Game Publishing reports and market data
1,266 documents·95 writers·259 charts and tables
Documents
Mobilegamer.biz17 min
App Review woes, GTA leaves Netflix, Türkiye's hot streak, iconic icons, Zombies Run, more
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating significant shifts in platform policy, regional dominance, and corporate strategy.
- Apple is facing allegations from former App Review head Philip Shoemaker that it has wrongfully terminated developer accounts and withheld millions of dollars in payments without providing evidence or explanation.
- Netflix is refocusing its gaming strategy by removing 13 titles, including its top-performing game GTA: San Andreas, which accumulated 57.4 million downloads since December 2023.
- Türkiye's mobile gaming ecosystem has flourished due to aggressive government incentives, including marketing spend cashback, tax exemptions in technology zones, and R&D income tax relief.
Mobilegamer.bizNov 2025
Deconstructor of Fun10 min
Google & Epic: From Mortal Enemies to BFFs? Judge Calls BS
The proposed settlement between Google and Epic Games has faced significant judicial scrutiny, with Judge Donato withholding approval due to concerns regarding the agreement's clarity and the sudden, suspicious alignment between two long-standing legal adversaries.
- Judge Donato has withheld approval of the Google-Epic Games settlement, citing concerns that the agreement may be a strategic delay rather than a resolution to antitrust violations.
- The court has scheduled a follow-up hearing for late 2024 or early 2025 to address ambiguities in the proposal, which the judge currently deems insufficient for industry implementation.
- Analysts argue that the settlement's proposed fee structure—which differentiates between cosmetic and non-cosmetic items—is unenforceable because many games use hard currency that can be spent on either category at the user's discretion.
Deconstructor of FunNov 2025
The Game Business61 min
Call of Duty under attack, but who is winning (and losing) in the battle of the shooters?
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a period of intense volatility and structural realignment, characterized by shifting player loyalties and evolving development strategies.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is experiencing a softening in performance as competitors like Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders successfully capture segments of its shooter audience.
- Established franchises like Destiny 2 are facing declining engagement and resource constraints, forcing studios to pivot toward new genres like extraction shooters such as Marathon.
- Major publishers are shifting away from traditional annual release models, exemplified by EA’s decision to move the F1 series toward a long-term DLC expansion strategy.
The Game BusinessNov 2025
PocketGamer.biz38 min
Not Just Discord: Minimap Builds the Next Gaming Hub
Minimap functions as a centralized, data-driven ecosystem designed to consolidate the fragmented gaming landscape into a singular, profile-based hub.
- Minimap functions as a data-driven community platform for gamers, combining social features with a proprietary database of over 160,000 games to provide insights into player behavior.
- The platform enables targeted marketing campaigns for publishers like Capcom, Sony, and Smilegate by leveraging psychographic data based on actual player history rather than just broad demographics.
- A recent campaign for Monster Hunter Wilds on the platform's integrated e-store resulted in 4,000 game sales within one month, demonstrating the platform's ability to drive both user acquisition and direct revenue.
PocketGamer.bizNov 2025
The Game Business18 min
Life beyond Elden Ring: A rare interview with Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa
Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa outlines a strategic vision centered on balancing third-party partnerships with an increased focus on internal development capabilities.
- Bandai Namco is shifting its strategic focus toward balancing third-party partnerships with a greater emphasis on internal development capabilities.
- The company is using the success of its partnership with FromSoftware on Elden Ring as a primary benchmark for future development standards and global marketing strategies.
- To mitigate rising development costs, the firm is maintaining a diversified portfolio that spans from large-scale AAA blockbusters to smaller projects.
The Game BusinessNov 2025
Develop:Brighton47 min
Stuck in the Middle With You: Translating Between Business and Creativity as a Producer
Game production functions as a critical bridge between the divergent priorities of business stakeholders and creative teams.
- Producers act as translators between the creative team, which prioritizes quality and exploration, and the business side, which prioritizes predictability, risk mitigation, and quantifiable outcomes.
- To resolve conflicts over project delays, producers should translate creative needs into business-relevant terms by framing requests as risk-management scenarios, such as comparing the impact of a six-month extension against potential revenue loss from poor reviews.
- Effective production requires maintaining an up-to-date, sized backlog that allows for immediate, data-driven answers when stakeholders ask about the impact of adding or changing features on the project's profitability and timeline.
Develop:BrightonNov 2025
Develop:Brighton48 min
Key Insights and Takeaways from My Kickstarter Journey | Develop:Brighton 2024
Kickstarter functions primarily as a strategic marketing engine rather than a simple funding vehicle.
- Email marketing is the most effective conversion channel for crowdfunding, yet it is often underutilized; prioritize building and nurturing an email list well before the campaign launch.
- Expect a conversion rate of approximately 20% to 25% of your total followers over the course of a campaign, with only 10% to 15% converting on the first day.
- Keep stretch goals hidden initially to allow for flexibility; this enables developers to adjust goals based on real-time campaign momentum and community feedback gathered through surveys.
Develop:BrightonNov 2025
Jonas Tyroller98 min
This Young Solo Dev Built a Steam Hit in 4 Months
The rapid success of the co-op title Pedal Pedal Pedal, which achieved 120,000 units sold following a condensed four-month development cycle, serves as a compelling case study for modern indie game production.
- Solo developer Zoroarts achieved a Steam hit with 'Paddle Paddle Paddle' by limiting development to four months, following a two-week demo phase, to avoid the scope creep that plagued his previous two-year project, 'Maki's Adventure'.
- To prevent feature creep, the developer strictly adhered to a pre-defined list of 30 core elements and biomes, refusing to add new features during the development cycle.
- Marketing success was driven by leveraging TikTok, where the developer used negative comments about game graphics as content to go viral, and by building a database of over 1,000 influencer and press contacts.
Jonas TyrollerNov 2025
Report8 pages
Sustainability at Embracer Group: FY 2025/26 ESG Fact Sheet
The Embracer Group’s FY 2025/26 ESG Fact Sheet outlines the organization’s commitment to integrating sustainability into its core business model, which spans PC, console, and mobile gaming, as well as media and retail operations.
- Embracer Group achieved a score of 41 in the 2025 S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, significantly outperforming the industry peer average of 26.
- The organization maintains a workforce of nearly 7,000 employees across 69 internal studios, with a geographic distribution of 64% in Europe, 31% in North America, and 5% in other regions.
- Internal governance is supported by 17 group policies, featuring high compliance implementation rates of 99% for codes of conduct and 96% for anti-corruption measures.
Embracer GroupNov 2025
The Game Business45 min
Interview with Reggie Fils-Aime on Nintendo Switch 2, leadership and the console war
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a structural transformation as the traditional console war model fades in favor of platform-agnostic strategies.
- The gaming industry is shifting from a hardware-exclusive console war model toward a platform-agnostic strategy, evidenced by Xbox’s move into third-party publishing and Sony’s expansion onto PC.
- Future hardware success, including for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, now depends heavily on robust third-party support and efficient development tools rather than relying solely on proprietary exclusivity.
- To avoid market stagnation, hardware manufacturers must leverage unique brand identities to deliver innovative, distinct experiences that justify their continued relevance in a less hardware-centric landscape.
The Game BusinessNov 2025
Deconstructor of Fun60 min
TWIG #356 Epic vs Google, Roblox’s Rough Quarter, Supercell Pulls the Plug
The mobile gaming landscape is undergoing a significant structural shift following the settlement between Epic Games and Google, which concludes five years of litigation.
- The Epic Games vs. Google settlement mandates a tiered fee structure through 2032, charging 9% for non-gameplay items and 20% for gameplay-affecting purchases, which incentivizes developers to shift toward direct-to-consumer billing.
- Supercell canceled Squad Busters despite the title generating $100 million in gross revenue, as it failed to meet long-term viability standards after an estimated $150 million investment in development and marketing.
- Roblox reached 151 million daily active users and record bookings in Q3 2025, yet continues to face investor skepticism due to margin compression caused by rising infrastructure costs and expensive international user acquisition.
Deconstructor of FunNov 2025
PocketGamer.biz13 min
How to publish, localise, and develop games in MENA - Sohaib Thiab from Tamatem
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region represents a rapidly evolving mobile gaming market that requires nuanced localization and infrastructure strategies to succeed.
- The MENA region requires more than simple translation; effective localization must account for the Arabic language's complexity (30 million+ words) and strict cultural sensitivities, such as the exclusion of alcohol-related content.
- Payment processing is a major barrier in the MENA market, as many users are unbanked or prefer local payment methods over credit cards, necessitating platforms like Tamatem Plus to facilitate monetization.
- Social and multiplayer games, particularly digitized versions of traditional tabletop games like Belote, perform exceptionally well in the region because they mirror popular offline social activities.
PocketGamer.bizNov 2025