Imagine you are an indie developer who has been offered about half a million by a publisher. Sounds good, right? But what if the terms of this contract are so exploitative that it might be dangerous to sign it.

Indie publisher No More Robots celebrated its 4th anniversary last week. Its founder Mike Rose shared a few milestones the company reached in the last 12 months. It turned out that it generated $12 million, although it didn’t release a single new game during that period.

Investors always want to see release dates of upcoming games, often putting additional pressure on developers. However, Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney addressed the issue with a speech that some might find an almost perfect response.

Remedy has issued a report for the first half of 2021 (ended June 30). Financial results aside, the company also shared updates on its key franchises and an upcoming game in collaboration with Epic Games.

Xbox Head Phil Spencer has shared his thoughts on the current state and future of the games industry. He opened up about the importance of UGC content, meaninglessness of console wars, and breaking down entry barriers into gaming.

Electronic Arts shareholders voted against the company’s executive compensation plan. While it is rare to vote “no,” this has happened to EA’s pay plan for the second year in a row.

Amazon’s gaming division discontinued its policies regarding games created by employees outside of work hours as a hobby.

There is a new “arthouse game development studio” called EYES OUT. It was founded by Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck and veteran game designer Cory Davis. The team is already working on its first title, which will be a cosmic horror game.

Blizzard and Respawn Entertainment lost a few key developers yesterday. The list includes Diablo IV lead designer, who reportedly was involved in an ongoing harassment scandal, and Apex Legends game designer, who was fired after his bigoted posts from 2007 have resurfaced.

Raccoon Logic is a new studio formed by games industry veterans and former Typhoon Studios employees. The company’s first group photo, however, caused controversy, with people criticizing the studio for the mostly white male staff and the lack of diversity.

A bipartisan bill was announced on Wednesday that can potentially reshape the business practices dominating the mobile distribution market. If passed, it will allow developers to add third-party payment systems to apps and inform users about discounts outside of stores. The bill has already been supported by Epic Games.

An employee who has ended up among dozens of people fired from Xsolla has discussed the scandal surrounding the company. He spoke about the controversial rating system, the layoffs, and founder Aleksandr Agapitov’s personality.

The list was published of 10 highest-grossing mobile games of all time. Chinese MOBA Honor of Kings sits on top, with its total revenue approaching $10 billion.

Developers from Typhoon Studios, known for Journey to the Savage Planet, have started new studio Raccoon Logic. On top of that, the industry veterans managed to secure the IP rights for their main title from Google.

John Hanke, founder and CEO of Niantic, has criticized the idea of virtual metaverse, calling it a “dystopian nightmare.” He proposed another concept of improving the real world with additional interactive objects and information using AR technology.

The so-called indiepocalypse flooded Steam with tons of bad-quality games. Valve managed to solve the problem by tweaking the store’s algorithm. However, there is now almost no room left for small titles on Steam due to these changes.

One of Activision Blizzard shareholders, investment group SOC, criticized the gaming giant for “the inadequate response from management.”

Famous game designer and programmer John Romero, who has both Cherokee and Aztec ancestry, discussed the representation of indigenous people in the games industry and explained whether his work (including Doom) was inspired by his heritage.

Tencent’s annual parties reportedly used to include disturbing activities demeaning to women, as shown in the videos that reappeared online. The company event shown in the video took place in 2017. Since then, the Chinese tech giant has apologized for the behavior seen in the footage and promised to tackle it “head-on”.