Weekly News Digest #31

InvestGame tracked 33 deals worth $7m this week (excl. Digital Bros deal value). Twenty-nine of those came from a single UK Games Fund grant cohort, covered below as one entry. Below are the top 6, plus the week’s earnings reports.

View the Full List

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Singapore-based gaming hardware company Razer has acquired the assets of livestreaming tools platform StreamElements from previous owner Live Momentum Ltd. for an undisclosed sum, taking on the platform’s IP rights, platform data, and business records. The purchase closes months of uncertainty at StreamElements: the company ran a “Keep It Live” crowdfunding campaign in Jan’26 to keep operating, and in May’26 an employee told creator clients it was preparing to close its doors, after which GamesBeat reported at least two potential acquirers held talks. Part of the fee paid to Live Momentum is earmarked for outstanding payments owed to creators, which are already underway. StreamElements raised $100m from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in Sep’21, when it counted 1.1 million creators. Razer says the tools will remain free; the platform will keep operating independently rather than folding into Razer’s own software. 

Andorra-based Counter-Strike 2 esports organization AM Gaming, also known as Achieveminds Gaming, has been acquired by newly launched Nordic Partners Gaming (NPG) for an undisclosed sum. Achieveminds founder Fabian Broich, who set up the organization in 2021, announced the launch of NPG and will lead it as director. He is joined on the board by Håvard Lehn, Group CEO of Nordic Network and CEO of the iGaming affiliate network Nordic Partners.

FINANCING

Italy-based Digital Bros (BIT: DIB), parent of the publisher 505 Games, has entered into a development and publishing agreement with China-based games developer Chengdu Recursive Dolphin Technology, which operates under the studio banner Indolphinity, committing an initial investment of $24.7m (EUR 21.5m) to build the sequel to the PC & Console soulslike action RPG WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers. Indolphinity was founded by Xia Siyuan, the original game’s creative director and project lead, who left former developer Leenzee in Jan’26. Under the agreement, Indolphinity leads creative development while 505 Games funds and publishes worldwide, and Digital Bros will open a dedicated subsidiary in Chengdu to support local development and publishing. The commitment is the second leg of a two-step move on the franchise: the group acquired the WUCHANG IP rights on Apr 27, 2026, and now owns the IP outright. Released on Jul 24, 2025, WUCHANG drew more than 131,000 concurrent players on Steam around launch, and 505 Games says it passed 5 million players across all platforms on its first anniversary. Alinea Analytics estimates more than $34m (EUR 30m) in gross revenue generated by the game in its first eight months. Digital Bros describes the agreement as consistent with a strategy of investing in fully owned intellectual property with a proven commercial track record. Against a market capitalization of about $212m, the initial commitment equals roughly 12% of the company’s value. Digital Bros shares rose 19.7% over the week, the second-largest gain among the public games companies InvestGame tracks.

US-based AI game-asset platform ForgeGUI has raised $3.2m in a Seed round led by Verdict Capital, with participation from Collective Global and Second Sight Ventures. Verdict, whose founder and managing director, Niko Bonatsos, led the investment alongside partner Michael Fertik, contributed $2m in Jun’26, and a subsequent strategic allocation within the same financing took the total to $3.2m, reported at a $40m valuation. Founded in Mar’26 by Giulio Greco, who was 17 at the time of the round, the platform generates thumbnails, icons, 3D models, characters, HUD elements, and full UI sets from text prompts, with native support for Roblox, Fortnite UEFN, Minecraft, Unity, Unreal Engine, and Blender. It crossed 300,000 users on Jul 28, 2026, and employs one founding engineer besides Greco, with proceeds funding further engineering hires.

The UK Games Fund has awarded Prototype Fund grants to 29 independent UK studios, the largest cohort since the program launched in 2015. The fund awards up to $134.9k (£100k) per studio; individual grant amounts were not disclosed. The awards back original IP development, skilled job creation, and readiness to attract follow-on investment, with funded work commencing in Oct’26. The Prototype Fund sits inside the UK government’s Games Growth Package, announced under the Industrial Strategy and the Creative Industries Sector Plan, which allocated an additional $38.4m (£28.5m) to the UK Games Fund over three years alongside £1.5m for the London Games Festival. Two further tracks run beside it: a Starter Fund of up to £20,000 and a Content Fund of up to £250,000 supporting project completion and studio growth.

FUNDRAISING

Türkiye-focused Drilo Ventures has launched a $30m fund investing exclusively in Turkish-founded mobile games studios, wherever they are based. The vehicle was set up by former APY Ventures fund manager Doğukan Çetin and Swipeline founder Umut Yaka. It writes initial cheques of $500k to $1.5m into early-stage studios and reserves capital for follow-on rounds, and offers portfolio companies introductions to later-stage investors, UA financing partners, publishers, and potential acquirers. A first investment is expected to close in Oct’26. Turkish mobile games studios generated $2.7B in 2025, five times the level of six years earlier. According to InvestGame data, local mobile games developers have secured $1.2B in funding since 2019.

EARNINGS REPORTS

Share price reaction is the close-to-close move straddling the report date, from the last close before the announcement to the first close after it. Sony reported after the Friday close, so its first subsequent close falls outside this edition. Source: InvestGame.

Eight issuers in InvestGame’s tracked universe reported inside the week, the heaviest concentration of the quarter so far. Roblox produced the largest single reaction: Q2 bookings rose just 8% YoY to $1.6B, landing at the low end of guidance, and the company withdrew full-year guidance, citing “increasing variability and continued updates to our platform.” Q3 bookings were guided to $1.58B–$1.65B, implying a 14% to 18% YoY decline. Capcom posted its ninth consecutive record first quarter, with Q1 sales of ¥70.4B and net income of ¥29.2B.

PUBLIC MARKET PERFORMANCE

Share-price changes over the trading week from Friday Jul 24 to Friday Jul 31, for the public companies InvestGame tracks whose business includes games: publishers, developers, platform holders, and toys and tabletop names with a market cap above $50m.

Source: InvestGame, local-currency price change.

It was a broadly positive week for the tracked universe: of 62 eligible companies, 55 rose, and 7 fell, with a median move of 4.9%. Earnings drove three of the five largest decliners; among the top gainers, only Capcom moved on an in-window release.

SHARE PRICE SIGNALS

• Roblox (-25.1%) fell after its Jul 30 Q2 report, published after the New York close, in which Q2 bookings rose just 8% year over year to $1.6B, landing at the low end of guidance. The company withdrew full-year guidance, citing “increasing variability and continued updates to our platform,” and guided Q3 bookings to $1.58B–$1.65B, implying a 14% to 18% YoY decline. The shares fell 26.9% in the session that followed the release, the steepest single-day drop in the company’s history.
• Stillfront (+22.1%) extended the rally that followed its Jul 24 Q2 report, which put adj.EBITDAC at SEK 387m, up roughly 11% YoY, on a 29% margin versus 26% a year earlier, and restated the CEO succession process announced Jun 30. InvestGame identified no further company announcement inside the Jul 27 to Jul 31 window.
• Digital Bros (+19.7%) rose after its Jul 29 announcement of a development and publishing agreement for the WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers sequel, carrying an initial investment of EUR 21.5m, covered above.
• Capcom (+17.8%) rose after its Jul 28 Q1 report delivered a ninth straight record first quarter, with the shares gaining 19.8% in the session that followed the release before giving part of the move back later in the week.
• Ubisoft (+17.8%) recovered the ground lost in the prior week, when the shares fell 12.3% around its Jul 23 Q1 sales report.
• Ten Square Games (+15.1%) extended the prior week’s rally as brokers digested Noble Securities’ Jul 23 upgrade.
• Spin Master (-9.6%) fell after its Jul 30 Q2 report, which put revenue at $436.4m, up 8.9% YoY, adj. EBITDA at $51.6m against $28.7m, and swung operating income to $45.7m from a $52.4m loss. The full-year outlook was reiterated. The shares fell 10.7% in the session on the release.
• Devolver Digital (-5.9%) declined with no company announcement identified inside the window. Its most recent regulatory filing was a Jul 23 notice on the payment of deferred consideration.
• Games Workshop (-4.1%) fell after its Jul 28 full-year results, which delivered record revenue alongside a cut to the dividend.

EARNINGS CALENDAR: THE WEEK AHEAD

Earnings scheduled for Aug 3 to Aug 9, 2026. Dates are as scheduled by the issuers and remain subject to change. Source: InvestGame.

This digest is published for information only. It is not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.