Xbox has disclosed 268 layoffs across Halo Studios and other internal teams as part of a wider restructuring.

Under the changes, Microsoft Casual Games will report to King, Halo development will move under Activision, and Rare and World's Edge will sit directly with the Xbox publisher.

Additional moves hit the company's first-party studios: Ninja Theory faces closure, Playground Games and Turn 10 will merge into a single studio, Undead Labs has gone independent with subsequent job cuts of its own, and Obsidian has shifted under the Bethesda banner.

How significant is AppLovin's $20bn ad spend figure?

AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi disclosed that annual platform ad spend on the company's ad tech business has grown roughly 60% year-over-year to approximately $20 billion. He framed the metric as evidence of the platform's scale while explaining the rationale behind AppLovin's decision to acquire and later divest its games studios. For mobile studios buying user acquisition through AppLovin's mediation layer, the figure signals continued advertiser demand even as the broader UA market remains volatile. The studio-side divestitures also indicate that AppLovin's operational focus now sits with the ad tech stack rather than first-party publishing.

How much did Lilith's Clash of Critters actually make?

Lilith Games, the developer behind AFK Arena and Rise of Kingdoms, has produced another commercial performer in Clash of Critters. Industry estimates put the title at $45.6 million in App Store and Google Play player spending across its first four months. For a publisher with a portfolio built on mid-core 4X and RPG hits, the result keeps Lilith in the bracket of Chinese developers consistently launching top-grossing titles outside China. The four-month window covers the launch quarter and a portion of live operations, leaving durable monetisation metrics still to be confirmed.

What does Zynga Ads+ consolidation change for casual publishers?

Zynga has expanded Zynga Ads+, its advertising offering, to incorporate 100 casual mobile games from its portfolio. The integration lifts Zynga's claimed reach to more than 100 million monthly consumers. For advertisers and UA buyers, the move concentrates casual-game inventory and audience targeting inside a single Take-Two-owned platform; for rival ad networks, it tightens competition for casual-game budgets. The expansion extends Zynga Ads+ from a narrower mediation product into a broader cross-portfolio ad surface.

Who is taking over WeMade, and on what terms?

Chinese developer Kingnet Network will join a consortium acquiring a 40.25% controlling stake in WeMade, the South Korean blockchain and mobile publisher behind the Mir mobile and Legend of Mir ecosystem. Kingnet's contribution is $298 million, against a deal value of $684 million for the broader consortium transaction. WeMade, once a prominent presence at GDC, now sits in a formal takeover process — a notable shift for a company that has historically operated as an independent Korean publisher and blockchain specialist.

What to watch next

The Xbox restructuring will produce further disclosures as affected studios integrate or wind down. The Kingnet-led consortium has yet to close. AppLovin's quarterly filings will show whether the 60% growth rate holds, while Lilith's Clash of Critters will reveal whether the launch-quarter trajectory sustains or decays through live-ops cycles.