two & a half gamers 🚨📢BREAKING NEWS: Clash Royale Drama, Layoffs, Applovin Q4, Unity Reshuffle 🤯
Supercell’s annual letter was supposed to be routine. Instead, it triggered backlash around Clash Royale’s “resurgence” narrative. Influencers were credited for growth, including major names amplifying the story, which upset parts of the community. The reaction escalated to organized boycotts, forcing Ilkka Paananen to issue an apology and update the letter publicly. Meanwhile, revenue tells a simpler story: Clash Royale spiked aggressively, then dropped aggressively, returning close to its previous baseline.
Layoffs continue across the industry. Riot cut around 80 people from its 2XKO fighting game. Ubisoft faces union-led strikes following structural division moves that look increasingly like pre-sale positioning. Highguard is downsizing shortly after launch. Unity stock dropped roughly 30%, founders exited, and Bernard Kim steps in. Contrast that with AppLovin reporting $5.4–5.5B revenue in 2025, up ~70% YoY. One side restructures. The other compounds.
On the upside, indie and system-driven plays are thriving. The Steam indie hit sold 500k copies in its first week. ARK Raiders drove revenue growth to $3.1B (+6.5%). Overwatch doubled its concurrent record to 165k after a story-driven update. Arknights: Endfield crossed $30M within weeks of launch. The lesson is clear: execution and product-market clarity still win, even when public markets wobble.
Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop
--------------------------------------
PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.
Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/
They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.
- Scale fast
- Keep your shares
- Drawdown only as needed
- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you
+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors
---------------------------------------
For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.
Our sponsor FastSpring:
Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years
They power top mobile publishers around the world
Launch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.
---------------------------------------
This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric
Podcast:
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 — 🚨📢 Supercell annual letter backlash
01:10 — Clash Royale spike & community boycott
02:20 — Riot layoffs (2XKO) & early launch cuts
03:10 — Ubisoft strike & restructuring signals
04:10 — Indie Steam hit sells 500k week one
05:00 — ARK Raiders & Overwatch concurrency jump
06:00 — AppLovin Q4 earnings explode
07:00 — Unity stock slide & founder exits
08:10 — Roblox child safety scrutiny
09:00 — Arknights: Endfield momentum
---------------------------------------
Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
---------------------------------------
Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!
Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!
Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me