My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC), an investment firm affiliated to Mail.ru Group, and Aii Corporation, a Finnish VC firm, have teamed up to invest in a US-headquartered mobile games studio called Hypemasters. “Under the new partnership, MGVC will provide marketing, HR, operations, and financial support to Hypemasters to drive the development of current and future titles,” …
My.Games invests in Russian-founded studio Hypemasters Read More
Norma Investment, a venture firm affiliated to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, has taken part in a $20 million round of funding for Russian game publisher 110 Industries. GEM Capital, an investment company founded by a top executive from the Russian oil and gas industry, and Sergey Kornikhin, a film producer, also contributed to the …
My.Games, the game unit of LSE-listed Mail.ru Group, has just published the ‘Portrait of a Russian Gamer 2019,’ a study about players passionate about mobile, desktop, or console games, with an assessment of the Russian gaming market for 2019. According to My.Games calculations, the volume of the Russian video game market in 2019 increased by 14% year-on-year …
Russian video game market grew to $1.9 billion in 2019 Read More
DMarket, a Ukraine-born startup that uses blockchain to build “a user-owned gaming economy,” has just attracted $6.5 million in equity funding. The round was led by Almaz Capital with participation from video game company Xsolla. No details of the deal were disclosed. Now headquartered in California, DMarket has developed a platform that “enables transparent and secure buying, selling, and …
Almaz Capital leads $6.5 million for in-game item trading platform DMarket Read More
Playrix, a global Russian-founded gaming giant, announced today the acquisition of Armenian game studio Plexonic. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The Yerevan-based team, still led by Plexonic’s founder and CEO Gevorg Sargsyan, has already started developing a new casual mobile game, according to a corporate statement. “Together with the talented Plexonic team, we will …
After Belarus and Ukraine, Russian gaming giant Playrix acquires studio in Armenia Read More
Last week Playrix, a global Russian-founded gaming giant, announced the acquisition of Ukrainian game studio Zagrava Games. Founded in 2003 (known as ‘Friends’ Games’ at that time), this game development service company is located in Rivne (Rovno), Western Ukraine, and employs 60 people. Its creations include ‘Greedy Bunnies,’ ‘The Hunt for Red Panda’ and ‘Chasing Chaster.’ Among its clients …
Russian game giant Playrix acquires Ukrainian game studio Read More
This week Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet giant, announced almost simultaneously two acquisitions: that of acquired Belarusian game studio Swag Masha through its gaming branch My.Games and that of Russian content & ad recommendation service Relap.io. Acquiring “an idea and high spirits” Founded in May 2018 and based in Minsk, Swag Masha is a small game …
Mail.ru Group has today announced the new international gaming brand, MY.GAMES. The new brand will develop, publish and fund new games, including upcoming titles Lost Ark, Conqueror’s Blade and a mobile release for popular esport title Warface. All of the company’s gaming projects, which were previously published under the Mail.ru Group brand in Russia and …
Mail.Ru Group reveals new global gaming brand MY.GAMES Read More
In April, Bloomberg added Igor and Dmitry Bukhman to its list of US dollar billionaires. The brothers, born in the northwest Russian city of Vologda, founded a video game company out of their hometown in 2004. Now, Playrix, which employs more than 1,000 employees and entertains about 30 million users every day with popular games like Homescapes and Township. The Bukhmans …
Russians spent some $1.66 billion on games in 2018, according to Newzoo. Ranking 11th in the research firm’s global ranking, Russia is ahead of Brazil and Mexico ($1.45 billion and $1.58 billion, respectively), but behind Italy and Spain ($2.17 billion and $2.20 billion). In the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan generated $207 million (44th place), ahead of Ukraine …
Report: Russians spent $1.66 billion on games in 2018 Read More
LSE-listed Mail.Ru Group has invested in four Russian gaming companies via Mail.Ru Games Ventures (MRGV), the dedicated investment division it launched last year. As reported by the Russian media, these companies are Moscow-based Game Garden (Farmdale, Fairy Kingdom), Mobirate (Parking Mania, Dead Ahead, Rovercraft) from Ulyanovsk, Siberia, Red Brix Wall (Battle Arena: Heroes Adventure) and Zillion Whales (Mushroom Wars), both based in St. Petersburg. Each of …
Mail.Ru Group invests in four Russian gaming companies Read More
Alibaba, Mail.Ru Group, Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) today announced a “strategic partnership” that encompasses such a wide area as e-commerce, social media, online entertainment and communications combined. The agreement aims to leverage on the existing businesses of AliExpress Russia, the B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba which controls a …
