Oleksii Goncharov

CD Projekt sells GOG to original co-founder. The Steam-alternative PC game store is staying DRM-free. Michał Kiciński, co-founder of both CD PROJEKT and GOG, has acquired full ownership of GOG. GOG is now a fully independent company again, but it remains commercially aligned with CD PROJEKT. CD PROJEKT RED titles will continue to launch on GOG, including future releases. More importantly, the core principles are unchanged: • DRM-free remains central to the platform • Offline installers remain available • Your existing library remains intact • GOG Galaxy remains optional • Patron and preservation funds stay within GOG A lot of companies sell games. Very few invest real effort into making sure games from decades ago still work on modern hardware, offline, without locks, launchers, or expiring licenses. That work is unglamorous, expensive, and largely invisible...until it is gone. This transaction puts control back in the hands of someone who helped create it for a reason other than short-term optimization. If nothing else, this is a reminder that alternatives only survive if people actually use them. Saying a platform is important is easy. Supporting it is harder.

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Studios now allocate 🤑 𝟯𝟬–𝟰𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝗔 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 to rewarded channels. Rewarded UA can break even 𝟮–𝟯𝘅 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗨𝗔. So, whats behind it? 👇 Rewarded user acquisition is a major part of the mobile gaming growth strategy. Studios that once treated offer walls as an experimental channel are now allocating a significant share of their UA budgets to them. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: rewarded UA often delivers faster ROI windows than traditional channels and provides an alternative to heavy dependence on platforms like Meta or Applovin. As we talk to Massimo, the biggest shift in rewarded acquisition comes from the transition from 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀. This creates stronger engagement loops and 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟲𝟬 𝘁𝗼 𝟵𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀. When the reward period ends, many users keep playing because the game has already become part of their routine. 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻. Offerwalls are also evolving beyond gaming monetization tools. Companies are starting to use them as engagement platforms inside loyalty programs, where users can earn airline miles, gift cards, or other rewards by playing games. If this trend continues, rewarded engagement could become one of the most powerful alternative distribution channels for mobile games. Well, check it out:  https://lnkd.in/eTjfSJcY

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Prototyping shouldn’t be endless. Once a prototype has answered its question, continuing to polish it usually delays the real decision. At some point, learning stops and attachment begins. Knowing when to stop prototyping is what turns experiments into progress.

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Building community matters. But scale always starts with numbers that actually work. Without solid unit economics, growth is just noise. What do you focus on first when scaling your business — community or numbers? #ScalingBusiness #Founders #CommunityBuilding #BusinessStrategy #GGS2025 #GamingIndustry #GlobalExpansion

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The industry’s tomorrow: why investing in Ukraine means growth and recovery Ukraine aims to thrive, not just survive. We want to work, innovate, and rebuild - and that opens rare opportunities for global investors. 1. A market that already proved its resilience. Ukrainian IT exports hit $6.45 billion in 2024, growing even during the war. 2. Deep, driven talent. Over 300,000 tech professionals work remote‑first and meet sprints despite power cuts. The time zone overlaps the EU and half of the US, ideal for co‑development. 3. Cost-effective business environment Ukraine offers competitive pricing for highly skilled talent, which is ideal for businesses looking to maximize their budgets while maintaining high-quality standards. 4. Massive rebuild budget, private gap. Reconstruction needs stand at $524 billion over the next decade, with a $10 billion funding gap for 2025 alone - private capital is essential. 5. Growing multilateral backing. IFC just launched new programs for energy and tech, signaling that Ukraine is a strategic priority. What this means for game‑dev and IT investors Ready‑made expert teams in Unreal, Unity, and AI pipelines. Competitive rates with AAA quality. Green build opportunities: projects recycling war rubble into new concrete and low‑energy data centers need partners.  The Times Invest today and you help rebuild a nation while locking in a stake in an expanding digital market. Farom Studio is on the ground, delivering now, and ready to connect your capital to Ukrainian talent. DM me to discuss projects, teams, and numbers.

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Thanks, Tom Mackenzie, for a great discussion about Supercell, AI, and the crossroads facing the games industry. Full interview below! 😀

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Let's talk about Meta. For real now. Guy Meiboom, Meta's Gaming Director, reveals what ATT actually did to mobile gaming performance, and why Meta had to rebuild its entire gaming organization from scratch. We go deep on the real mechanics of mobile UA in 2026: 1. How ATT reshaped gaming UA on Meta 2. Why creative velocity is now the #1 lever for algorithmic reach 3. Geo lift testing: what it is, why it matters, and how to execute it 4. UA funding models + how capital allocation decisions make or break growth 5. What Meta restructured gaming org means for your campaigns The full shebang on the Deconstructor of Fun podcast!

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The 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 has just been released, and I truly believe this publication is worth your attention ➔ for everyone interested in the Polish game industry, and not only! Although the report is based on data gathered here in Poland, many of the issues it covers are international in scope and reflect challenges faced across Europe and globally. I'm glad that, together with the entire Game Industry Conference team, I was able to contribute my small part (#DataMiningTeam) to this comprehensive study that truly shows what's "going on behind the scenes" in the Polish gamedev sector…

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Unity just removed one of the biggest friction points in mobile UA. - You no longer need to run a CPI campaign first to unlock ROAS campaigns on Unity Ads. Instant ROAS campaign launch is live no historical data required to get started. This is a bigger deal than it sounds.Until now, the standard path was: 1/ Run CPI to build data 2/ Wait for the learning phase 3/ Then get access to ROAS optimization That gate was a real barrier for new apps, small studios, and anyone trying to move fast. It also meant burning budget on CPI just to unlock the feature you actually wanted. Now? You go straight to ROAS from day one. Unity also added MMP integration alerts automatic flags when there are setup issues or missing data across your apps. Less manual debugging, faster time to performance. My take: Lowering the entry barrier to ROAS is smart for Unity's ecosystem. More advertisers optimizing on value = better signal quality for Vector = better results for everyone. It's a flywheel move. The caveat: launching ROAS without historical data still means your targets need to be realistic. Set them too aggressive on Day 1 and you'll stall in Learning indefinitely. Start conservative. Let the model breathe. Then push. Who's been waiting on this to finally move away from CPI on Unity? #MobileUA #UnityAds #ROAS #UserAcquisition #MobileMarketing #AppGrowth Follow my channel in comments

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Our CEO Maksym Kovalenko gives his thoughts and opinions on game development from idea to launch, free-to-play or premium and of course, discusses the best monetisation models! Whilst the interview is in Ukrainian, auto translate subtitles are available on Youtube for non Ukrainian speakers (Like me 😊) - Enjoy folks!

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Yaroslav is exploring game design. I'm currently digging into and working through a very interesting topic at our publishing house right now🔍 The root causes here are quite simple and understandable. When you have 20+ games, that means 20+ teams. And since it's indie, competencies are developed unevenly. Quite the opposite, actually. And I think the whole essence of indie is precisely in the uniqueness of each team: someone has an amazing vision, someone creates super-classy narrative, someone excels in very distinctive art, someone–in a specific genre or core gameplay But at the same time, many fall into the same trap. I see this both with us and with those who come for consultations. They try to do everything at once, and in the end, nothing turns out coherently outstanding. And what should at least be at an acceptable level is either absent altogether or done incredibly poorly We discussed this with the team yesterday–luckily, we now have four more producers with considerable experience in various areas. And I'm trying to combine all this now in a way that will really benefit the publishing house's games And it boiled down to a simple understanding: we definitely want to track the depth of elaboration of everything related to game design. Because once you've started sawing and developing, it becomes very-very difficult to rework something or start over–and most often it's practically impossible. Especially if the development cycle is short: 4–6 months. Here, as you lay it down, that's how you'll likely sail. And it's a big trouble if you laid it down wrong. I already have solid experience with games with a median of up to 15 minutes, where there were really serious problems How to avoid all this–and why is it important, including for promotion? We've said it many times: a good game promotes itself. But what exactly "promotes itself"? That part which you made a five, an excellent. Your first priority should be what you do excellently, and what really hooks. I predict that most often it's somewhere in the core gameplay area Next – it's good to do what's important for the genre. Every genre has rules and laws. You need to make them not necessarily genius-level, but at least good, and ideally–even surpass them. Because your players play the genre, they know, they understand what's must-have for them. And an important point: many players have decades of experience. Even a 20-year-old young consumer can have 15 years of gaming under their belt–and you won't fool them And already lower in priority–on a conditional three– you need to do everything less important, but what should be present. Because if you have bad core gameplay, making meta on a five is pointless. Core is core for a reason: it's the nucleus, what the player mainly does I really liked this format, and now we'll evaluate the games coming to the publishing house from stage to stage. We'll help with all our might, grow expertise, advise, and support This is our mission🚀

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⌛ 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗹 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 In traditional game development, production is linear: you build, polish, and ship a complete experience. Once it’s out, your main work is done. But in live ops, the real challenge begins after launch. 🚩 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁 In live ops, teams must deliver regular updates, events, and fixes... often on tight, recurring schedules requiring to balance speed, scale, and quality. Sometimes sacrificing perfection for timely delivery which also means potentially introducing new bugs to the game. ✅ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Live development is a marathon of parallel sprints. While one team is releasing and supporting current content, others are already deep into building the next-future seasons, features, or major events. This requires agile, cross-functional teams that can iterate quickly, respond to player feedback, and pivot as needed. 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘: 𝑇𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠, 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠, 𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑠, 𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑖-𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠, 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠, 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑎𝑝𝑠... How has your team adapted to the demands of live production? What’s your biggest challenge in running parallel pipelines? #LiveOps #GameDev #Production #Agile #Teamwork #ContinuousDelivery #LiveDevelopment #LiveFlowArchitect

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The 60/40 monetization hybrid split is becoming the "Golden Standard". A challenge here is to monetize the tail without capping the ceiling of your high spenders. #mobilegames #freetoplay #gameanalytics

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In most of my calls with mobile game studios about UA funding, the same question keeps coming up 👇 “𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹?” Many teams aren’t entirely sure how to calculate the true cost of capital and the IRR (internal rate of return) of their UA funding options. They look at the monthly or annual interest rate and assume that’s what they’re really paying. But the headline interest rate isn’t the full story 🤷🏽‍♀️ IRR takes into account when you draw the money, how quickly you repay it, and the full cash-flow pattern of the deal. 🎙️Because I see this confusion so often, I’m happy to jump on calls with anyone who wants to understand better: • How to calculate the real cost of capital for your UA • How IRR works in practice for UA funding • How our UA funding product is structured and why we try to keep everything as transparent as possible Martin Macmillan is doing a great job building a financial community at Mobile Finance Collective and sharing knowledge with the industry on this topic and many others 👏🏻 If you’re a mobile publisher or studio and want to walk through your numbers together (just trying to help), I’d be more than happy to chat! Plan A Games Gary Rosenfeld Huy Nguyen Glen MacKay Rob Hodgkinson Karen Chu

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