LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2025--
Xsolla, a global leader in video game commerce, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ludo, a platform designed to drive community engagement through code-free social quests. This strategic acquisition brings Ludo’s innovative technology into the Xsolla portfolio, combining its questing tools with Xsolla’s Web Shop and other Xsolla Rewards Solutions to help developers worldwide increase player engagement, drive retention, and unlock new monetization opportunities beyond the traditional app store model. As the #1 web shop provider in the video games industry, with over 500 web shops launched, Xsolla and Ludo will take mobile players' experience to the next level for game developers.
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Ludo’s integration with Xsolla centers on incorporating Community Quests into Xsolla’s ecosystem, giving developers a simple, built-in way to spark engagement through gamified social experiences. This aligns Ludo’s expertise in player activation with Xsolla’s robust commerce infrastructure, creating a seamless path from gameplay to web-based purchases and turning community participation into revenue-generating behavior.
The timing is significant. New platform flexibility allows mobile developers in the U.S. to promote and link to their web shops directly from their games, unlocking more seamless access to external purchasing experiences. This shift means developers can now:
With these capabilities combined with Ludo’s community-driven questing tools, developers can now create full-circle engagement loops that increase monetization, drive loyalty, and grow their player base without adding development overhead.
“Welcoming Ludo to the Xsolla family strengthens our push to give mobile game developers accessible, innovative tools,” said Chris Hewish, Chief Strategy Officer at Xsolla. “With an expanded Xsolla Rewards ecosystem, we’re adding loyalty and questing features that turn player engagement into lasting growth for games and their communities. The integration empowers developers to create dynamic quests that reward players for in-game purchases, social participation, and community-building actions such as joining a Discord channel or engaging on social networks. This opens up new avenues for re-engagement, loyalty, and increased conversion, all without requiring additional development resources or burdens on game developers.”
“Player loyalty is shaped the moment or even before the game begins; a dynamic questing system rekindles that spark every day, turning fleeting engagement into a sustainable, ever-growing community,” said Renee Russo, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ludo.
“By adding advanced community quests and rewards at checkout, developers can nurture their communities, raise conversion rates, and protect margins,” said Annie Reardon, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Ludo. “Xsolla remains at the forefront of game commerce, and we’re thrilled to team up – blending rich out-of-game experiences with steady, player-driven growth to drive user acquisition and incremental revenue opportunities for games around the globe.”
In the coming months, Xsolla will continue rolling out tools and integrations built on Ludo’s capabilities, simplifying implementation and providing developers with actionable, data-driven insights. The goal is to give developers of all sizes the ability to grow their games, increase lifetime player value, and build vibrant, engaged communities.
For more information or to begin integrating Ludo, please visit: xsolla.pro/ludo
About Xsolla
Xsolla is a leading global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue, and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in London, Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Raleigh, Tokyo, Montreal, and cities around the world.
For more information, visit xsolla.com
(Graphic: Xsolla)
(Graphic: Xsolla)
A tense calm hangs over Venezuela after the U.S. military operation that deposed President Nicolás Maduro, who was brought to New York to face criminal charges.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. would “run” the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Maduro and his wife landed late Saturday afternoon at a small airport in New York. The couple face U.S. charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
The dramatic action capped an intensive Trump administration pressure campaign on Venezuela’s autocratic leader and months of secret planning, resulting in the most assertive American action to achieve regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Legal experts raised questions about the lawfulness of the operation, which was done without congressional approval. Venezuela’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, demanded that the United States free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader as her nation’s high court named her interim president.
Here's the latest:
Associated Press video on Sunday shows a banner now on display in Iran’s capital warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take action in the country.
Trump’s recent comment that the U.S. “will come to their rescue” if Iran kills peaceful protesters has taken on a new meaning after the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said adversaries of the U.S. should note that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”
From California to Missouri and Texas, protestors are planning demonstrations Sunday and through the week against President Donald Trump’s military operation and capture of Maduro, which one protest description called “the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Venezuela.”
Dozens appear to be organized by chapters of Indivisible, a left-leaning group, and many take umbrage with Trump’s plans to take control of Venezuela’s oil industry and ask American companies to revitalize it.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa who serves as Senate president pro tempore, posted on X Saturday that Maduro is a narco-terrorist and his drug trafficking resulted in the deaths of too many Americans. He likened the Trump operation to then-President George Bush’s decision in 1989 to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega following his indictment for drug trafficking.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat and one of President Donald Trump’s most outspoken critics, posted that U.S. military action in Venezuela is unconstitutional and is putting troops in harm’s way with no long-term strategy. “The American people deserve a President focused on making their lives more affordable,” Pritzker wrote.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, posted a statement on X calling the strikes illegal and criticizing Trump for taking action without congressional approval. “The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources,” she wrote.
France’s foreign minister says the departure of President Nicolás Maduro “is good news for the Venezuelans” and called for a peaceful and democratic transition of power.
Jean-Noël Barrot said “Maduro was an unscrupulous dictator who confiscated Venezuelans’ freedom and stole their elections.”
“Then, yes, we pointed out that the method used infringes the principles of international law,” Barrot said about the U.S. military operation on France 2 national television.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, called Maduro “a horrible, horrible person” but added, “You don’t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that’s what’s happened.”
“We have learned through the years that, when America tries to regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and results,” Schumer told ABC’s “This Week.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says President Donald Trump’s conversations with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez now are ”very matter-of-fact and very clear: You can lead or you can get out of the way, because we’re not going to allow you to continue to subvert American influence and our need to have a free country like Venezuela to work with rather than to have dictators in place who perpetuate crimes and drug trafficking.”
Noem tells “Fox News Sunday” that the United States wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” when it comes to stopping drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country.”
She says that “we’re looking for a leader that will stand up beside us and embrace those freedoms and liberties for the Venezuelan people but also ensure that they’re not perpetuating crimes around the globe like they’ve had in the past.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to back off Trump’s assertions that the U.S. was running Venezuela, insisting instead that Washington will use control of the South American country’s oil industry to force policy changes and, “We expect that it’s going to lead to results here.”
“We’re hopeful, hopeful, that it does positive results for the people for Venezuela,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week.” “But, ultimately, most importantly, in the national interest of the United States.”
Asked about Trump suggesting that Rubio would be among the U.S. officials helping to run Venezuela, Rubio offered no details but said, “I’m obviously very intricately involved in the policy” going forward.
He said of Venezuela’s interim leader: “We don’t believe this regime in place is legitimate” because the country never held free and fair elections.
Venezuela’s capital Caracas was unusually quiet Sunday with few vehicles moving around. Convenience stores, gas stations and other businesses were mostly closed.
The presence of police and members of the military across the city was notable for its smaller size compared with an average day and even more so with the days when people protested against Maduro’s government in previous years.
Meanwhile, soldiers attempted to clear an area of an air base that had been on fire along with at least three passenger buses following Saturday’s U.S. attack.
The Brooklyn jail holding Nicolás Maduro is a facility so troubled that some judges have refused to send people there even as it has housed such famous inmates as music stars R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Opened in the early 1990s, the Metropolitan Detention Center, or MDC Brooklyn, currently houses about 1,300 inmates.
It’s the routine landing spot for people awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, holding alleged gangsters and drug traffickers alongside some people accused of white collar crimes.
Maduro is not the first president of a country to be locked up there.
Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, was imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn while he was on trial for trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine into the U.S. Hernández was pardoned and freed by President Donald Trump in December.
▶ Read more about MDC Brooklyn
Residents look at a damaged apartment complex that neighbors say was hit during U.S. strikes to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A soldier stands atop an armored vehicle driving toward Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Shoppers line up at a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
