The eye of the voidstorm in Cologne. © Blizzard Entertainment / wetter Business Blizzard Collaborates With wetter.com for World of Warcraft: Midnight To promote World of Warcraft: Midnight, which was unveiled at gamescom 2025, Blizzard Entertainment collaborated with wetter.com to conjure up a voidstorm. At gamescom 2025, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled World of Warcraft: Midnight. This expansion to the MMORPG is scheduled for release in the first half of 2026, pitting players By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
Oliver Miescher (left) will head the programme, Stefan Schmidlin joins the foundation's board of trustees. © Miescher; Schmidlin Business Zurich Movie Foundation Starts Games Funding 4.5 million Francs over the next three years: In a timed experiment, the Swiss canton Zurich is now funding games and XR projects in the categories Prototype and Production through Zürcher Filmstiftung. For the first time ever, the Zurich Movie Foundation (Zürcher Filmstiftung) has started a games funding programme. By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
Physical card games such as the Pokémon TCG can be connected to gambling problems, the study claims. © Caleb Oquendo, Pexels campus Study Connects Loot Boxes and Trading Cards to Problematic Gambling Mechanisms A study by the City University of Hong Kong shows possible links of loot boxes and physical trading card games to gambling problems. Notably, the effectiveness of these mechanisms appear to be unrelated to buyers' overall state of mental health. An open-access study by the City University of Hong By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
© Student Games Festival campus First Student Games Festival Comes to Warsaw On 18 October, the first Student Games Festival will be organised in Warsaw. Submissions for the game awards run until 31 August. The event is hosted by Polish cultural and educational organisations in cooperation with Warsaw, the Cultural Ministry and 11 bit studios. The first international student game festival is By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
From left to right: Carl Kuhn, Executive Director Gaming & E-Sports at JvM Sports, and Thanh Dao, Managing Director at JvM Nerd © Jung von Matt Business JvM Group Introduces New Cross-Agency Leadership Duo The JvM Group is expanding its gaming services and setting up an international agency team. Thanh Dao (JvM Nerd) and Carl Kuhn (JvM Sports) will lead this team. However, JvM Nerd founder Toan Nguyen and co-managing director André Price will be leaving the agency at the end of the year By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
Nvidia GeForce Now © Nvidia Business Nvidia GeForce Now: RTX 5080-Class GPUs and 5G+ Partnership With Deutsche Telekom Nvidia has announced a partnership with Deutsche Telekom for GeForce Now, focusing on 5G+ gaming in Germany, and revealed that RTX 5080-class GPUs will soon be available on the cloud gaming service. Deutsche Telekom has unveiled plans for a new 5G+ gaming offering in collaboration with Nvidia's GeForce By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister at the crowning ceremony of the Esports World Cup 2025 with (from right to left) Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation; HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport; Musaad Al Dossary, Co-Founder and Chairman at Team Falcons; Muhammed Almatairi, General Director at Team Falcons; Nikola Kovač, Counter-Strike 2 player at Team Falcons. © Esports World Cup 2025 esports Esports World Cup 2025 Set New Viewership Records in Its Second Year The Esports World Cup 2025 came to a close on Sunday. After seven weeks of competition, Team Falcons were crowned club champions of the tournament. The EWC attracted a total of 750 million viewers, 350 million hours of online streaming, and 3 million visitors on site in Riyadh. The Esports By Marcel Kleffmann • 3 min read
© Deutsche Bahn / esports player foundation esports Deutsche Bahn Focuses on Gaming and Esports to Find Young Talent In its search for young professionals, Deutsche Bahn (DB) is turning to gaming and esports to attract young talent. The company aims to recruit around 20,000 new employees in operational roles this year, including over 5,000 young professionals. The DB Esports Scholarship is the centrepiece of the company& By Marcel Kleffmann • 1 min read
The cinema at the Filmforum NRW was the location of Indie Reveal. © Indie Hub Business Indie Reveal Connects NRW and Quebec During gamescom In an initial cooperation, Quebec and NRW met up at the first Indie Reveal during gamescom to show indie games in a cinema before publishers. The event was co-organised by NRW and Quebec funding organisations as well as Indie Hub and Indie Asylum. On the occasion of gamescom in Cologne, By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
From left: Benjamin Hillmann (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur), Nandita Wegehaupt (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur), Elisabeth Secker (USK), Melanie Endler (USK) © Luna Grüsgen for Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur campus USK and Game Culture Foundation Release Updated Parents' Guide to Games Right in time for gamescom, the German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) and the Digital Game Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) have released their updated Parents' Guide to Games. The German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) and the Digital Game Culture Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur) have published their new By Pascal Wagner • 1 min read
Esports Decade Awards © Esports Awards esports Esports Decade Awards Presented in Riyadh The Esports Awards held a one-off Decade Awards ceremony alongside the Esports World Cup. These celebrated a decade of excellence in esports and gaming. The Decade Awards ceremony, held alongside the Esports World Cup, saw 9.8 million votes cast by fans in celebration of esports, its players, teams and By Marcel Kleffmann • 2 min read
1SP Co-founder and Co-CEO Torsten Oppermann © 1SP Business 1SP: Where Client Goals Meet Global Expertise Founded in April 2023, 1SP Agency turned two this year and expanded again in August 2025 with the acquisition of FIJAK. We sat down with Co-Founder and Co-CEO Torsten Oppermann to talk about the journey so far and plans for the future. GamesMarkt: Let‘s start by taking a look By Stephan Steininger • 8 min read