated by sequels and live services. When you sales for when your sales forecast underestimates by 2 million, it's time to upgrade your crystal ball or hire the like liquid nitro AI. Either way, heads off to the raiders for well riding the charts. And that's a wrap on this week's episode of breaking news. From blockbusters, founding runs to AIdriven marketing and corporate exuper never sit still. Well, neither do we. Subscribe for more recaps, breaking news. Remember, if you're raising 30 million or just raising your controller, keep your sense of humor handy. Until next time, guys. See you later. Bye-bye.