Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

June 21 (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC)

On June 21, the first and long-awaited DLC for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree will be released. The Japanese studio FromSoftware (Dark Souls trilogy) released the original game on February 25, 2022. Hidetaka Miyazaki, formerly known for his work on Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, led its development. And the author of The Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin, acted as a consultant and story co-author.

The game became widely popular not only due to its well-written lore and advanced gameplay but also thanks to its difficulty. Elden Ring was awarded as a game of the year by The Game Awards 2022 and Golden Joystick Awards.

The add-on will bring you to the Lands Between to fight new bosses with new abilities and weapons. Following Miquella’s paths, you will discover a dark side of Elden Ring’s story.

Destiny 2: The Final Shape

June 4 (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC)

The Final Shape is another big June expansion for Destiny 2, a sci-fi shooter. The original game was released in 2017 and was nominated for several awards, particularly for The Game Awards 2017 and Game Critics Awards. The Final Shape will be the eighth expansion for Destiny 2.

The events of The Final Shape will revolve around the player’s Guardian seeking out the franchise’s major villain, the Witness, who had disappeared through a portal that it created at the conclusion of Lightfall (2023). The player and the Guardian must stop the Witness and end the war between Light and Darkness. The expansion will add new abilities, missions, locations, equipment, weapons, and one subclass to the game.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game

June 4 (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

June will also please us with a new asymmetrical multiplayer horror experience, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game, based on the popular and iconic ‘80s film. Despite possible expectations, you will not play for Earth defenders but for Killer Klowns aiming to conquer the town of Crescent Cove and after it, the whole planet.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is a multiplayer game where three players must unite. Each Klown has their superpowers and abilities and will fight against seven Human citizens trying to protect the town from your invasion.

The game has been developed by the US studios IllFonic (Friday the 13th: The Game) and Teravision Games (Captain ToonHead vs the Punks from Outer Space).

Star Wars: Hunters

June 4 (iOS, Android, Switch)

Another June novelty will bring much fun to those who like playing on a smartphone or Nintendo Switch. Star Wars: Hunters is a competitive arena combat game developed by Zynga, a US-based developer. The events of Star Wars: Hunters will occur between Episode VI and Episode VII of the Saga. In the game, you will meet various well-known characters: Bounty Hunters, Rebels, Imperial Stormtroopers, Wookiees, Sith, and Jedi as well.

V Rising

June 11 (PS5)

The May newcomer V Rising will be available for PS5 users in June. V Rising is an action survival game by the Swedish Stunlock Studios. First announced in 2021, it became available in early access on May 17, 2022. Since then, the game has had many positive feedbacks on Steam and a 9-star rating on IGN.

The events of V Rising revolve in an open world. You play a recently awakened vampire. The player gathers materials, makes and upgrades their equipment, and builds a castle that acts as their home. For this, you must fight bosses. However, other things are making the character’s life harder: As any vampire, you need to regularly consume the blood of enemy NPCs and avoid the sun and garlic.

#Blud

June 18 (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Another upcoming vampire story is #Blud by the US-based Exit 73 Studios. Its events take place during a vampire apocalypse. The animation is based on ‘90s cartoons. The player will control a first-year student who must save her friends from vampires during a pause between field hockey classes by using her own field hockey stick.

“Slaying the undead is just another day at high school for Becky Brewster, new kid in town and latest in an ancient bloodline of spellcasting vampire hunters. Root out demonic infestations through the town’s buzzing social media, and take selfies with demonic forces to analyze their weaknesses… Master the slaying game with the help of an eclectic cast of hilarious characters, and teach the vampires a thing or two about messing with Carpentersville High!” is the game description.

Still Wakes the Deep

June 18 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

Still Wakes the Deep is an upcoming survival horror video game developed by a British The Chinese Room (Korsakovia for Half-Life 2, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs). The developers got inspired by old good movies: Abigail’s Party, Don’t Look Now, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Poseidon Adventure. All this helped recreate the gray and anxious atmosphere of Scotland.

The events of Still Wakes the Deep occurred in 1975 on the Beira D oil drilling platform in the North Sea. You will play for a Glaswegian electrician named Caz McLeary, who must navigate through the oil rig following a catastrophe while surviving the harsh weather and evading the pursuit of a mysterious creature. However, the game has no combat system, and players have to rely on stealth and solving light environmental puzzles to progress and find a way to salvation.

SPYÃхANYA: Operation Memories

June 28 (PS5, PS4, Switch)

SPYÃхANYA: Operation Memories is a new adventure game by GrooveBoxJapan based on anime and manga motives. The players will get 15 mini-games united with a main story. Anya Forger has a new assignment from school: creating a photo diary! You will accompany Anya at school and on weekends to capture the main events. At the same time, the player can also customize the character and her friends.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD

June 27 (Switch)

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is an update for the 2013 game Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, the third game in the Mario franchise. The protagonist is a plumber Luigi, the little brother of Mario. The story follows Luigi as he explores a series of mansions in Evershade Valley, capturing ghosts using a specialized vacuum cleaner invented by Professor E. Gadd. To restore peace to Evershade Valley, Luigi must collect the pieces of the Dark Moon and recapture the main antagonist, King Boo.

An Х user with the nickname @Gadzhega brought attention to this.

Timur Gagiev, a Russian, became the technical director, and Daur Avidzba, a Russian author at StopGame.ru, became the game designer. Other Russians in the team are Alexey Kozlyaev and Vladimir Parusov.

Why is it important?

Despite sanctions, nearly 10 years of war, and almost two years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russians continue to be a part of many global industries, including gamedev.

In December 2023, it was revealed that the developer of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is the Russian studio Owlcat Games backed by the Russian fund GEM Capital. And in January, Steam announced the winners of 2023, where Atomic Heart, a game developed by a Russian studio whose investors also come from Gazprom, won in one of the categories.

Game’s history

Baldur’s Gate is among the oldest and most recognizable role-playing computer games. The first game for PC was released back in 1998. It was a classic isometric RPG (i.e., the playfield and characters on the screen are visible in an isometric projection) with turn-based gameplay, a complex story, and no less complex game mechanics.

As for the mechanics, everything is straightforward: All the rules for character leveling and combat, as well as the game’s locations and lore (i.e., story), are based on the Forgotten Realms Dungeons & Dragons board game campaign. Thus, for D&D fans, Baldur’s Gate was like a “movie adaptation” of their favorite board game. It was challenging but also exciting to play: In the 90s and early 2000s, there was usually no place to “check” how to get past the next difficult place or which dialog to choose.

Along with Neverwinter Nights (based on the same campaign), Planescape: Torment, the Fallout series, Arcanum, Baldur’s Gate and the later Dragon Age: Origins, it has become one of the golden classic RPGs. For fans of the genre, it holds the same place as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for spaghetti Western fans.

With the rise of Kickstarter, indie game studios have got a chance to develop games for “their souls” and not go bankrupt. At the same time, “old-school” RPGs, like in the good old days, also become demanded. So, for new games like Divinity: Original Sin or Pillars of Eternity, developers raised millions of dollars and fueled interest in the old genre.

Belgian Larian Studios, who developed the successful Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, began working on the third chapter of Baldur’s Gate.

Why this hype

There are many reasons for the increased interest in the third Baldur’s Gate.

• The already mentioned developer, Larian Studios, has successfully released several games of this genre that faithfully recreate the feeling of an “old-school RPG” but with modern graphics and animation.
• There is still a large fanbase for D&D board games, particularly the Forgotten Realms campaign. Mass culture is increasingly turning to the theme of old computer games and board games: The Stranger Things series begins with the characters playing D&D; a movie on Forgotten Realms with A-list stars, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor of Thieves, which grossed $38.5 million in the first weekend in the US; D&D campaign streams on Twitch and YouTube are getting millions of views, and so on.

• The fact that the third part came out almost 23 years after the second.
• And finally, the game itself, which has 97% of positive reviews on Steam, such as “I haven’t slept for two days because I’m playing,” “What are you reading reviews for, buy it and play it,” or “I’ve never played D&D before, and this game opened my eyes to a new vibe in gaming.”
• It also receives gold stars in reviews by gaming magazines: “The game’s size and exciting quests will attract both old and new fans” (Gamerant); PC Gamer reviewer calls it “the RPG of your dreams” as if from games like Ultima, Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin took the best and combined it.
• Users also emphasize the developers’ tolerance for topics that could be considered indecent: Even on the character creation screen, you can admire how the character will look without any clothes on, and the video with the bear and squirrel did not leave everyone with unambiguous feelings.
• But most agree that this is a worthy continuation of the classic series.
• There is also a nice bonus for the Ukrainian players: a Ukrainian localization by SBT. The community has some questions about this translation, but the availability of the Ukrainian language for such a high-profile project on the first day of release is excellent.

The Ukrainian language is coming to Night City! We’re happy to announce that Ukrainian text localization will launch for the whole game alongside Phantom Liberty.

We’re sincerely proud of the results and hope our Ukrainian-speaking players will enjoy it!https://t.co/whx0opPXUf pic.twitter.com/vY5T6T2PKd

— CD PROJEKT RED (@CDPROJEKTRED) June 11, 2023

• The game’s DLC is to be released on September 26, 2023, at that time Ukrainian localization will be also be added to both the game and the DLC.
• It will be just a text translation. There is no talk of Ukrainian dubbing yet.

“I’m incredibly happy that Ukrainian gamers will soon be able to immerse themselves in the world of Cyberpunk in our native language. We at CD PROJEKT RED wanted to show our recognition of and support for this part of our community,”

Maria Strilchuk, localization project manager, says.

• It took the localization team more than a year to translate and adapt more than a million lines of text, including interfaces, dialogues, and in-game messages.

Why is it important?

Until recently, the Ukrainian localization was a rare thing to come across, as major game development studios usually ignored the Ukrainian-speaking community, grouping them into the Russian-speaking region. Because of the Russia invasion, more and more Ukrainian gamers are publicly asking for the translation of their favorite titles, sometimes localizing the games on their own. So it’s always welcome when the studios respond to such requests, even if three years after release.

• Last year, the Russian parliament ruled that spreading “false information” is a criminal offense punishable by 15 years in prison. As a result, several Russian media outlets shut down, and the BBC left the country.
• So Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat paid two map designers to create a map with a hidden room detailing the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Helsingin Sanomat released the map on May 2.

• When a player dies on the de_voyna map, they are free to roam the space and find an underground room. Once in, players can see newspaper headlines about the war in Ukraine, including the Bucha massacre where several mass graves were found.

• The map shows the places in Ukraine that were attacked by Russian soldiers, and the table shows the number of Russians killed. Another station tells the story of a Ukrainian Yurii Glodan, whose family was killed by a rocket attack while he was out shopping for groceries.

As AIN.Capital noticed, the de_voyna map has already become the most popular custom map in the last week in the CS:GO workshop. You can download it by following the link.

The Ostriv game has been developed since 2014. It has been in early access since 2017 and launched on Steam in 2020. The strategy is still in early access. However, unlike many dead early access projects, Ostriv is under constant development and expansion done by a single indie developer Yevhen from Kharkiv all the time.

About Ostriv

Ostriv is a city-building strategy game. From the start, a player has a few families and resources to govern to build first homes, a lumber mill, and other basic buildings continuing the development from a small settlement to a real town with hundreds of citizens.

Over time, the game process becomes more and more complicated — in addition to the basic needs of its inhabitants, the player has to monitor the replenishment of the budget, salaries, trade, food availability, and many other factors.

It looks pretty similar to the ANNO series but with some unique features. First, it is the setting. Ukraine not rarely appears in games, essentially in shooters in modern reality or close to that. Building an actual Ukrainian settlement in the city-building strategy game is a unique opportunity.

The second is realism. Ostriv aims to bring the city-building genre to a new level by eliminating annoying restrictions. The game lets create highly natural city planning without binding it to the squares and right angles in a 3D landscape. Moreover, the player cannot build a house or a road but only arranges places for new buildings. And peasants will make them floor by floor and beat tracks as they find it most comfortable.

You see seasons changing naturally in the game. It affects the gameplay significantly. Everyone starts in a camp populated by peasants living in tents. If you don’t provide all families with proper houses before the cold weather begins, they will leave your settlement. Every year, you must store enough food during the fall because, in winter, people may start starving, so you would lose all the citizens anyway.

In the beginning, it was a “village-building” game, actually. However, the project evolved with time and has been chiefly community-driven since the first alpha in 2017.

The current game version has 45 main buildings, five maps, the English and Ukrainian localizations, farming and cattle breeding, road modeling, dynamic seasons, primary trade, and other things you can expect from a city-building game.

With Alpha 5, the game got many brick buildings and health mechanics depending on ration and environment, etc. In general, the game is transforming into a city-development simulator. There are no villages in focus anymore.

Among the minuses are the lack of a user-friendly tutorial (the player learns from mistakes and lost settlements) and a few descriptions of items and mechanics. Nevertheless, all the main components of the game work pretty comfortably.

Where can you get Ostriv?

You can buy Ostriv Alpha directly from the developer’s official website. It costs $25. You’ll get a DRM-free copy of the game to download and a life-long subscription to all future updates, including a Steam/GOG key. You can also buy the game directly from GOG ($12.49) and Steam (329 hryvnia).

Note that the current release targets Microsoft Windows OS. In addition, you’ll need a multi-core processor and a powerful gaming video card (preferably GTX 770 or better) supporting OpenGL 4.3+.

Linux and Mac versions are planned for the future.

There are various design documents, art books, concepts, sketches, and, according to the Russians, the plot of the game. Therefore, we advise adequate people to ignore the mentions of the leaked files, which may be circulating in the Internet in the near future.

What did Russians want?

On March 11, the Russian VK group «Вестник «Того Самого Сталкера» with 13,000 subscribers posted a message from its admins (specifically, the admin nicknamed Nick Frost) with a goal to blackmail GSC Game World. The author claimed to possess tens of gigabytes of the new game contents, in particular, information about the plot. He threatened to make it all public if the studio:

• will not apologize to players from Russia and Belarus for their “unworthy attitude” (the studio publicly has a pro-Ukrainian position, donates to the Ukrainian army, and in the summer of 2022 announced that it would remove Russian voice acting from the game);
• return the Russian voiceover for the game by March 15, 2023;
• unban the NF Star community admin on the game’s official Discord.

The studio reacted to this with an official statement, where it said that it will not give in to blackmail.

“We are a Ukrainian company, and like most Ukrainians, we have experienced many things that are much more terrifying: destroyed houses, ruined lives, and the deaths of our loved ones. Attempts to blackmail or intimidate us are completely futile. Our unwavering commitment to supporting our country remains unchanged.”

What was in the leaked files?

In response to the company’s principled position, the blackmailers did publish 15 GB of leaks. According to the Russians, the files contain the following information:

• various design documents, art books, concepts, sketches, etc.;
• information about future DLCs and locations included;
• description of plot items (detectors, containers) and plot cutscenes;
• the plot of the game (appearance and death of key characters, answers to the main plot questions from the category “What is the Heart of Chornobyl?”);
• details about the development of the game world;
• screenshots from various builds of the game. Particles tests, animations, and more.

Even during the first stage of the Russian blackmail, the studio called on all adequate players who are sincerely waiting for the release to refrain from watching the leaked materials, not to spoil the first impression of the iconic game.

“In the event of any leaks, we ask that you refrain from watching or distributing information about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Outdated and work-in-progress materials may dilute the impression of the final idea that we have put into the game. We encourage you to stay patient and wait for the official release for the best experience possible. We believe that you will love it.”

Why is it important?

Russian “gamers” started blackmailing the Ukrainian studio in the second year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, with tens of thousands of citizens dead and entire cities destroyed by the occupying army. GSC Game World has been working on the game under shelling, from basements and bomb shelters, and many of its employees entered the ranks of the Armed Forces.

In December 2022, the famous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer Volodymyr Yezhov died in a battle near Bakhmut. Since the beginning of the invasion, the studio has removed its games from the Russian segment of Steam, and the Russians started massively review-bombing the game.

Over time, this ugly story suffered new details. The admin of the Russian group Nick Frost, who is probably a resident of Yenakievo (the city is indicated in his VK profile), says under the topic discussion that his ban was “because of politics” and this conflict is “not about politics”. He also calls himself a “participant of the SMO (Special Military Operation)”, posts photos in uniform and writes about “Donbass being bombed for 9 years,” which is a classic Russian propaganda piece.

• On March 11, the Russian VK group «Вестник «Того Самого Сталкера» with 13,000 subscribers posted a message from its admins (specifically, the admin nicknamed Nick Frost) with a goal to blackmail GSC Game World. The author claimed to possess tens of gigabytes of the new game contents, in particular, information about the plot. He threatened to make it all public if the studio:
  • will not apologize to players from Russia and Belarus for their “unworthy attitude” (the studio publicly has a pro-Ukrainian position, donates to the Ukrainian army, and in the summer of 2022 announced that it would remove Russian voice acting from the game);
  • return the Russian voiceover for the game by March 15, 2023;
  • unban the NF Star community admin on the game’s official Discord.

• Russian gamers addressed this “appeal” to the Ukrainian studio during the second year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after tens of thousands of dead citizens and entire cities destroyed by the occupying army. GSC Game World has been working on the game under shelling, from basements and bomb shelters, and many of its employees entered the ranks of the Armed Forces.
• In December 2022, the famous S.T.A.L.K.E.R developer Volodymyr Yezhov died in battle near Bakhmut. Since the beginning of the invasion, the studio has removed its games from the Russian segment of Steam, and the Russians started massively review-bombing the game.
• Over time, this ugly story suffered new details. The admin of the Russian group Nick Frost, who is probably a resident of Yenakievo (the city is indicated in his VK profile), says under the topic discussion that his ban was “because of politics” and this conflict is “not about politics”. He also calls himself a “participant of the SMO (Special Military Operation)”, posts photos in uniform, and writes about “Donbass being bombed for 9 years,” which is a classic Russian propaganda piece.

• Even some of the group followers warned the admin that blackmailing the developers is not the best way. To this, he replied that his blackmail is, per se, not really blackmail, and he doesn’t want to harm the game. Right here, there are similar vibes of Russian TV propaganda, which tells that the Russians were forced to bomb a neighboring country and kill its people.
• The studio reacted to this with an official statement, where it said that it will not give in to the blackmail.

“We are a Ukrainian company, and like most Ukrainians, we have experienced many things that are much more terrifying: destroyed houses, ruined lives, and the deaths of our loved ones. Attempts to blackmail or intimidate us are completely futile. Our unwavering commitment to supporting our country remains unchanged.”

• The company also urged not to distribute any leaked materials of the game and wait for its official release.
• In response to this, the Russian group has already started to publish game materials, in particular, the concept art of characters and monsters. AIN.Capital also urges not to distribute them and not spoil the first impression of the game.

This whole story is like a miniature mirror of the Russian attitude towards neighboring states and the world as a whole. They steal someone else’s property, blackmail the studio working on a game under missiles, whose employees were killed by the Russians during its war of aggression. And at the same time, they wonder why they are treated unworthily.

The Ukrainian gaming community has collected some of the worst examples from Russian resources where videos and screenshots of the game appear.

• A screenshot from the game where the drone carries a pot of geraniums. With “Geranium-2”, as the Russians call Iranian drones, the Russian army is shelling Ukrainian cities, killing people:

• Using old photos of “Soviet” Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. Donetsk has been occupied by the Russian army since 2014. The developers could not be unaware of this fact, adding such photos to the game. As well as the rhetoric of the Russian authorities about “the restoration of historical injustice and the restoration of the USSR.”

• Cans painted in blue-yellow color with “pork” minced meat. It is interesting that Russian users justify the picture by the fact that it had a Soviet original. But without the inscription “pork”.

• Poem-quote from an old World War II poster about “Nazi pigs”:

• Many users from Russia are outraged that these are “just pigs”, Ukrainians are offended by the nonsense, saying that there is no need to look for hidden meanings. But the game’s target audience, Russian gamers, read these meanings unambiguously (even in discussions about the same game, calling Ukrainians “pigs”). One of the Russian commentators was so inspired by the game that in the review he called on Putin to “give the developers a medal”.

• A robot’s speech about nuclear blackmail and expanding the borders of the USSR:

• A photo “from the future” of a Russian soldier reciting the oath, without commenting on what the Russian army is doing now.

• And more interesting findings like photos of Mariupol in the column “Cities of the USSR”, and hidden letters Z and V on the cars.

Why is it important

Atomic Heart, as a part of modern Russian culture, is not apolitical, no matter what they are saying. The developers tried to subtly please “patriotic” Russians who welcome the war with Ukraine. And they obviously succeed, as you can see by the comments of some russian gamers.

This game should be removed from online game stores. After all, Russia has made its culture a tool of propaganda and war. But of course, everybody decides by themself whether they are ready to tolerate genocide in order to play a game just for $10.

• Hogwarts Legacy, an open-world game, has been receiving rave reviews from critics (with the exception of Wired) and Harry Potter fans. The game is taking place at the end of the 19th century and tells about the rebellion of goblins led by Ranrok and the dark magician Victor Rookwood. The main character is a 5th-year student at Hogwarts.
• Since there is no Ukrainian translation in the game and it probably won’t be in the near future, the gaming community undertook the task and launched a crowdsourced localization project.

• There are about 523,640 words in the game, so the more people contribute to the translation, the faster it will be finished. Already, there are about 500 participants in the project. You can also participate online.
• For the Ukrainian translation, it is recommended to follow the legal translation of the books from the A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA publishing house.
• The draft of the localization has already been uploaded to Google Drive and covers approximately 25% of the lines.
• To install the Ukrainian localization, you must copy the file pakchunk100-Ukrainian_P.pak to <game folder>/Phoenix/Content/Paks. You need to select English in the settings. The localization is tested for compatibility with the Steam version and has not been tested in EGS.

Quick overview of what is wrong with Atomic Heart

• Atomic Heart is positioned by the developers as Bioshoсk-like Soviet shooter.
• The game is developed by Mundfish studio, which claims to be international with an office in Cyprus, but it is Russian in fact.
• It is sponsored by Russian investors, including an ex-Gazprom top manager with close ties to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the sanctioned VTB bank.
• Therefore, it’s no wonder that Mundfish studio never commented on the war in Ukraine and didn’t condemn Russia either. In a recent tweet, developers stated that they “do not comment on politics.”
• You can find out more about what is wrong with Atomic Heart and its developers by the link below.

New concerns for users: be ready to provide all your data to Russian FSB agents

The privacy policy published on the studio’s website directly refers to the collection of user data, and the possible transfer of this data to Russian state authorities, in particular, the tax office and FSB.

It is interesting that this document is available only in Russian and is not available on the English-language version of the store.

As for whose data will be collected in this way, the studio explains: the data subjects are all customers/consumers and visitors of the mundfish.com website, including those who are going to purchase the studio’s services and products.

Moreover, the authors of this policy, citing the legislation under which the data are collected, also mention Russian mobilization laws, under which soldiers are currently being recruited in Russia to continue the criminal war against Ukraine.

Why is it important?

The studio’s privacy policy is direct proof that Mundfish is a Russian company (that is what it literally states by specifying the studio’s legal address in Moscow as well). But if you still believe that Mundfish is an “international” developer, ask yourself why does a Cypriot company that is “out of politics” want to comply with legislation on mobilization in Russia and transfer data to Russian special services?

A rhetorical question, the answer to which, we hope, will reduce the interest of the Western gaming community in this project.

The game title indeed arouses some curiosity, which is, however, not about if it will be “soviet-punk Bioshock” as is shown in teasers. What is really interesting about the game is that its developers and investors are Russians with close ties to sanctioned Gazprom, the state-owned multinational energy corporation. This is the key point due to the ongoing genocidal war in Ukraine launched by Russia.

AIN.Capital publishes the details about the project.

Make the Soviet Union great again, or what is wrong with the game: m?

• Atomic Heart is positioned by the developers as Bioshoсk in the USSR. It describes the events of the alternative history of the 50s, where the Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War scientifically and technologically advanced, reaching the peak of development with cold nuclear fusion and intelligent robots.
• The protagonist of the game is a KGB major. The game seems to show the Russian military and KGB in a neutral or even favorable light.
• The party in honor of the game was held in this design.

• Of course, this is not the first game that exploits the curiosity of the Western audience for Soviet style and (pseudo) history. In the Russian Federation, this game is released only in the VK Play store, but in the world, it will be sold in the Xbox, PlayStation, and Steam stores.

Who is behind Atomic Heart, and what it has to do with the pro-Kremlin institutions?

• The game is developed by Mundfish studio. On the website of the studio, there is currently no mention of the fact that it is a Russian game developer. The story of the company begins with its launch in 2017 by a team of like-minded people in Cyprus.
• At the same time, the studio was mentioned as a Russian one, with an office in Moscow, in Russian gaming and IT medias a few years ago. At DTF 2019, there was even a report from the Moscow office of the studio, where, according to the publication, about 30 people worked at that time.
• On LinkedIn, you can find the profiles of the founders of the studio: Artem Galeev, Robert Bagratuni, Oleg Horodishenin, they are from the Russian Federation. Bagratuni is a former top manager of Mail.ru.
• The investors of the studio are Chinese Tencent and Russian GEM Capital and Gaijin Entertainment. GEM Capital is a Russian fund founded by Anatoly Pali, who previously worked at Gazprom’s subsidiary, Gazenergoset. The studio raised investments from them in 2021.
• Moreover, some internet enthusiasts found Paliy’s connection to other Russian state institutions, like RusAl of Oleg Deripaska and sanctioned “systemically important” bank VTB.
• Mundfish studio never commented on the war in Ukraine and didn’t condemn Russia either. In a recent tweet, developers stated that they “do not comment on politics”.

• As TheGamer’s Jason Wojnar noted, Mundfish is going as far as blocking those who call on the company to comment on the matter. This has now led to Mundfish being accused of knowingly spreading Russian propaganda, another claim it has not addressed in this statement.

So what?

Possibly one may say that this is just a game, but taking into account the war crimes and terror of Russians and their authorities, as well as the history of Soviet crimes against Ukrainians, such projects should be boycotted by both digital game stores and the global gaming community.

The lack of transparency from the developers, shady investors, and a strong flair of Soviet nostalgia should be alarming for gamers. The popularity of Atomic Heart on the global market, along with media support, turn the game into a dangerous tool of Russian propaganda.

If Atomic Heart is being developed with money that originated from sanctioned Russian businesses and banks “systemically important” to the Russian government, profits from the game could be directed to help the Russian government in its invasion of Ukraine.

That’s why you should, at least, think twice before buying Atomic Heart. But the best that can be done is to reject purchasing the game and call on Microsoft and Valve to stop selling it.

• Respeecher is a Ukrainian project, which we covered previously. Its artificial intelligence technologies, in particular neural networks, help to copy and generate the voice of any famous (or not so) person.
• According to Serdiuk, this is the first mention of the Respeecher team’s work in the credits of an AAA game. The AAA games are high-budget projects, on which hundreds or even thousands of specialists work for years. It is often compared to movie blockbusters in the world of game development.
• The work of the Ukrainian team is mentioned in the game’s credits:

• Previously, Respeecher worked repeatedly with prominent high-budget film franchises. Earlier, AIN.Capital covered the team’s work on voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga. We also mentioned the story of working on Luke Skywalker’s voice in The Mandalorian.
• God Of War Ragnarok is the continuation of one of the most recognizable series in the history of computer games. The game released on the PlayStation Store on November 9, 2022. Some gaming publications already dubbed it a “masterpiece”.

And, as commentator Vitaly Volochai reported on his Telegram channel, the tournament organizer Valve forces Ukrainian commentators to work with Russians during The International. The company doesn’t let them make a completely Ukrainian shift, allowing to work together and not cross paths with anyone.

Valve fully adjusts to the comfort of Russians

In 2021, there were 13 Ukrainians, 12 Russians, and 1 Belarusian on the talent list. This year, the ratio has changed dramatically: Valve has invited 37 Russians, 1 Belarusian, and only 7 Ukrainians. Furthermore, the English and Russian analytical studio was originally supposed to operate in Oslo. But due to the gradual closing of the borders with Russia, Valve decided to move the studio to Kazakhstan.

“People who received invitations to The International were given a simple choice: either to work with this “unsurpassed talent pool” or to be traded for another Russian. In fact, this is a choice without a choice. Meaning, either you give up on your dreams and huge fees, which are very important to many in times of war. Or you work with the people who I don’t have to describe,”

Volochai notes.

Among the invited Russians, there are absolutely open Ukrainophobes and Putinists, who wished Ukrainians to be killed by a rocket on their streams, and drew their swastikas — “z”.

“There were creme de la creme of society like Smile, who first supports OMON, then flees to Kazakhstan, and Nongrata, who was drawing “z” yesterday on his stream. The rest regards the war, at best, as “everything is unclear,”

Roman “Casper” Lepekhin says.

All suggestions to separate Ukrainians from the Russian commentators and let them work autonomously, Valve ignored.

“As far as I know, the organizers were offered options with an all-Ukrainian shift, who will simply work together and not cross paths with anyone. But the organizers were not concerned about these problems. They don’t really want to help Ukrainian talents. If you don’t like it, you can just refuse.”

What to do with The International 2022?

The only right solution is to boycott the broadcast of The International 2022. As noted in the profile subreddit: “If Valve is so greedy that they cannot make the right decisions, then the community should help them with it.”

Besides, all the mentioned problems apply only to the English and Russian broadcasts. In Ukraine, there will be a Ukrainian broadcast organized by WePlay Esports. And there will be no problems with Russians or accurate war assessment.

“Watching the Russian-language broadcast of “TI” doesn’t even make sense. I don’t understand why to even bring this topic. We will all watch the Ukrainian broadcast anyway. Because it will be a million times better, both in terms of content, and talents, and absolutely everything,”

Volochai said.

WePlay AniMajor, the Dota 2 tournament hosted by WePlay Esports, got shortlisted to compete for the Livestream Event of the Year title by Ragan’s 2022 Video, Visual & Virtual Awards. The winner in the category will be announced on August 24, 2022. 

Every year, Ragan’s Awards celebrate the most successful video, visual design, and virtual events that managed to engage with audiences remotely. This year, WePlay Esports became a finalist in the Livestream Event category with the WePlay AniMajor case.

WePlay AniMajor, a Dota Pro Circuit Major tournament, took place on June 2–13, 2021, at the WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv, Ukraine, during the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Despite strict sanitary restrictions and the absence of a live audience, the event went down in history as the most popular Dota 2 Major during the pandemic era. According to Esports Charts statistics, the tournament got 647,214 peak viewers, and the general number of hours watched exceeded 37 million.

“One may think there is no significant difference between organizing an offline event and an online one. However, the atmosphere of a LAN tournament with spectators is a blast. Our task was to create an event that would be remembered by our viewers forever, even if they couldn’t attend in person. The music, the setting, AR, and other details all made up a new world where our viewers wanted to stay longer. For us, getting recognition for our work is so much needed right now when it’s impossible to make this event happen in Kyiv again due to the Russian invasion,” says Maksym Bilonogov, chief visionary officer and general producer at WePlay Esports.

“For over 50 years, the Ragan’s Awards have celebrated excellence in internal and external communications, and our team is thrilled to be one of the nominees for this year’s award. Being on the list side-by-side with world-famous brands, whose cases are admired by the whole world, is a source of great pride for us. 

Recognition of our efforts by leading experts in the field is an incredible motivation for new achievements, as well as the implementation of new projects in esports,” comments Alena Dalskaya-Latosiewicz, chief communications officer at WePlay Holding.

The winners of the Ragan’s 2022 Video, Visual & Virtual Awards will be announced on August 24, 2022. They will be selected by the responsible jury, who have great experience in the communications sphere. 

About WePlay Holding

WePlay Holding is an esports corporate group with headquarters in Los Angeles, U.S., and Kyiv, Ukraine, which has offices around the world together with its affiliates. The multi-brand holding company is bridging the gaps between entertainment, esports, and technology through its innovation strategy. 

The organization accelerates industry development with interdependent creative solutions in broadcasting, augmented reality, interactive experiences, data mining, and other tools. WePlay Holding empowers businesses with personalized products and services created through merging concepts. This produces quick-impact outcomes required in the competitive world of entertainment.

Since 2006, the WePlay brand is well-known for the high-quality organization and broadcasting of esports tournaments. It grew into WePlay Esports, a world-class tournament organizer and production company with studios, talent crews, and arenas operating across multiple continents. 

WePlay Holding puts together its technology ecosystem to create unique results. It aims to bring together brands, investors, nonprofit organizations, industry experts, and other stakeholders into a playful prosumer environment. 

AIN.Capital played a while Skyrim Together: Reborn. And now we want to share our experience of cooperative playing and explain to you in detail how to install and set it up.

About co-op Skyrim play

The Skyrim Together: Reborn project allows to play Skyrim in a cooperative mode with a team of up to 8 friends at once. Theoretically, it can support 30 players and more, but the modification developers don’t recommend playing over 8 people at a server simultaneously.

The test showed that all NPCs, including draugrs, dragons, or spiders, normally move and react aggressively to all players in a party. The quests also work, but there is an essential requirement — you should have one lead player who will talk to relevant NPCs, take and complete their quests, and the rest of the team must listen to it and follow the leader. However, after the leader contacts an NPC, all team members get the same quest and its marker.

So even though one player is genuinely playing a leader, still, there can be problems with solving some quests. For example, you can see that one player’s got a mission completed and starts a new one, but the rest are not and are “stuck” at a certain stage, so they can’t proceed. In such a case, there is a console command setstage (yeap, the server supports the console in the co-op mode).

Since all dungeons in Skyrim have been designed for only one Dovahkiin, the experience (and level-up) for it was set for one player. For example, if there are eight of you gaining exp as a single Dovah, it will take you an eternity to farm and skill up your characters. So, the server automatically multiplies the exp by the number of team members, and everyone gets the same amount.

Basically, it looks like that: One of your comrades kills a dragon with a sword, levels his “one-hand” perk up, and you also get the level-up of the perk you used right before the kill.

The cooperative mode has a few bugs: some quests can fail to complete; draugrs can sometimes not arise from their graves; dragons can die in the sky, and the home of warm winds looks unique for each player.

But it means nothing for those who really dreamed of a Skyrim multiplayer. Now you can play with friends, kill enemies, and share the loot while discussing who will have a better bow or a magic robe. In general, it works and problems are rare, but you can quickly fix them through the console.

How to install Skyrim Together: Reborn

To play Skyrim Together: Reborn, you need Skyrim Special Edition 1.6 or later. You do not need the paid Anniversary Upgrade mod pack. The developers recommend playing without it.

VR, console, Legendary Edition, Gamepass, and Skyrim Special Edition 1.5. do not work. Windows 7 systems and processors without AES/AES-NI instructions also do not work.

In general, the instructions for installing and running Skyrim Together: Reborn are as follows:

• Make sure you have the latest Special Edition update installed.
• Download and install the Vortex Mod Manager (link on Nexus).

• Make sure you have Skyrim detected in Vortex. If you not, just rescan the library.
• ST: Reborn requires you to download another mod – Address Library. You need to download the All in one (Anniversary Edition) version using the MOD MANAGER DOWNLOAD button to install it with Vortex.
• Next, you have to download ST: Reborn using the MOD MANAGER DOWNLOAD button.

• After installing and enabling the mod, you should find SkyrimTogether.exe in the Skyrim folder at \Games\The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim\Data\SkyrimTogetherReborn\. Both the game setup file (SkyrimTogether.exe) and the server setup file (SkyrimTogetherServer.exe) are there.
• To start the game, you need to start the server. After that, start Skyrim Together: Reborn.

• In the game, you have to tap F2 or right ctrl to get to the server connection menu. When playing through a local network (or through servers like Hamachi Tunngle), enter the server IP address corresponding IPv4 computer on which the server is running.
• When everyone is connected — you can start playing. The only thing left is to meet in one place, for example in Whiterun or Helgen.

• In the Grand Final, NAVI defeated Team Vitality with a 2:0 victory.
• The total prize pool for the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022 was $425,000, and NAVI won $200,000 for first place.
• In 2021, the Ukrainian team became the champion of the BLAST Premier: World Finals 2021. NAVI was awarded a $500,000 prize.

• Gamers have been waiting a very long time for the second installment in the cult post-apocalyptic game series about the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and the stalkers who explore it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The release of the sequel was announced several years ago, and since then, little by little, the developers have been sharing the details about the future game and showing gameplay videos.
• The game is developed by a Ukrainian studio. So the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine, of course, affected the development process and the company in general. At the event, it was confirmed that the game’s release was postponed to 2023.
• But what really surprised the audience of the event was the screening of the Ukrainian developers’ video diary, where they spoke about their work during the war, about basements, sirens, and their colleagues who had taken up arms to defend their country. This is surprising mostly because companies like Microsoft usually make every attempt to avoid any negativity at their entertainment events. Showing the war, bomb shelters, and guns at an Xbox event may indicate the high level of support for Ukrainians from the world’s biggest IT companies. Microsoft announced that it ceased operations in the Russian market back in March, 2022.
• In their video diary, the developers from GSC Game World share how they work in the time of the war. They show how the war in Ukraine looks like: sirens, buildings smashed by missile attacks near the company’s office, ravaged Irpin, the evacuation of the staff members.
• Not all of the team members could evacuate. The video shows how their workday begins with air raid alerts and how they hide in a shelter during heavy shelling.

“This is a carrier for my cat, who died back on the first day of the war,” one of the employees says.

• Maxim Tkachenko, the Community Lead, shows his bathroom: now it is his usual workplace. Daria Tsipkova, the Narrative Designer, says that she has been living and working in her corridor for over two months. She lives with a one-eyed dog rescued from shelling in Hostomel.
• Many of the company’s staff has joined the Armed Forces (ZSU). One of them, the Lead AI developer Dmytro Yasenyev, says he has never imagined that a full-scale war could break out in the middle of Europe in the 21st century.

• Previously, it also became known that the company had removed the Russian language from the list of voice-over versions of the game, leaving just Russian subtitles. The civilized reaction of the Russian gaming community to those news can be viewed, for example, here in the comments. Their outrage and threats not to buy the game look all the funnier, because in the very beginning of the war, the company announced that the game would not be distributed in the RF.
• The developers have also renamed the game, changing the transliteration to Ukrainian. Chornobyl not Chernobyl.

• The company has suffered from the rise in interest rates and rampant inflation together with the recovery from the Covid pandemic. This concerns almost every company that benefited from the pandemic, such as e-commerce, delivery, and computer games companies.
• The company wants to close its three studios:
  • Seriously Studio, located in Los Angeles, will now transfer the responsibilities of its Best Fiends game to Israel and Poland.
  • Lab London, a studio set to diversify the company’s portfolio, will shut down but retain business development in London.
  • The Montreal center will also be closed due to the loss of potential with activities moving to Israel.
• The cuts won’t affect operations in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, and Romania.
• Playtika has about 4,000 employees worldwide and 1,100 employees in Ukraine, including offices in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Dnipro. The company was one of the first to reopen operations after the Russian invasion.
• Although the company avoided layoffs in the war zone in Ukraine, Globes has learned that 50 employees of Playtica’s popular house machine fun app have been transferred from operations under the product and offered alternative projects.
• In comment to AIN.Capital, Playtika’s spokesperson stated that the information about layoffs in Ukraine is incorrect.

Ukraine has always been an integral part of our operation and we have supported our employees throughout these tragic times.

Playtika.

• Despite Western sanctions, Playtika continues to employ 600 people in Belarus. The company is encouraging them to relocate to the offices in Warsaw, with around 300 employees already there.

Play For Ukraine 2048

About the game

The game was created by Ukrainian tech specialists from IT Army so that each “move” of a player brings Russian websites closer to being blocked. It is an analog of the famous 2048 game — a numerical puzzle which requires you to merge the same numbers to reach higher scores. It has simple mechanics and is available for common users with no special skills to combat Russian aggression.

How it works

Play For Ukraine generates constant torrent traffic to knock a target websites offline. It is basically a DDoS tool, which doesn’t require any other action except playing it. One player can send about 20,000 requests in one hour of idle playing. The website is approved by the Cyber Police of Ukraine and is completely safe to use, especially when using VPN services.

How to help to block Russian online resources

• Use VPN if you play from Ukraine. For players from other countries, VPN is optional.
• Just open playforukraine.life and let it be open on your devices. It will flood the websites and pose a huge load on their infrastructure.
• The number of attacks is much higher when you use the desktop. The more moves – the lower the Russian army falls.

Musk vs Putin

About the game

A team of volunteer Ukrainian game developers has written a Street Fighter-style browser game where Elon Musk’s character fight against Russian officials —Ramzan Kadyrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The game development began after Elon Musk tweeted about Ukraine, argued with Rogozin (the director of Roskosmos) and Kadyrov, and challenged Putin to single combat. 

How it works

This browser-based game is available at the link. It has very simple controls (separate buttons for kicking, punching, and moving), and the goal is to control Musk and give kicks first to Kadyrov, then to Putin. At the end of the game, you can donate to a charitable foundation Palianytsia. The fund has already raised over $1.9 million for humanitarian and military support of Ukraine.

Ukrainian fArmy

About the game

A team of Ukrainian game developers has taken the meme about the legendary Farmer Corps of Ukraine to a whole new level. In Ukrainian fArmy, you play as a tractor driver, trying to capture as many Russian tanks, trucks, and APCs as fast as you can. It is currently a work in progress, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, with plans for mobile devices.

How it works

The game is available for free. Alternatively, you can purchase it via the “name your own price” model. Also, the Ukrainian fArmy website calls for donations to the trusted long-standing volunteer organization Come Back Alive. Furthermore, it provides the link to the Official humanitarian donations account of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine.

ua.adact.me

About the game

It’s a browser game created by Ukrainian developers to raise awareness for the humanitarian aid Ukrainians need right now. Here, the player tries to collect medicine, helmets, and body armor but also needs to avoid the enemy’s tanks, rockets, and planes. The goal is to reach the highest score of “Goods” collected to earn your place on the leaderboard.

How it works

After playing the game, the player is offered to donate to the foundations Come Back Alive and KOLO. These organizations supply the Ukrainian Army with drones, thermal imagers, bulletproof vests, and other equipment for the hotspots in Ukraine.

You can support Ukraine by playing online games and also donating to the army and humanitarian relief.

What’s happened

On March 17, 2022, Ukrainian game developers started receiving letters from Valve stating that payments would not be made to their cards. The explanation in those letters was as follows: Due to the current environment, we are unable to send bank payments to Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

One Ukrainian solo developer, who wished to remain unnamed, told AIN.Capital that he also received a similar letter. And when he contacted a support team of Steam, they said that payments would not be made until at least the end of March, and the reason was the decision of the American bank:

“Our bank requires us to provide data on all intermediary banks for payments to the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Also, it will not allow payments to Belarus.”

The developer was promised that the company would process information about correspondent banks and resume payments. And in case he could not wait, he was advised to provide payment information from a non-Ukrainian bank.

This was happening en masse. The company actually limited Ukrainian developers’ earnings during the war, when these funds could have been critical for business survival, family evacuations, volunteering, etc. Given that Ukrainian banks were not subject to US sanctions related to the war, this decision by Valve looks strange.

Ministry of Digital Transformation Actions

On April 15, 2022, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Oleksandr Borniakov, published an official letter from the Ministry to Valve’s CEO Gabe Newell:

The Ministry of Digital Transformation called on Valve to resume payments to Ukrainian game developers or provide a clear explanation of why the company can not make these payments.

AIN.Capital will follow the further development of this situation.

P.S. Shame on you, Gabe.

• This browser-based game is available at the link. It has very simple controls (separate buttons for kicking, punching, and moving), and the goal is to control Musk and give kicks first to Kadyrov, then to Putin. At the end of the game, you can donate to a charitable foundation.

According to one of the authors of the game, the team had a brainstorming session on how to reach more people and raise more money a few weeks ago. And it happened at the same time when Elon Musk tweeted about Ukraine, argued with Rogozin (the director of Roskosmos) and Kadyrov, and challenged Putin to single combat.

“I came in this morning, and my colleagues told me, ‘Look what’s going on.’ And I came up with the idea that it would be fun to make a game. I wanted to make something similar to Street Fighter in style. I don’t know why. So we started looking for the technology, how to do it, how to draw, and made this version,” says one of the creators of the game.

• The game was created by a team of volunteers who responded to the request. They have not even known each other. But they accepted the tasks and did everything for fun, he says.
• The game became quite popular, with several thousand players from several countries already playing it. The authors of the game hope that its protagonist Elon Musk will also pay attention to it because this way, it will once again attract the attention of a large number of people to the war in Ukraine.

According to the company’s announcement, over the past weeks, Wargaming has been conducting a strategic review of business operations worldwide. The company has decided it will not own or operate any businesses in Russia and Belarus and will leave both countries.

On March 31, 2022, the company transferred its gaming business in Russia and Belarus to the local management of Lesta Studio, which is no longer affiliated with Wargaming.

“The company will not profit from this process either today or going forward. Much to the contrary, we expect to suffer substantial losses as a direct result of this decision. We will be completing the operational transition with all due speed while remaining in full compliance with all laws and ensuring the ongoing safety and support of our employees. During the transition period, the live products will remain available in Russia and Belarus and will be operated by the new owner,” reads the company’s statement.

Wargaming has also started the process of closure of its studio in Minsk, Belarus. It was the first office and former headquarters of the company, from which its history began.

About the company

Wargaming Group Limited (alsWargaming Group Limited (also known as Wargaming.net) is a formerly Belarusian video game company now headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. Wargaming is famous for its military-themed team-based games World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. The main markets for those games were Post-Soviet states, primarily Russia and Belarus. So exiting those two countries will be painful for Wargaming.

The company condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from the first days of the war. On February 26, 2022, Creative Director of Wargaming Sergey Burkatovskiy resigned from the company due to his support for the war. Following his resignation, Wargaming made the statement: “Sergey Burkatovskiy is no longer a Wargaming employee. His personal opinion does not reflect the company’s position in any way. Wargaming works hard to provide aid to 550+ employees and their families in Ukraine.”

Wargaming indeed has a team in Ukraine. Persha Studia in Kyiv, founded in 2000, was acquired by the company in 2011.

The days of brands engaging with their audiences through TV commercials or product placement in movies are over. Now, companies can tell the world about themselves in a different, creative way by collaborating with different industries. And if soccer or car races have long since become popular advertising platforms, esports has so far remained a blind spot for many.

The esports industry is growing fast. According to analytics provider NewZoo, the global esports audience will reach 577 million by 2024. It is predominantly made of men aged 18 to 35 with medium and high incomes. These people are open to innovation, know all about the latest tech gadgets, and are actively seeking new experiences. That’s why brands should take notice of esports as a new platform for communicating with potential customers. Representatives of esports organizations and tournament operators will tell you how best to integrate into this area.

Let’s consider one such case of interaction using the example of energy drink brand Monster Energy and WePlay Esports. Monster Energy has been using esports as an advertising platform for 10 years, but integration with WePlay Esports is the brand’s first step in the Ukrainian market. The Russian-language broadcast of the BLAST Premier: Fall Season 2021 group stage was chosen for the interaction.

BLAST Premier is a global tournament series in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), the 2021 Fall Season of which took place from September 16 till November 28, 2021. The total prize pool of the season was $1,737,000. The Russian-language broadcast of the event was organized by WePlay Esports, the flagship company of the WePlay Holding esports corporate group.

Esports offers a ton of creative ways to interact with your audience, among other things. For instance, as part of the Monster Energy case, a mechanism was developed that encouraged viewers to support teams. Here, we are talking about the “comeback” button. A comeback, or a turning point in the game, is what loyal fans want when a team begins to flounder. By pressing the “comeback” button, the audience would share their energy with the favorite team. When the viewer support dial was full, the hosts would make an announcement to that respect. Thus, the players would know of their fans’ support without ever seeing them.

One should also keep in mind that advertising of any product should look native. There are brands for which integrations with esports are natural, for example, gaming equipment manufacturers, and brands for which the choice of esports as an advertising platform seems less obvious. Monster Energy is a representative of the latter. While energy drinks are not a necessity for gamers as a computer or headphones would be, they are an integral part of esports competitions and a companion of gamers’ sleepless nights. Monster Energy drinks give an energy boost to gamers, fans, and talent (esports commentators and analysts) alike. As WePlay Esports talents Oleksii “уХо” Maletskyi and Yuriy “Strike” Tereshchenko discussed the game, every now and then, they would mention the key messages of the brand. Thus, the viewers’ attention was drawn to Monster Energy, but at the same time, they weren’t distracted from the game itself.

The most classic integration format esports can offer a brand is product placement. In the case of Monster Energy, online viewers could see energy drink cans placed around the studio throughout the broadcast. The fridge, which featured the bright green Monster Energy logo, drew particular attention.

When choosing a language for communicating with the esports audience, it’s important to remember that the community itself consists of dynamic people who crave their fix of creativity. When they are interested in a tournament, they can watch it non-stop and share their excitement in chats. They have their own fan clubs, celebrities, and influencers. For this audience, video games are not mere entertainment — they are a lifestyle.

In view of this background, a brand’s task when entering the esports niche is to surprise the viewer, make its impressions blend in seamlessly, and create high-quality, vibrant content. You can create an SFM video, use AR technology, or come up with engaging activities within the broadcast. Under this scenario, a loyal audience and great results are guaranteed.

• The new office will be called Nordcurrent Dnipro.
• The RinGames team consists of 28 developers. Most of the employees are graphic designers and artists. In 2022, the team plans to expand to 100 people.
• RinGames has previously collaborated with Nordcurrent — it created graphics for the company’s games. In particular, RinGames worked on Cooking Fever, Sniper Arena, and Murder in the Alps. Both companies are now working on a new time-management game, Happy Clinic.
• RinGames became the second Ukrainian game studio that signed a contract with Nordcurrent. In 2018, the Lithuanian company acquired Blam! Games Studio, an Odesa-based game developer with a staff of more than 60 people.
• Nordcurrent is the largest company in Lithuania that publishes and develops mobile games. The company is known for such games as Cooking Fever, Murder in the Alps, Airplane Chefs, and Sniper Arena.

What kind of backlash are we talking about? If to look at the replies under the company’s previous tweet about the metaverse, you can see responses such as: “This is deeply disappointing”, “I won’t buy this game if it’s NFT”, “I lost interest in the game”, etc. There are similar comments in the Reddit thread, which has been locked by the authors because the discussion has become “uncivilized.”

AIN.UA is awaiting comments from the developers on the situation.

The next-gen sequel to the cult game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is expected to be released in April 2022. It is already available for pre-order. There is not too much information about the game. According to the developers, it will be a mix of shooter and horror with a rich atmosphere.

• The developers will use blockchain to allow the community to own a piece of the game. The rights to certain unique items will belong to players and, according to GSC, it is the first time for the AAA video game.
• Starting in December 2021, users will be able to register for item drops (such as in-game items or NPCs), and later, this feature will become part of the game itself.
• The first drop will take place via auction and is scheduled for January 2022. As part of the drop series, gamers worldwide will be able to buy the first-ever metahuman. According to the developers, the metahuman will be an in-game NPC but with the face of the real owner. The second drop will follow in February, and the next ones will be announced on Twitter and Discord.

“At the auction in January, it will indeed be possible to buy an NFT, the right to use your face in the game through NPCs. Also, users will be able to trade this right as an NFT, even before the official game release,” DMarket confirmed.

• Auctions will be held through DMarket, on a separate landing page. As the company told AIN.UA, the price would be calculated considering the lowest bid, a starting point for bidders to outbid each other. The amount of the opening bid will also include the cost of minting and transfer of a metahuman to the user.
• According to Vlad Panchenko, CEO and co-founder at DMarket, this is one of the first steps of the game to implement the idea of the metaverse.

In November 2021, he came to Ukraine to participate in the Games Gathering conference, where he got acquainted with Ukrainian game dev studios and developers. iLogos asked David to give an interview to AIN.UA about the game dev, his experience with famous games, and the future of the game industry.

You have over 40 years of experience in game development. How has the industry been changing during this period?

For the last 40 years, games have evolved in many different ways. When I started, the most basic thing was that it was one person — me, myself, and I — I did the design, programming, artwork, and audio for it, all by myself. And then, during the years, things become larger and larger and larger. The last big team I managed had about 50 people. And now there are teams with hundreds and even thousands of people.

Another thing is that AAA project budgets also become larger. The publishers are less risky now because budgets are so big, and games are so expensive to make. Nowadays, continuing a franchise is a very popular way: a publisher and a developer find a successful game, make a sequel for it, then another sequel, etc. (like in movies).

Although just like in movies, there are a lot of innovations from indie studios, the game dev faces the indie game development. And it is much like it was when I started: one person or a small group of people can easily make a game.

And there are a lot of tools available to develop those games. Moreover, an indie developer does not always need a big publisher to release a game because Steam and other platforms exist. But it also is a problem for them. Because it is so much easier to make a game, many people are doing this — a lot of competition. Nowadays, it is much harder to make games known.

One more thing is that now the games have a brighter audience. As I started, it was a hobby of the narrow group — computer nerds. According to the Entertainment Software Association, the number of people over 50 who play games is almost the same as that of gamers under 19. It’s a very bright audience, so the game developers need to work harder to find the audience, including social media. Any developer has to spend at least 25% of the time on marketing.

You speak about game dev as a business. Looking at games as a type of art — how have they changed?

Now you can see how new technologies influence game design. I think the greatest of them are VR and AR. The problem you have with VR is that when you are wearing a headset, you can’t see the environment. That is why I think AR has more potential. However, this technology is not so immersive.

Gamers sometimes claim that games are not hardcore anymore and have become too casual, and it is because of mobile gaming. What do you think about that?

I remember very well when I attended the first game conference in the USA called The Computer Games Developers Conference; its moderators discussed if they should let developers of console games because they are supposed to be “not true” 🙂 Such a discussion has continued for over 30 years, and I don’t understand it.

Games are games. It doesn’t matter whether they are hardcore or casual or something else. If at least one person is having fun by playing it, it is already a real game.

Speaking of VR gaming, do the metaverses, like one from Ready Player One and those Zuckerberg recently explained so much, have perspective?

You don’t really need the VR headsets to build a metaverse and interact with it. You can still add aspects of the multiverse to any platform: PC, console, smartphones, etc. And it happens so. The idea of a multiverse is to be able to see the word, create content, transfer it, and interact with the world and other players. But this is also possible on different platforms and with various technologies.

Let’s dream a bit and imagine how gaming and gamers will look like in 20, maybe 50 years?

If we dream about it, there will be a moment when technologies become invisible to users. You won’t have to worry about having a controller in your hand or a visor in your face. Technologies won’t be a physical limitation to you. Sure, these technologies are in a pretty early stage now. But as we know, technology grows by leaps and bounds. Now we have 3D displays, cloud computing, smartphones, HD graphics, and you never guess that. Who knows what we will have in half of a century?

So forecasting is always a bad thing because you will highly likely be wrong. But I think the game dev technologies will evolve to unbound us from the physical limitations of gadgets we use now for gaming.

What does it feel like to be the author of one of the most popular games in the world? People lose jobs because of your game. So it’s a huge impact. Also, looking back, how do you think the series has evolved with time?

It’s funny. It originally started with Jon Van Caneghem [Editor’s note: author of Might and Magic series]. He was a nerd playing Dungeons & Dragons and brought his love for that game into computers. So, the original version of Heroes appealed to that very small nerd audience. And it appeared today that people from all over had played this game developed from a project for a small group of nerds and geeks to such a broad audience. Even today, an Uber driver told me how he played Heroes. And one of our fans in Belarus showed a picture of his pilot friend who plays Heroes just in his cabin. In particular, here in Eastern Europe, it seems that everyone played this game. It is surprising and makes me happy. It made all the hard work we put into it worth it.

All these questions from fans worldwide show us how much we all need escapism. There are so many difficulties in the world, and it is nice that you can play a game and feel an escape from the problems, although you still have problems to solve in the game world, develop the skill of problem-solving and get a reward for that. It is great games can give this experience, but it is sad the real world doesn’t provide such an experience.

I think a lot of activities in the real world should be gamified. In terms of that, we all get what we need: achievement, recognition, and creativity.

You mentioned many times that you are more popular in this part of the world than in the US. Did you ever consider moving?

I had a wonderful time during all my visits. Actually, it would be fun to go around. My wife plans to retire from her job, stop teaching, so who knows? Maybe in a couple of years, we’ll move.

Speaking of game development, what is the hardest thing about making a game, the Heroes series in particular?

Developing Heroes IV had a lot of difficulties because the team members couldn’t work well with each other. There was not an agreement on the vision of the game. We had problems with development, and I think it impacted the game. Usually, at least what I can remember, when we had issues with games, it was not technical problems. It is always a people problem. Sometimes creative people are difficult to cooperate with, and the trick is to get creative people to collaborate. The first I always remember from the game development process is the people I worked with. It can also be a sort of excuse, “Hey, I am a professional, and I don’t need the soft skills.”

Another moment is that, unfortunately, if you work on a game, it is not fun to play it 90% of the time. You spend a lot of time and effort making the game fun. There were games in my life I didn’t want to start after their release. But the exception was Heroes. It is probably the only game I worked on and played many times after its release. Do you know what? This trip and all the conversations with fans made me remember that I didn’t start it for a while. Maybe it’s time to return to it. To those times when games were fun.

And what games do you like? Do you have time for gaming?

I love puzzles, strategies, and games that require problem-solving. But now, it is hard for me to find time for a hobby. I am always busy either doing work or trying to find work. I feel a bit guilty because making games has taken so much time in my life. Whatever time is left I prefer to spend with my family and maintain some work/life balance.  But if I have time to play, I mostly play casual games, for example, smartphone games like Words with Friends, Jetpack Joyride, Monument Valley. I also love to play board games with my family.

Because of the lack of time, I can’t play big games. However, most of them have a core game loop: you must do the same things repeatedly, and once you learn the mechanics, you don’t need to play any more of it. OMG, it’s been a long time since I could afford to play a game for many hours. The last one I’ve got super addicted to was Candy Crush because my wife was playing it and asked me for help. I miss this hobby, the games.

What is required to become a game developer and create a great game?

First of all, excellent Internet research skills. You can find everything on the Internet — from the info that your audience needs to marketing and publishing. All the helpful knowledge for game development and expertise are available there! Finally, there are forums for game developers to ask questions and be involved in the process.

How can you know would be a game successful or not? Of course, you cannot forecast it, but it’s essential to be passionate about the project. If you don’t, it won’t happen despite all your effort. If you do, you can check if your game can inspire others. But the most important is the realization of the project. You can have a brilliant idea. But if you realize it terribly, it is the end.

Based on the game idea only, it is hard to forecast whether it will be successful or not. Everything depends on its implementation. You can get a sense of it when you involve testers. Even if you get results “it’s boring,” “I don’t understand how to play,” “it’s too hard,” get this feedback and re-iterate it.

But there is no secret recipe for a successful game?

Of course, no, if so, everyone would have successful projects. It’s like a scriptwriter William Goldman said once about Hollywood: “Nobody knows anything.” Nobody knows exactly what is gonna be successful. Even the authors of bestseller games don’t know it. You can reverse-engineer your success to learn the reasons. But you won’t necessarily apply it for your next game. The environment is not the same, it has already passed. You must try something new and see if you can discover this secret recipe on your own and remain flexible.

Is it good momentum now to participate in the game dev market?

It is a big industry, and it continues to grow. The more people want to get there, the higher competition. It is a case of if you really want to develop games.

Now you are visiting Ukraine; there are a lot of famous studios and projects here; maybe you plan to collaborate with some of them or perhaps lecture in a Ukrainian university?

I came to visit Games Gathering. I must admit Kyiv is a beautiful city. Your food is simply great. Even for such a short period, I met some game developers and spoke with them. Sure, I am open now, and I will be happy to come here more and cooperate.

What’s wrong with the logo

A cursory search reveals that the DPC EEU logo was inspired by the logo of the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization—effectively a Boy Scouts-style organization that existed within the Soviet Union. You can see the comparison between these two logos below.

According to EPICENTER, they had acquired a “legal opinion confirming that the logo is not communist symbols and does not promote anything.” However, they decided to change the logo. Now it is going to be just a plain and a far less controversial “E” logo, as stated in the official tweet.

Why does Valve even care?

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for much of the 20th century before the independence declaration in 1991. Soviet and Communist symbols are strictly policed in the country nowadays. That’s why Dota 2 League had to change its logo – to avoid any controversy.

According to Esports.gg, Valve is most likely just playing things incredibly safe. The EEU, or CIS, is a Dota 2 powerhouse, in terms of both playerbase and competitive scene. Doing anything that might get them kicked out of Ukraine is not the best idea.

By the way, Ukrainian Na’Vi (Natus Vincere) also participates in Dota 2 League in the upper division.

About Towers: Relaxing Puzzle

Towers: Relaxing Puzzle is a casual game aimed at training users’ spatial thinking. Playing the game, users have to drop towers in free cells and reach their goal. The game has five modes and 6,500 levels, including 100 bonus ones. The game has a Ukrainian localization, as well as other JOX Development projects.

Although the studio came up with the idea for Towers: Relaxing Puzzle back in 2019, the launch took place only in 2021. According to JOX Development, the team spends a lot of time working on the details and implementation of high-quality graphics. The latter has minimalistic 3D elements that keep players’ eyes from getting tired. Three full-time developers of JOX Development worked on the game, as well as a sound engineer and a team of translators.

JOX Development says that the idea of the game is unique. This kind of gameplay had not been seen before the release of the Ukrainian Towers game.

“Many developers try to work with tried and tested mechanics. They only make clones of the basic original idea. Now there is a huge number of games. So it is not easy to come up with something new. The mechanics of Towers: Relaxing Puzzle are unique,” comments Denys Moisin, co-founder of the studio.

In 2021, the number of downloads of Towers: Relaxing Puzzle on Google Play exceeded 250,000. The figures on the App Store are also growing — 80,000 installations as of early December 2021.

About JOX Development

JOX Development is a Kyiv-based development studio launched in 2017 by Denys Moisin and Pavel Glagolev. As of 2021, the team consists of 4 full-time members and several subcontractors working remotely.

The studio’s first game was Tap Tap Dash, created in collaboration with Cheetah Mobile. According to the developers, this reaction training game became a success shortly after its release. By the time of this publication, it has been downloaded by over 100 million of Android and iOS users. The next JOX Development product, Orbia: Tap and Relax, became popular too. In 2018, the game was nominated for Google’s best casual games.

“Tap Tap Dash is unique as well. It has influenced the entire casual gaming industry (nowadays, many make their levels seamless in arcade games). Simultaneously, there were over 40 clones,” Denys Moisin recalls.

JOX Development is currently working on two projects. By 2022, the team has planned to release new games and increase staff for better efficiency.

“We are quite busy now. But considering our quality and detailing standards, the process is not that fast. We do a lot of revision, monitoring, testing. Possibly, new games will be released next year.”

Denys Moisin

• According to AIN.UA information, the official distributor of consoles will be the company ERC (which also supplies to Ukraine Sony PlayStation consoles). The company said that at the moment they could not give any comments.
• Some stores already have the consoles available for pre-order. For example, on the website of Moyo, pre-order is open for the consoles in two colors: red-and-blue and gray. The price of the device is 10,999 UAH (approx. $415), and sales will begin on November 9, 2021.
• The retail chain Comfy confirmed AIN.UA the start of sales in Ukraine, “There will be supplies, but the exact date is unknown yet.”
• But it’s still not a full-fledged launch in Ukraine. For example, there will be no Ukrainian localization on these Nintendo Switch devices, only Russian (just like on PlayStation). Also, it is unknown whether Ukraine will be added to the Nintendo eShop and whether the payment will be in hryvnias. According to preliminary data, none of this will happen so far.

• This deal has some conditions. Playtika has so far bought 80% of Reworks for $400 million in cash. The Israeli company will acquire the remaining 20% of the studio for another $200 million in 2023, but only if the Finnish company meets its EBITDA target for 2022.
• If Reworks fails to meet its KPI target, the remaining stake will go to Playtika for $1.
• Playtika expects the deal to contribute about $30 million more to the company’s 2021 revenue.
• This deal is Playtika’s eighth acquisition of mobile game studios or similar intellectual property since its founding in 2010.
• The Israeli company has another $1.4 billion for future M&A deals.

Playtika has developed Caesars Casino, Slotomania, House of Fun, Bingo Blitz, and other popular mobile games. In 2011, Playtika was acquired by Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $100 million. In August 2016, a consortium of Chinese companies, led by Giant, bought the company for $4.4 billion.

The company has offices in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Dnipro, with more than 600 employees. In 2019, the company opened the R&D center of the previously acquired German game company Wooga in Ukraine.

• Fighting Stance is a mobile puzzle game in which you can choose the weapon you want, the battle pose, and fight a virtual opponent. With each level, the task gets harder, and new mechanics are added.
• The game has over 500,000 daily downloads.
• The game was developed by Flime studio in partnership with publisher Gismart. The studio has launched more than a dozen games globally in the past ten months. Six of them have garnered more than 200 million downloads in total. For example, the recent games Body Race and Pencil Rush 3D have 50 million and 40 million downloads each.
• Now Gismart and Flime are expanding their staff in Ukraine and have over 20 job openings. About 85+ people are working in Gismart’s Kyiv office.

Gismart previously announced that it would invest in gaming studios: look for teams that already have completed projects and have producers, game designers, unity developers, and 2D/3D artists in the team. And present the concept of the game to the studio (which has shown good results on tests), and the studio will work on it.

“In this program, we tried to combine the atmosphere and the special charm of the first computers with a training tool, thanks to which you can gain skills in working with the Assembler language. At the same time, you are given the opportunity to work in harsh conditions of limited resources, in which ‘real programmers’ had to work,” the developer says.

The visual part of the program looks like an old programmable calculator, but there is no familiar scoreboard with Arabic numerals. Instead of it, there are rows of indicators reflecting register values (result register, input register, and address counter register). Like the first computers did at the beginning of the computing era.

Players have to program computational operations using a limited set of commands and finite resources. They have only 256 bytes of memory, an 8-bit processor, and 102 commands at disposal. To complicate the task, you can dismiss the interface and try to be guided only by indicator lights – as our ancestors did.

The game isn’t final yet, but it’s already available for pre-order on Steam for PC. Soon it will also be released for other platforms, including smartphones and tablets.

Why It’s Interesting

Assembler is still used to program various devices on microcontrollers because it allows you to manage the hardware resources of such devices most efficiently.

Assembler is also used to optimize programs written in higher-level languages.

Working with Assembler, you will get to know how to turn “iron” into an intelligent device by working only with binary numbers, zeros, and ones.

Prices for the Standard Edition start at 895 UAH (approx. $33), and the Ultimate Edition, which includes additional collectible items, costs 8,900 UAH (approx. $332).

Prices in Ukraine

According to the official website of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, in Ukraine, you can buy a physical copy of the game in five stores: Moyo.ua, Citrus, Comfy, Rozetka, and Epicenter.

The prices of all distributors are the same and depend only on the edition of the game:

• STANDARD – 895 UAH (≈$33)
• LIMITED – 1,399 UAH (≈ $52)
• COLLECTOR’S – 4,900 UAH (≈ $183)
• ULTIMATE – 8,900 UAH (≈ $332)

Differences of editions

The editions differ in the contents of the box. At the same time, all pre-order purchasers at retail receive the steel book, a letter from the developers, a souvenir zone permit, and a stickers pack.

But in order to get more physical collectibles, players have to buy more expensive editions. The COLLECTOR’S and ULTIMATE editions include extra in-game gifts such as multiplayer costumes and weapon skins

In 2021, Product Madness moved to its new Ukrainian office in Lviv. The company told AIN.UA what it will work on and what specialists it is recruiting to join the team.

The first Ukrainian studio, Product Madness, appeared in Lviv in 2018. The Ukrainian office is engaged in the full cycle of mobile game development, including the LiveOps part. Today, it employs over 100 professionals — artists, developers, game researchers, as well as HR teams, data analysts, financiers, lawyers.

The company is planning to double the number of employees in 2022. That is why Product Madness moved to the bigger R&D in Lviv, which is designed for 200 people. Current job openings include 2D Animator, Middle Front-End Game Developer, Middle QA Engineer, Project Manager, Data Analyst, and others. Check out the full list of the positions here.

The gameplay video is almost 5 minutes long. It includes the familiar to many fans of the series scene of gatherings around a campfire with a guitar, a first-person action video; you can evaluate the details of several locations, monsters, and the mechanics of working with anomalies (both anomalies and artifacts will be present in the second part).

The company also announced that on June 13, pre-orders will kick off at 10:00 pm Kyiv time simultaneously on Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store (Xbox), as well as on the game’s website. We will update the article with information about the game prices.

To recap, the Ukrainian gaming company GSC Game World announced work on a sequel to its legendary game – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in May 2018. There aren’t many details about the game; since the announcement, the studio has published a few trailers and given little information.

It will be a mix of first-person shooter and horror. It is promised to be one of the largest open-world games. The game will have a complex plot, and the choice of the protagonist will be reflected both on the occurring events and on the outcome of the game.

Financial results

In 2020, CD Projekt reported about €478 million of revenue (four times more than in the previous year). It was mainly due to the release and sales of Cyberpunk2077 in December: by the end of last year, CD Projekt traded 3.7 million copies of the game. The company’s net profit for the year was about €257 million and grew by 558% over the year.

Aggregated data for the group of companies (which includes the Cyberpunk2077 development studio, the GOG store, and other companies) are as follows:

How much money was invested in Cyberpunk2077

In the financial statements, the company also disclosed some details about its latest game:

• Approximately 5,200 people worked on the game, including 530 developers from CD Projekt and 2,000 voice actors. Cyberpunk2077 was released in 18 languages.
• The company launched 55 marketing campaigns in different markets to promote the game.
• From its release date, December 10, and till the end of the year, about 13.7 million copies were sold. Despite the refunds and criticism of the game, the studio earned hundreds of millions of euros in 2020.
• The overall development budget for the game was 1.2 billion PLN (around $317 million or €263 million).
• Most of the 13.7 copies sold were digital copies (73% versus 27% physical ones).

The distribution of copies sold on game platforms:

The distribution of copies sold by region of the world:

The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

About Boolat Play

Boolat Games has almost a 20-year history. The studio works on games of different genres, from casual to hardcore: slasher games, RPGs, time-management games, Hidden Objects, and strategies. Boolat’s portfolio has dozens of projects, including Lagsters, Topatoi, Harvest Land, and Decurse.

“Boolat Games, like Playrix, has been developing games for many years. Sometimes our paths have crossed for a short time, yet this has yielded little fruit. But combining teams, knowledge, experience, technology, and creative ideas expands the boundaries of our possibilities! Together with the Playrix team, we can set new standards in game development and popularize the game industry,” Alexander Chigorin, CEO of Boolat Play.

“I am sure that combining the Boolat team’s unique experience with our expertise and resources will together create hits that millions of players will appreciate,” Dmitry Bukhman, co-founder of Playrix.

Playrix is a mobile game developer founded in 2004 in Russia. The company has offices in Dublin, Russia, and Ukraine (Kyiv and Kharkiv). It ranks among the top 3 most successful mobile publishers in the world. Playrix’s portfolio includes such games as Manor Matters, Wildscapes, Homescapes, Gardenscapes, Fishdom, and Township played by 130 million people every month. The company employs over 3,000, and more than 1000 of them work in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian company Murka Games was included in the top 30.

Murka Games is No. 22

The ranking was based on the EMEA headquartered mobile publishers’ revenue in 2020. Murka Games is ranked 22nd, ahead of Belarusian publisher Wargaming, which is in the 23rd position.

“After joining the US investment giant Blackstone Group in 2019, Murka continues to transform itself with good results. The company finished 2020 with a record revenue growth of +30%, increased its market share, and is now one of the top 10 global leaders in the social casino games genre,” commented representatives of the company.

Murka also said that the success was influenced by the launch of another slot project by the company in Q4 2020.

About Murka Games

Murka was created by Max Polyakov and Anton Krasnyy in 2009. It is known for online casino genre games such as Slots Journey, Slots Journey 2, TX Poker, S&H Casino, Vegas Slots, Royal Fortune Slots, Bubble Cadabra, Scatter Slots, etc. It has offices in Kyiv, Dnipro, and Limassol, with more than 500 employees.

In 2019, the company was acquired by The Blackstone Group Inc., an American alternative investment management company.

The Ukrainian esports club Natus Vincere (NAVI) ranked No. 2, rising by four positions for the year.

When compiling the ranking, the authors considered the total amount of match watched hours of clubs from all games in which the organization is represented, except for battle royale games.

The complete list of the most popular esports organizations is as follows:

1. G2 Esports — 92.8 million hours watched
2. NAVI — 86.1 million
3. Team Liquid — 81.8 million
4. Fnatic — 76.7 million
5. DWG KIA — 59.7 million
6. OG — 57.3 million
7. Gen.G Esports — 55.9 million
8. Astralis — 55.6 million
9. T1 — 53.2 million
10. DRX — 50.4 million

NAVI shows the best dynamics among the top organizations

According to Esports Charts, the 2020 season was NAVI’s best one in several years.

As said in the ranking, NAVI rarely dropped below fourth place at tournaments and also won the only world-class LAN in 2020, IEM Katowice 2020.

NAVI’s Dota 2 team is three times behind the CS:GO team in terms of hours watched but has also achieved a lot in 2020. It also has been a regular prize winner and won the last major tournament of the year in the Europe/CIS region, the OGA Dota PIT Season 4.

Also, NAVI showed the best dynamics among the top organizations: it gained 36.4 million more hours watched over the year than it did in 2019. The increase in views is what helped the team climb so high in the ranking.

According to dev.by, citing Bloomberg, during trading, the price per share of Playtika reached $27.

Playtika’s IPO

Initially, the Israel-based publisher had marketed the shares for $22 to $24. However, during trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, the company sold 69.5 million shares for $27 apiece. The total offering amounted to about $1.88 billion at $27 per share.

According to Reuters, the company had planned to sell 21.7 million shares with a further 47.8 million sold by existing investors. However, 18.5 million shares were sold by Playtika while 50.98 came from the existing stockholder.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Playtika will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the investors.

The funds raised by Playtika will be used to cover general corporate expenses, repayment of loans, and future investments and acquisitions.

About Playtika

Playtika developed Caesars Casino, Slotomania, House of Fun, Bingo Blitz, and other popular mobile games. In 2011, Playtika was acquired by Caesars Interactive Entertainment for $100 million. And in August 2016, the company was acquired for $4.4 billion by a consortium of Chinese companies led by Giant. According to the company, it has about 500 million installations for all its applications and 11.5 million active users per day.

The company has offices in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv, Vinnytsia, and Dnipro, with more than 600 employees. In 2019, the company opened an R&D center in Ukraine previously bought by the German mobile games developer Wooga.

Hologryph studio is based in Lviv, and it has 11 employees. The main project of the studio is a multiplayer game, Secret Neighbor, set in the Hello Neighbor universe. The plot of the game tells the story of a group of kids trying to sneak into the house of their creepy neighbor.

As Maksym Khrapai, CEO of Hologryph, told AIN.UA, the team offered the publisher to support the development of a multiplayer game. TinyBuild liked the idea but suggested to change the characters to a neighbor and kids from the game Hello Neighbor to develop this franchise. The point is that, in the summer of 2020, TinyBuild acquired Dynamic Pixels, a studio that developed Hello Neighbor.

The funds raised will go toward supporting and developing Secret Neighbor, as well as the development of a new multiplayer game for PC, new-generation consoles PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

In an official press release, the company says that the store is designed in the style of Venice Beach in Los Angeles.

“From 8 am till 11 pm, scan the murals for hints referencing to legendary TV series and a computer game from the City of Angels, Easter eggs in graffiti…” says the release.

But, based upon the photos of the interior, these are neither hints nor Easter eggs – depicted on the store’s walls are the recognizable characters from various installments of the game: GTA San Andreas, GTA Vice City, GTA V. You can compare the supermarket images with arts from the game:

Even the font used in the design of the signboards resembles the signature typeface of the game’s logo, Pricedown.

Apart from that, the interior design is beach-themed: there are surfboards, pictures from Baywatch, graffiti, pastiches of beach cafes, etc.

The representatives of the chain have not given a straight answer to AIN.UA’s question about whether the use of the GTA style had been negotiated with the game developer, Rockstar Games. Silpo has explained that the main theme of the Lviv store’s design is beach style and the popular Venice Beach in Los Angeles.

Speaking about whether such decoration had been approved by Rockstar Games, the company commented,

“The activities of Silpo are based on legality, good faith and respect for the rights and legitimate interests of other economic entities […] in this case, as in all other cases, supports the process of negotiations with the copyrighters aiming to resolve the issue with the copyright usage,” the company’s press office answered.

In addition, the studio has launched a massive sale of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games through GOG.com, a digital distribution service for video games, where the entire series can be bought for just over $8.

In “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat,” the third game in the series, players needed to descend into these tunnels to reach the ghost city. Each meter of the location, they had to fight their way forward through the long-abandoned tunnels swarming with mutants and anomalies.

By contrast to what we have seen, the new teaser features shots of this location before the accident: the lights are on everywhere, loaded trains run on the rails, and in general, life is in full swing in the tunnels.

“Well, rumor has it that there are secret tunnels to Pripyat underneath the Jupiter plant. The thing is, these rumors usually get told after the second round, and then Jupiter is such a friggin’ nightmare that nobody dares go near it,” the description on Facebook reads.

Sale

Buying old games now is the best way to support the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and GSC Game World studio. GOG has a smaller commission than, say, Steam, and most of the money will go to the developers.

Prices of the games:

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl – $2.44 (UAH 70);
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky – $2.04 (UAH 60);
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat – $3.67 (UAH 100).

Today, you can buy the whole collection for $8.15.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe retrospective

It looks like retrospective views of the already familiar locations is becoming a trademark feature of teasers for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, because in September GSC Game World published an animation with one of the original game’s locations, the vehicle station.

And after that, it showed the sketches of the “pre-accident” Old church in the swamps, from the second game in the series, “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky.”

“We’ve been hiding here so long that sometimes I feel like the whole world is one big swamp. I heard a story once that this used to be normal land, with villages and fields and everything,” relates a quote by one of the fighters of the Clear Sky faction from the game of the same name.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 release date

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be released on Xbox Series X and PC presumably in 2021, but the information published on the game’s website after the release of the first trailer suggests that the developers are not yet ready to give the exact date.

The game was introduced at a Microsoft presentation; it will be available for Xbox Game Pass subscribers free of charge, becoming Microsoft’s temporary exclusive.

According to DTF, it will not be available on current generation consoles, such as PlayStation 4 and Хbox Оne Х.

• Now players from Ukraine can buy a console, but can’t register an account in their region, and choose other countries for this purpose.
• But the official launch of Xbox services will allow them to choose Ukraine as their region of residence, pay for games in the national currency, and get the Ukrainian interface.

“There are preliminary agreements on the launch of Xbox, but it is too early to speak of the terms. We hope to be able to launch it by the end of this year,” Oleksandr Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, explains to AIN.UA.

In the Ukrainian market, the official price of consoles will be 12,999 and 15,999 UAH for the digital model and the model with a disc drive, respectively. In other currencies, the price is about €390 and €480, that is cheaper than in Europe, where the console costs €399 and €499, respectively.

Cheaper than in Ukraine, you can buy the disc drive version of the gaming console only in the USA, for €423, and in Japan, where it will cost only €408.

For example, PlayStation will cost €513 (2,299 PLN) in Poland, while in Belarus, the same console will cost €526 (1,599 BYN).

The prices are given for the more expensive console with the DVD drive. The prices for comparison were taken from the retail stores of the above countries with taxes included.

“Such a decision has just been made at the meeting of the Commission for the recognition of the sport in Ukraine. For our country, this is a historical moment, because esports is not just “shooters,” but a fundamental element of modern digital culture,” the official wrote.

A short while ago, Alexander Kokhanovskyy acted as a representative of the deal for ₴1.1 billion to buy out the Dnipro Hotel in the center of Kyiv. Kokhanovskyy plans to make the world’s first Esports Ready Hotel there. It will include unique esports elements: training zones, an esports scene, special rooms for professional players, as well as the best players’ lounge in the world.

Soon an eSports association will also be announced in Ukraine.

• Analysts from Newzoo forecasted the 2019 global games market to reach $148.8 billion. Ukrainians spend hundreds of millions of dollars on computer games annually.
• In Ukraine, esports is actively developing. In March 2020, the team of the Ukrainian esports club Natus Vincere won the major Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) championship, IEM Katowice. The team won a prize of $250,000.
• And last year, Kyiv citizen and professional gamer Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev from Na’Vi was recognized as the best world’s player in CS:GO.

In short, according to the studio, it removed the game from stores itself due to a long conflict with the distributor.

According to the company, the full story goes like this.

In 2017, the studio signed a licensing agreement with the publisher BigBen/Nacon for The Sinking City. Under its terms, the publisher had to financially contribute to development, in return for receiving the right to sell the game on four platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Steam, and Epic Games Store. The intellectual property for the game belonged to Frogwares.

The studio had to receive funding for each stage in development achieved, and after release – a share of the revenue. But BBI/Nacon consistently delayed payments, as reported by the company. Then, the publisher bought a rival studio, which also made the Lovecraftian game, and demanded access to the sources for The Sinking City. After the access was denied, the publisher stopped paying the money.

After the release of the game on June 27, 2019, the studio received a letter from the publisher stating that it did not meet the set goals, so it would not receive a share of the revenue. In August 2019, the studio filed a lawsuit against the publisher.

At the same time, the publisher removed the studio’s logo from some marketing materials (including game covers), bought domain names for the Sherlock Holmes series and The Sinking City without notifying the developer.

And when the publisher went public, the official records stated that The Sinking City was its property. Although the studio did not transfer the rights to the game.

Due to these and other problems, the studio terminated the contract with the publisher on April 20, 2020. The latter disputed this, citing the French legislation to protect businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. On July 17, 2020, the publisher litigated against the termination of the contract, but it was to no avail.

Now, the studio estimates that the publisher owes Frogwares about €1 million for the sales of the game. To prevent the publisher from further profiting from the game, the studio has removed The Sinking City from some platforms.

Players who want to buy the game are offered to purchase it from the developer’s website, or on Origin, Gamesplanet, and Nintendo Switch.

These are not the first studio problems of this kind. In 2019, the company accused its former distributor, Focus Home Interactive, of trying to block its projects in major stores that sell PC games.