Latest News
Dark Fantasy Survival RTS Age of Darkness: Final Stand Trailer and Early Access Announcement
PlaySide Studios have announced their dark fantasy survival RTS Age of Darkness: Final Stand will be descending into Early Access through Steam in Fall 2021. Age of Darkness: Final Stand presents a modern, darker spin on the survival RTS genre that will challenge new players, and strategy experts alike. The initial story driven trailer is now live giving players a sneak peak into the title and unique gameplay.
Strategic construction, careful resource management, and rapid recruitment are the keys to surviving unrelenting swarms of Nightmares. Robust defences to build, battleworn heroes to enlist, and the tug of war between light and dark all complemented with an original soundtrack by Path of Exile composer Kamil Orman-Janowski.
Survive the Never Ending Evil
Age of Darkness: Final Stand will enter early access with an intense survival game mode that tests your resolve. By day, construct buildings, gather resources, and recruit an army led by unique Heroes. Scout into the deadly fog of war and take the fight to the horrors within. By night, survive swarms of enemies numbering in the thousands. Made to be highly replayable, your army will fall, your settlements will crumble, but you will learn. Rise from the ashes again and again to push back the darkness of ‘The Veil’ and keep the light alive.
Fog of War: Evolved
Light up a rich, complex, procedurally generated map to claim territory back from ‘The Veil’. A dynamic living death fog that conceals enemies, drains life from your troops and turns structures into spawning nests for the Nightmares. Holding the line against this terror is not for the faint of heart. Any units unfortunate enough to be too close to ‘The Veil’ become ‘horrified’, sending them into fits of fear and lowering their effectiveness. Only light cures the darkness, so fight in the light or pay the price.
Death Nights
Brace yourself against huge tidal waves of Nightmares. Leveraging an internally developed technology called ‘SwarmTech’ allows the game to render over 70,000 enemy units on the screen at one time. These enemy legions claw their way up through seething fissures in the earth to reinforce ‘The Veil’. When the Death Night begins, you’ll be weakened by a Malice – a random affliction capable of undermining the best laid plans. If you are fortunate enough to survive until dawn you will be rewarded with a choice of Blessings. Live or die, Death Nights will test your strategic skills to breaking point.
Heroes Vs Horrors
Lead the charge against the horrors of the night with powerful and unique Heroes. Using special abilities gained from levelling up, these Heroes can be key to turning the tide of a desperate battle. But beware, the Nightmares have elite roaming champions of their own that drop precious resources when killed, posing an extreme and ever-present threat to your expansion. Are you the hunter, or the hunted?
Early Access & Community
At PlaySide, we are passionate about working hand in hand with our players to help shape the evolution of Age of Darkness: Final Stand, both during Early Access and into the future. Our strongest desire is to have a title reflective of our gaming passion whilst providing a unique challenge that players from this genre both desire and demand. We look forward to building a long-term community and engaging with our players who share a like-minded vision of making a deeper, darker, challenging combat RTS experience.
“Age of Darkness: Final Stand heralds PlaySide’s expansion into the hardcore PC platform. As a studio created to develop AAA titles, the vision has always been to develop larger, more hardcore titles on PC and Console” said Gerry Sakkas, CEO, PlaySide Studios. “Age of Darkness: Final Stand is a testament to the grit, adaptability and talent of our artists, engineers and game designers. We’re extremely excited and anxious to meet our first wave of players on Steam and to finish building Age of Darkness: Final Stand together with the community!”
“The PC RTS genre is as wild and untamed as it is deep and complex. This is a space where anything goes and the player’s expectations are limitless” said Sean Gabriel, Lead Designer on the title. “Rising to that challenge and bringing PlaySide’s special blend of personality, experience, and talent to bear has been a herculean task of which we’re exceptionally proud. With Age of Darkness: Final Stand we’ve been able to combine our passion for Action RPGs, Roguelikes, and RTS games into something wholly our own – and we’re only just getting started.”
Age of Darkness: Final Stand Links
● Official Website: Age of Darkness: Final Stand
● Announcement Trailer: Age of Darkness | Official Trailer – YouTube
● Steam: Age of Darkness: Final Stand on Steam (steampowered.com)
American gambling industry
Gaming Americas Weekly Roundup – January 26-February 1
Welcome to our weekly roundup of American gambling news again! Here, we are going through the weekly highlights of the American gambling industry which include the latest news and new partnerships. Read on and get updated.
Latest News
ComeOn Group has launched its new marketing campaign in Ontario. The campaign underscores ComeOn Group’s long-term commitment to sustainable expansion – powered by ComeOn’s proprietary technology and a clear focus on delivering standout, personalised entertainment experiences at scale. At the centre of the campaign is a series of premium television commercials starring Jeremy Piven, a long-standing ComeOn brand ambassador. Piven’s high-energy presence and authentic connection to sports reinforce the brand’s entertainment-first positioning, bringing ComeOn’s sportsbook experience to life across TV and digital. Produced by ComeOn Group’s internal creative hub, the campaign provides a cohesive creative platform that clearly differentiates the brand in a crowded market.
Michigan commercial and tribal operators have reported a combined $399.8 million total internet gaming (iGaming) gross receipts and gross sports betting receipts in December. Gross receipts increased 19.1% compared to November. December iGaming gross receipts totaled $315.8 million, the highest to date. The previous high was $278.5 million recorded in October 2025. December gross sports betting receipts totaled $84.0 million, which is a decrease from the $87.3 million recorded in November. Combined total iGaming and internet sports betting adjusted gross receipts (AGR) for December were $357.87 million, including $296.74 million from iGaming and $61.13 million from internet sports betting — representing an iGaming increase of 27.2% and a sports betting decrease of 5.6% when compared to November 2025.
The Cordish Companies and Bruce Smith Enterprise celebrated the highly-anticipated grand opening of Live! Casino Virginia, the region’s first full-scale casino. The opening of the temporary gaming facility marks an important milestone in bringing new jobs, economic development and tourism to the region while construction advances on the permanent resort destination next door. Located just 25 miles south of Richmond and only 45 miles north of the North Carolina border, Live! Casino Virginia is conveniently off I-95 at Exit 48B. Live! Casino Virginia delivers a full-scale gaming experience 24 hours a day, seven days a week, featuring 75,000 square feet of gaming space with more than 900 state-of-the-art slot machines and over 30 live-action table games.
Partnerships
GuardDog, a responsible play innovation fund from Underdog, has announced an investment in Regen, the first platform to automatically convert entries into savings with every play. In addition to the investment, Underdog will feature Regen as a new resource in its responsible play hub, highlight Regen in customer communications from the responsible play and customer support teams as well as provide access to the platform to all of its employees. Regen allows users to link their sportsbook, fantasy sports and prediction market accounts, and automatically save a small percentage from every entry, win or loss, creating savings without changing how they play.
Table Trac Inc. has announced that the Mardi Gras Hotel & Casino located in Las Vegas, United States, Nevada, will soon have Table Trac Inc.’s CasinoTrac casino management system installed. Mardi Gras Hotel and Casino is located just steps from the Las Vegas Convention Center and Main Monorail terminal the Mardi Gras is convenient to all of the World Famous attractions of Las Vegas.
The post Gaming Americas Weekly Roundup – January 26-February 1 appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Africa Bet Partners
How Traffy Cut FTD Cost in Half and Scaled Betting in Tanzania for Africa Bet Partners via Moloco Ads
This case highlights the impact of systematic optimization in Moloco Ads for the Betting vertical. Despite market turbulence in East Africa, Traffy not only maintained Africa Bet’s KPIs but also significantly improved ROI through deep, data-driven optimization.
Project Overview
Africa Bet Partners Offer: Betting
Traffic Partner: Traffy
Source: Moloco Ads (Google Play Inventory)
Geo: Tanzania (TZ)
Period: 2 months
Total Spend: ~$42,000
Final CR (Reg-to-FTD): 60%
Final CR (FTD 1-to-FTD 2): 45%
Challenge and Initial Metrics
At the launch of the campaign, the situation was challenging. The complex economic and political environment in Tanzania had a direct impact on consumer purchasing power and the stability of payment systems.
Initial Cost per FTD: $15.00
Goal: Reduce the cost of the target action to below $8 and identify scaling potential.
Optimization Strategy: What Was Done
The success of this case is the result of Traffy’s consistent work across four key areas:
1. Traffic Quality Management (Exchanges & Publishers)
Traffy conducted a comprehensive audit of publishers (placements) through which Moloco acquired inventory.
- Blacklists were created based on low deposit conversion.
- Collaboration was optimized with specific ad exchanges that demonstrated stronger Retention.
2. Creative Strategy
Traffy moved away from standard approaches and implemented a system of regular testing of new creative packs. Creative optimization significantly increased CTR and IPM, providing the Moloco algorithm with more data for learning.
3. Traffic Cleanup to Avoid Paying for Bots
- Placements with suspicious install times (CTIT) were filtered out to protect against click flooding.
- Device “farms” were identified and banned through Device ID analysis.
- Using BI tools, installs were cross-checked with real user activity. Placements with no engagement were added to the Blacklist.
4. Funnel Optimization
Through targeting optimization at the campaign level, Traffy attracted more relevant users. This led to an increase in the CR from registration to FTD up to 60%, which is an abnormally high indicator for this region.
Key Insight
Deep publisher analytics in Moloco Ads combined with category segmentation allows reducing deposit cost by more than 2x while maintaining high player quality (Retention and repeat deposits).
Result
Traffy not only met Africa Bet’s KPIs but also built a stable model for further scaling. Even in “difficult” geos, a systematic optimization approach makes it possible to achieve outstanding results. At the moment, the campaign continues to run, and user Retention (FTD 2) shows organic growth.
The post How Traffy Cut FTD Cost in Half and Scaled Betting in Tanzania for Africa Bet Partners via Moloco Ads appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Africa Bet Partners
How Traffy Cut FTD Cost in Half and Scaled Betting in Tanzania for Africa Bet Partners via Moloco Ads
This case highlights the impact of systematic optimization in Moloco Ads for the Betting vertical. Despite market turbulence in East Africa, Traffy not only maintained Africa Bet’s KPIs but also significantly improved ROI through deep, data-driven optimization.
Project Overview
Africa Bet Partners Offer: Betting
Traffic Partner: Traffy
Source: Moloco Ads (Google Play Inventory)
Geo: Tanzania (TZ)
Period: 2 months
Total Spend: ~$42,000
Final CR (Reg-to-FTD): 60%
Final CR (FTD 1-to-FTD 2): 45%
Challenge and Initial Metrics
At the launch of the campaign, the situation was challenging. The complex economic and political environment in Tanzania had a direct impact on consumer purchasing power and the stability of payment systems.
Initial Cost per FTD: $15.00
Goal: Reduce the cost of the target action to below $8 and identify scaling potential.
Optimization Strategy: What Was Done
The success of this case is the result of Traffy’s consistent work across four key areas:
1. Traffic Quality Management (Exchanges & Publishers)
Traffy conducted a comprehensive audit of publishers (placements) through which Moloco acquired inventory.
- Blacklists were created based on low deposit conversion.
- Collaboration was optimized with specific ad exchanges that demonstrated stronger Retention.
2. Creative Strategy
Traffy moved away from standard approaches and implemented a system of regular testing of new creative packs. Creative optimization significantly increased CTR and IPM, providing the Moloco algorithm with more data for learning.
3. Traffic Cleanup to Avoid Paying for Bots
- Placements with suspicious install times (CTIT) were filtered out to protect against click flooding.
- Device “farms” were identified and banned through Device ID analysis.
- Using BI tools, installs were cross-checked with real user activity. Placements with no engagement were added to the Blacklist.
4. Funnel Optimization
Through targeting optimization at the campaign level, Traffy attracted more relevant users. This led to an increase in the CR from registration to FTD up to 60%, which is an abnormally high indicator for this region.
Key Insight
Deep publisher analytics in Moloco Ads combined with category segmentation allows reducing deposit cost by more than 2x while maintaining high player quality (Retention and repeat deposits).
Result
Traffy not only met Africa Bet’s KPIs but also built a stable model for further scaling. Even in “difficult” geos, a systematic optimization approach makes it possible to achieve outstanding results. At the moment, the campaign continues to run, and user Retention (FTD 2) shows organic growth.
The post How Traffy Cut FTD Cost in Half and Scaled Betting in Tanzania for Africa Bet Partners via Moloco Ads appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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