Steam Hits $11B, Warframe Reloads, and 100 Thieves Lift EWC
A one-screen gaming and esports brief: Steam's first-half revenue surge, Ubisoft's monetization edit, new Warframe and Minecraft beats, and 100 Thieves plus 9z closing the esports weekend.
Steam's first-half PC run set the business tone, Ubisoft quietly revised a monetization line, and the competitive weekend ended with 100 Thieves and 9z lifting trophies.
Industry
- Steam is on pace for a record year. Alinea Analytics estimated Steam at $11 billion in gross revenue for the first half of 2026, with Kotaku noting that new releases now account for less than a fifth of sales even as $70 blockbusters help push the top line. 1 Read more →
- Ubisoft deleted the line that said monetization makes games more fun. The company's latest annual report removed last year's mocked claim about paid progression and cosmetics, while still warning investors about long development cycles and AI adoption. 2 Read more →
- A Brazilian court sided with an Xbox player over a hacked account. Microsoft was ordered to restore the account within 15 days and pay 2,000 reais, about $400, after support allegedly told the owner to re-buy their games. 3 Read more →
- Obsidian's post-layoff chatter drew a public pushback. Director Brandon Adler criticized people making claims about how the studio has changed after Xbox's layoffs, keeping the Microsoft studio shake-up in the news cycle for another day. 4 Read more →
Releases and updates
- TennoCon put Warframe and Soulframe back on the board. Digital Extremes used the 2026 fan event to lay out new content plans and trailers for both online action RPGs. 5 Read more →
- Call of Duty's Black Ops ports will bridge PS4 and PS5. Activision clarified that the newly released Black Ops 1 and 2 ports support crossplay between the two PlayStation generations after players questioned the feature online. 6 Read more →
- Minecraft's cushion snapshot already looks bigger than sitting. Mojang's experimental cushion feature lets players sit for the first time, and builders are already using the entity behavior for furniture, quick movement tricks, and redstone experiments. 7 Read more →
- Phoebe Bridgers put a microgame on Itch.io. The musician launched an Itch page with Lost Boys Game, a simple infinite runner tied to her new single and its RuneScape-inspired video. 8 Read more →
Esports
- 100 Thieves won the VALORANT Esports World Cup. 100T beat NRG 3-1 in the grand final, with Cryocells named tournament MVP and Nongshim RedForce taking third over BBL Esports. 9 Read more →
- 9z swept PARIVISION for the XSE Pro League title. The South American CS2 squad won the Guangzhou final 3-0, taking its first notable international LAN trophy and the lead share of a $1 million prize pool. 10 Read more →
- BLAST Open Porto added three more qualifier winners. Lynn Vision, M80, and Sharks joined Inner Circle on the Porto team list after winning regional BLAST Rising qualifiers, setting up a $1.1 million CS2 event before the Singapore Major invite cutoff. 11 Read more →
- Eintracht Frankfurt swept the EMEA Challengers LCQ final. The German side beat Çilekler 3-0 in the July 12 VALORANT grand final, closing the series before Pearl or Split were needed. 12 Read more →
References
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