Naavik's 2025 Recap

Across the Naavik ecosystem, we have covered a ton of ground this year. If you’d like to revisit anything over the holidays – or catch up on what you might have missed – below is everything we created in 2025.

We wrote 56 Digest articles and deep dives! Here they are broken down by category:

Gaming platforms:

PC/Console companies and games:

Mobile companies, games, and trends:

UGC:

Other trends:

We also published 46 episodes of the Naavik Gaming Podcast in 2025! Here they are, broken down by category:

Mobile Gaming:

Console/PC Gaming:

UGC:

AI:

Web3:

VR:

Esports:

Other Technology & Founder Stories:

Emerging Trends & Best Practices:

Thank you again to our incredible team! And a huge THANK YOU to our readers and listeners for making all of this work worthwhile! 

Have requests or suggestions for 2026? Let us know by replying to this email.

See you in 2026!

A Word from Our Sponsor: Neon

Neon

The Modern D2C Platform Built for Games

For the first time in our industry, app store policies have evolved to give developers more options and control over how to monetize games. Today, every developer can have their own direct–to-consumer channels, letting them save on app store fees while building closer relationships with players.

But there’s a catch. 

Selling directly means either building a host of complex global infrastructure on your own, or choosing among legacy providers whose inexperience in games, or questionable reputations actually introduces risk to your businesses. 

Luckily, there’s NEON: the modern D2C platform built for games. 

Neon’s fully-customizable webshops leverage the best from ecommerce to ensure the player journey between game and web is seamless and conversion-optimized. Its modern APIs let you port your rich live ops features and segmentations to web, giving players an experience that’s personalized, immersive, and consistent. Finally -- as merchant of record (MoR) -- Neon handles payments, tax, fraud, and support so players can buy seamlessly, while you focus on doing what you love: creating the best games for them. 

Head to Neon today to sell direct and finally take control of your full player experience.

Learn More

In Other News

💸Funding and M&A:

📊 Business & Products:

👾 Miscellaneous:

Content Worth Consuming

Source: gamesindustry.biz

How Devolver's Focus on"Small,Creative, Unique, Risk-Taking Titles" Paid Off with the Million-Selling Ball x Pit (gamesindustry.biz): “Kenny Sun is a machine when it comes to making video games. When GamesIndustry.biz broaches the fact that his recently released title – the Arkanoid-style roguelite Ball x Pit — has sold over one million copies in its first month, the indie developer shrugs it off and simply says he's busy working on other stuff. ‘I'm not really thinking about it.’ This kind of laconic reaction isn't uncommon for Sun, says Nigel Lowrie, co-founder and marketing lead of the game's publisher, Devolver Digital. ‘We keep putting good news to Kenny about sales milestones, critical reception and awesome videos being made by influencers and the community… Kenny's just like: 'Cool,' and then he's right back to working.’”

Relearning the Rules — Player Motivations and Understanding Audiences with Carlos Salvado (Mobile Games Playbook): “Join GameRefinery’s Brendan Fraher and industry veteran Carlos Salvado for another episode of the Mobile Games Playbook. With 15 years of experience across mobile, PC, and console, Carlos shares his expertise on why the industry demands continuous adaptation, touching on new business models, emerging tech, and AI integration. This episode tackles the major challenges facing developers today, including the rise of web stores and the strategic use of live events, as well as how player motivations and audience understanding can lead to mobile success.”

Ryo Lu(Cursor): AI Turns Designers to Developers (The a16z Show): “Ryo Lu spent years watching his designs die in meetings. Then he discovered the tool that lets designers ship code at the speed of thought: Cursor, the company where Ryo is now Head of Design. In this episode, a16z General Partner Jennifer Li sits down with Ryo to discuss why "taste" is the wrong framework for understanding the future, why purposeful apps are "selfish," how System 7 holds secrets about AI interfaces, and the radical bet that one codebase can serve everyone if you design the concepts right instead of the buttons.”

Becoming the Ghost of Yōtei with Erika Ishii (The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook): “ Alexa Ray Corriea chats with actor and producer,  Erika Ishii who stars as Atsu in Ghost of Yōtei. Together they discuss Erika's journey in acting and how they found themselves working in video games; working with  Sucker Punch and their process working with performers; the advantages of bringing in the cast early in development; and the importance of acknowledging the team effort required to bring a game character to life.”

Meet the Developer Behind Bradley The Badger, The Game Awards’ Most Bonkers Reveal (The Game Business YouTube Channel): “In today’s edition of The Game Business Show, we speak with Day 4 Night, the studio behind the upcoming Bradley The Badger, which received its debut at The Game Awards. The studio was formed by Davide Soliani (Mario + Rabbids) and Christian Cantamessa (Red Dead Redemption), and was one of the most distinctive games on show. It’s also a game that has received big investment from the likes of 1Up Ventures and Krafton. We spoke to Christian and Davide about securing funding during a challenging time for games, the importance of doing something a bit crazy, and trying to bring satire to the game space. ”

Greenlighting is a Lottery: How Voodoo, SLG Giants, and Habby Turn“Luck” into“Math” (pocketgamer.biz): “The past year has brought with it plenty of disruption and opportunity to the games industry, with China's expanding global dominance, the continued direct-to-consumer shift and increasing emergence of AI tech in development some of the key trends defining 2025. To highlight the developments that defined much of the year and those likely to shape 2026, we asked industry leaders to share their perspectives on 2025 and predictions for the year ahead.”

More About Naavik

Naavik logo

Naavik's team of experts has helped over 300 companies — publishers, studios, tech companies, and investors — better succeed across the video game industry. We'd love to work with you too! Here's what we offer, spanning all platforms, genres, and regions:

  • Strategy Consulting: Projects covering market research, corporate strategy, game & economy design, gamification, live ops strategy, AI strategy, product management, brand & performance marketing, and more.
  • M&A and Investment Advisory: Expert commercial due diligence for buyers, fundraising support for sellers, and fractional CFO/CSO services.
  • FractionalTalent: The one-stop shop for top-tier fractional talent covering dozens of game industry roles (analytics, design, marketing, art, QA, and more).

Check out the links above for more details. If you'd like to chat about how Naavik can serve your team, click the box below or send us a note at [email protected].

Contact Us
Tags: , , , , ,

Don’t miss our next issue!

Sign up to receive the #1 games industry newsletter, straight in your inbox.