The sell-off was triggered by fear, not facts. Google’s Project Genie demo sparked a narrative that “AI games are here,” even though the tech currently produces short, silent video scenes with no logic, no scoring, no input handling, and no gameplay systems. Investors reacted as if game development had been solved overnight. The result was a disproportionate crash: Unity down nearly 40%, AppLovin down ~33%, Roblox down ~19%, and Take-Two also hit hard, while the NASDAQ itself fell only ~4.5%. That gap tells the real story.
Meanwhile, Meta delivered numbers that completely contradict the panic. Meta apps now reach 3.6 billion daily active users, up 7% year-over-year, and total company revenue surpassed $200B, with $60B coming from Q4 alone. This highlights the widening gap between perception and performance. While markets panic about AI replacing games, the platforms that actually monetize attention at scale continue to grow quietly and relentlessly.
On the publisher side, strategy divergence is becoming obvious. Stillfront cut revenue by 9% but significantly expanded margins, cleaned up its portfolio, and exited non-core narrative games. MTG Group posted record revenue and profits, fueled by Plarium and strong UA discipline, while also preparing an IPO for PlaySimple in India. In contrast, Embracer’s mobile revenue collapsed 61% year-over-year in Q2, underscoring how exposed unfocused portfolios are in this market. Capital is flowing toward efficiency, not experimentation.
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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.
Host: Ömer Yakabagi from Gamigion
https://gamigion.com
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 — 🚨📢 Why gaming stocks suddenly crashed
00:35 — AI panic: Project Genie misunderstood
01:30 — Why this is not “AI games replacing devs”
02:20 — Unity, AppLovin & Roblox overreaction
03:10 — Meta’s real numbers vs market fear
04:05 — Stillfront, MTG & portfolio cleanups
05:05 — Embracer’s mobile collapse
05:45 — Final takeaway: panic vs fundamentals
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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
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