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What’s going on at Rovio, Miniclip’s new ad network, Squad Busters’ last rites, RedLynx closes, more
The mobile games industry is currently undergoing a period of significant restructuring, characterized by studio closures, project cancellations, and a strategic pivot toward established intellectual property.
- Mobile game spending declined by 7% in Q3, with only three of the top 20 grossing titles being less than two years old, highlighting a significant barrier to entry for new games.
- Major publishers are aggressively pruning portfolios, resulting in the cancellation of Supercell’s Squad Busters, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Mobile, and Fingersoft’s Lego Hill Climb Adventures.
- Ubisoft is closing its Helsinki-based studio RedLynx as part of a broader industry trend of studio closures and project cancellations.
Block Blast Hit 300M Players — And Kills 95% of Ideas
Hungry Studio, the developer behind the mobile puzzle game Block Blast, has achieved significant growth, scaling from 40 million daily active users in 2024 to 300 million monthly active users by late 2025.
- Hungry Studio's Block Blast grew from 40 million daily active users in 2024 to 300 million monthly active users by late 2025, driven by a focus on long-term brand building and user experience.
- The studio uses an internal simulation tool, "Block AI," to test new features, validating ideas in days and rejecting 95-97% of proposed concepts to prevent resource waste.
- Hungry Studio prioritizes accessibility and high product design standards to create a consistent, high-quality experience for a global audience.
Podcast: Will consumers adopt agentic commerce? (with Michael Morton)
The promise of agentic commerce—autonomous AI systems that handle shopping decisions on behalf of consumers—is largely a Silicon Valley narrative that fails to align with established retail behavior.
- The narrative of autonomous agentic commerce is currently unsupported by data, as the average consumer makes only ten non-automated purchases per month, suggesting that shopping friction is not a significant enough pain point to drive mass adoption.
- Amazon’s deep consumer identity data and physical fulfillment infrastructure create a structural moat that makes it nearly impossible for independent shopping agents to unbundle established marketplaces.
- The high operational costs of being a merchant of record—including logistics, fraud protection, and customer support—render the business model of independent, third-party shopping agents financially unviable.
Why Grand Theft Auto VI Took 8+ Years to Make
The development of Grand Theft Auto VI represents a massive, multi-year undertaking that reflects the evolving complexities of AAA game production.
- Development of Grand Theft Auto VI began in earnest in 2019, following a 2015 conceptual phase that was paused to prioritize the completion of Red Dead Redemption 2.
- Rockstar Games scaled its workforce significantly during the project's lifecycle, growing from approximately 2,400 employees in 2018 to a projected 4,700 by 2026.
- A 2022 security breach involving leaked gameplay footage triggered a controversial return-to-office mandate, ending remote work flexibility for staff.
Design Club: Industry Shenanigans! GTA6, AI in development, and the 1400$ PS5!
The gaming industry is currently defined by a tension between massive cultural phenomena and aggressive monetization strategies that prioritize publisher control over consumer accessibility.
- Grand Theft Auto VI is currently confirmed for release only on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, with no immediate plans for a PC or Nintendo Switch launch.
- The gaming industry frequently experiences cyclical narratives regarding the death of specific platforms or business models, such as the supposed demise of PC, mobile, or premium gaming, which often simply evolve rather than disappear.
- Modern game development requires massive teams, with some lead artists managing up to 60 people to handle the complex modeling, rigging, and animation required for thousands of character assets.
The next Steam Next Fest is going to be how busy?
Steam Next Fest has evolved into a massive promotional engine, with upcoming iterations expected to feature between 5,000 and 8,000 demos.
- Steam Next Fest is becoming increasingly saturated, with upcoming events expected to feature between 5,000 and 8,000 demos.
- Developers must adopt a dual-pronged marketing strategy, using short-form viral content to drive top-of-funnel awareness and high-quality trailers to convert interest into wishlists.
- To maximize visibility and avoid the saturated December release window, developers should strategically target the January and February periods.
The Solo Developer Making Seven Figures From Free Browser Games
Abe Train has established a highly profitable independent game studio by focusing on daily, browser-based educational titles that cater to a niche, highly engaged audience.
- Abe Train, founder of Trainwreck Labs, transitioned from a business intelligence role at HelloFresh to a successful solo developer by launching daily browser games like Globle, which peaked at over one million daily players.
- The developer prioritizes building a small, obsessive core audience over a large, casual one, noting that highly engaged players provide valuable feedback that improves game accessibility and longevity.
- Monetization through ads resulted in negligible player backlash, as users generally expect ads on the web; the developer now complements this with a subscription model that removes ads and adds multiplayer functionality.
Global Gaming Report: Q3 2026
The global gaming industry experienced a period of significant financial revitalization during the third quarter of 2026, characterized by a robust rebound in market valuations and sustained investment activity.
- The gaming industry saw $4 billion in total capital activity in Q3 2026, comprising $2.4 billion across 45 M&A deals and $1.6 billion in private financing.
- Over 80 percent of private funding was directed toward AI-native development, 3D foundation models, and advanced tools, with notable investments in Tripo AI, Nex, and PixVerse.
- The Drake Star Gaming Index reported a 12.4 percent return for the quarter, reflecting a strong recovery in market valuations.
AI Game Dev: Is It Over For Indies?
The current state of the indie game industry is defined by a tension between the rapid democratization of development tools through artificial intelligence and the traditional, labor-intensive craft of game creation.
- The primary differentiator between a commercially viable game and low-effort AI-generated content is the rigorous process of prototyping and iterative player testing.
- Developers should focus on building an audience through a high-quality, polished demo rather than relying on AI to generate game assets, as audiences are built through human connection and engagement.
- The development workflow should prioritize testing a core, stripped-down prototype with players—ideally around 20 people—to validate the game loop before investing in art, music, or full production.
The Truth About AI Transformation (It's Not What You Think)
The fundamental challenge of modern organizational transformation lies in the distinction between retrofitting legacy operations and building AI-native enterprises.
- Successful AI transformation requires shifting from retrofitting legacy workflows to building AI-native enterprises that utilize decentralized, high-velocity decision-making.
- Organizations must establish a centralized business context—an 'internal AI brain'—to ensure data consistency and cross-departmental coordination as operational velocity increases.
- Democratizing data access is essential, enabling non-technical staff to automate processes and generate insights without relying on centralized analytics bottlenecks.
Reciprocal Associations Between Gambling-Like Elements in the Video Gaming Ecosystem, Problematic Gaming and Online Gambling: A Longitudinal Study Among Adolescents
This study examines how engagement with gambling-like elements in video games, problematic gaming, and online gambling influence one another over time among adolescents.
- Problematic gaming is the most consistent predictor of later increases in engagement with gambling-like elements, both within games and in activities around games (β = .09 to .13), indicating that gaming problems tend to precede gambling-like involvement rather than only following it.
- Around-game engagement, such as watching loot box and gambling streams, in turn predicted later increases in online monetary gambling (β = .13), suggesting a pathway from gaming-related media consumption to real-money gambling.
- The composite within-game engagement score had no significant prospective effect on online gambling or problematic gaming, though purchasing loot boxes showed an effect in supplementary item-level analyses.
Mobile & F2P | Jordan Blackman | Why the Best Games Are Winning by Squeezing Less | DD 2026
The mobile gaming industry is undergoing a fundamental shift in monetization strategy, moving away from aggressive, friction-based tactics toward a model that prioritizes long-term player engagement.
- Reducing aggressive monetization 'pinches' can increase both player retention and total revenue simultaneously, contradicting the traditional industry assumption that player satisfaction and business performance are inversely related.
- Successful monetization redesign requires 'revenue migration,' where removing a friction point (such as level-gating) is balanced by alternative, less intrusive spending opportunities within the game loop.
- The cost of aggressive monetization is rising because modern players are increasingly sensitive to friction and more likely to churn when they feel over-squeezed, making the traditional 'out-squeeze the competition' strategy less effective.