Game platform Roblox has raised $150 million in Series G funding.

Newzoo has shared a forecast for the global esports market for 2020-2023. According to the analyst firm, this year, the segment’s revenue will, for the first time, exceed $1 billion.

Valve has refined Steam Search. New filters were added, allowing you, for example, to filter out titles that you are already familiar with.

Sanzaru Games became part of Oculus Studios. The developer was acquired by Facebook.

On January 21, MMO adventure Temtem was released into Steam Early Access. The game inspired by the Pokémon series has already sold over 500 thousand copies.

Europeans will spend around $23 billion on apps in 2020 across the App Store and Google Play. Spending on mobile games will also increase from 2019, but their share of the total revenue generated on mobile will decrease compared to non-gaming apps.

All premium games or games offering IAPs will now only be allowed onto the Chinese App Store if they have a license number obtained from the General Administration of Press and Publication of China.

Facebook and Sony were not the last companies to cancel their participation in GDC 2020. The list of notable absentees has now grown to include Kojima Productions and Electronic Arts.

PlayStation and Facebook Gaming/Oculus will not be coming to GDC 2020 due to concerns related to coronavirus.

Analytics platform Apptica has released a report on UA trends in the mobile market. The paper specifically looks at soft-launch.

CD Projekt RED announced that the Steam version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has generated over $50 million in revenue since October 1st 2018. Around that time, Valve’s storefront introduced a tiered revenue split system. For each title that has brought in over 50 million, Steam now takes 20% of its subsequent revenues. That means that from now on, CD Projekt RED will keep 80% of The Witcher 3’s sales on Steam.

In China, the publicity department of Haidian District Committee has partnered with the Communist Party’s official newspaper People’s Daily and casual games developer Ohayoo, which is owned by ByteDance.

While it’s been a while since we heard about any blockbusters among word games, 2020 will be a good year for the genre. Sensor Tower predicts global growth in that category driven by its popularity in emerging markets.

Steam named top 20 releases of January. And, separately, top five free-to-play games that came out last month.

Last week Bloomberg reported how manufacturing a PS5 unit now costs $450. From that, the newspaper assumed that the retail price for Sony’s next-get console should be around $470.

TikTok developer is gearing up to seriously expand into the gaming market. Big releases, diversification and competition with Tencent are imminent. ByteDance is going to appoint an executive who will solely focus on running its gaming business.

Saber Interactive will now become part of Embracer Group. It will be the fifth operating company of the group previously known as THQ Nordic AB.

Subscriptions are becoming an increasingly valid model for both platform holders and players. Are they good for developers? There is still a lot of speculation and concern around that. Especially when attempts are made to link developers’ revenues to the time players spend in their game.

Activision Blizzard is gearing up to compete with makers of PUBG, Fortnite and Apex Legends. The publisher will launch the free-to-play battle royale Call of Duty: Warzone.