The grey market plays a huge role in the Chinese games industry, and the country’s new playtime restrictions for kids might boost it even more. People will not stop looking for alternative ways of playing games, especially if there are not too many legal solutions left.

Publisher and developer BonusXP delisted Stranger Things 3: The Game from Steam, GOG and Epic Games Store.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has hosted its first ever Global Game Industry Awards. Supergiant Games’ indie hit Hades became a big winner, taking home 9 accolades.

Nate Purkeypile, a solo indie developer and former Bethesda employee, has shared his experience of creating a game on Unreal Engine 5. He was impressed by the engine, saying that it helped him significantly accelerate the development of his title.

Neil Druckmann and Evan Wells have shared their thoughts on crunch in the games industry. Naughty Dog co-presidents said that while there is no one solution for this issue, game studios shouldn’t prohibit passionate devs from working on a project overtime.

Indie game publisher HypeTrain Digital and developer Morteshka announced that tactical card-based RPG Black Book has sold over 100,000 copies in under three weeks since release.

South Korea has become the first country to pass a law that ends Apple and Google’s power to dictate payment terms on their app marketplaces. This, analysts believe, sets “a potentially radical precedent for their lucrative app store operations everywhere from India to the U.S.”

GWENT is known for its outstanding arts, but the Chinese version of the game has suffered from censorship a lot. CD Projekt had to cut all violent and NSFW content, which suddenly gave cards weird (and sometimes hilarious) context.

CD Projekt probably wants to make it the company’s good tradition to hire modders. It’s been revealed that four modders will join the Cyberpunk 2077 developer and together help bring the game “to the next level.”

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service issued a warning to Apple. The agency believes that the company “is abusing its dominant position in the distribution market for iOS apps.”

There have already been enough restrictions for Chinese minors when it comes to their playtime, but the rules have now become even stricter. The country’s gaming regulator will prohibit underage gamers from playing more than three hours a week.

Beijing might prohibit Chinese tech giants from listing outside the country. If the new regulations come into force, companies that operate “large amounts of sensitive consumer data” won’t be able to go public in the US.

NetEase is in the late stages of talks to poach Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega. Nagoshi is best known as the creator of the Yakuza series, and if he does join NetEase, it would strengthen China’s giant in Japan.

Emika Games, a developer of small horror games, has announced his retirement from game development “for an indefinite time.” He made the decision due to the Steam policy, which allows users to refund games after playing them for less than two hours. It left the developer with no profit.

This week, discoverability expert Simon Carless discussed marketing for indie devs on the Game Dev Unlocked blog.

Aleksey Savchenko, a former business development manager at Epic Games, has announced his new project aimed at bringing more justice into the games industry. It is a legal and consulting service to help developers avoid the pitfalls of relationships with large companies.

New Mexico has filed a federal lawsuit against Rovio Entertainment. The company is accused of collecting children’s personal information in Angry Birds.

Tencent saw its market cap drop almost twice since the beginning of the year. It is all happening in the wake of new regulations from the Chinese government that has a long history of love-hate relationship with the games industry.