The Asia market has become the most lucrative and influential region in the global mobile games industry.
Companies in countries such as Japan, South Korea and China are highly successful at home and are increasingly expanding around the world through global game releases, international partnerships and M&A. These markets also offer lucrative opportunities for Western publishers.
To give you a deeper insight into this key region, each week we’re rounding up all the news from PocketGamer.biz and around the web. Don't forget to keep up with the news throughout the week on the Asia section of our site.
Got any news leads about the asia market you'd like to share? Email PocketGamer.biz senior editor Craig Chapple at craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk.
You can gain more insights into the Asia markets on the East Meets West track at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle, which takes place on May 13th to 14th.
Dates and venue revealed for Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects is heading straight to Asia this year on July 17th and 18th, bringing with it the usual plethora of insightful sessions and tracks from the industry's top experts, as well as plenty of networking opportunities with key developers, publishers, investors, tech and service providers - whatever you need to scale up your business.
Mobile was monumental in earning Tencent $19 billion in games revenue
Despite last year's China licensing freeze, publishing giant Tencent still saw its mobile business grow - likely thanks to having some titles approved beforehand. It still missed out on potential sales from its PUBG mobile games in the country, however.
NetEase’s LifeAfter passes $125 million in revenue
The Chinese publisher has another hit on its hands with survival title LifeAfter, wasting no time in raking in the cash following its halloween release.
GDC 2019: NetEase takes on Call of Duty Mobile with new shooter Disorder
NetEase is not resting on its laurels, announcing another key new game, this time in the squad-based shooter arena.
GDC 2019: Tencent’s WeChat opens doors for developers to create games on the platform
The chat app gaming landscape expands to another one billion users as Tencent opens up the Mini Games platform to developers.
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle passes $1.6 billion during its best month ever
Bandai Namco isn't messing around when it comes to the Dragon Ball IP. It's had a very lucrative launch with 2018's Dragon Ball Legends, while its older title Dokkan Battle has just had its best month ever.
GDC 2019: Nindies Showcase reveals Cuphead, Blaster Master sequel and Zelda spinoff
Nintendo is carving out a key market on the Nintendo Switch for indies to get noticed and make money as it continues to struggle to get the top triple-A publishers to release their games on its hardware.
GDC 2019: Unity partners with Tencent to help bring more developers games to China
Much like Unity's cloud partnership with Google in the West, its partnership with Tencent Cloud will support releases in China.
Tencent's Call of Duty expands Westward before King's own in-the-works COD game sees the light of day.
Hit PC mod DOTA Auto Chess is coming to mobile minus the DOTA
The DOTA 2 mod Auto Chess has been a surprise hit on PC, becoming one of the most played games on Steam. The title's developer Drodo has now partnered with publisher Dragonest to bring the game to mobile - though it'll be cutting off DOTA 2 ties for this particular release.
PUBG Mobile banned in several Indian cities
PUBG Mobile has been hugely popular in India, changing the perception of what's possible in mobile gaming in the country. However, with such popularity has come public scrutiny.
Our weekly charts give you the rundown of the top games on China's App Store.
