Hot Five

Family Guy's quest for cash, Windows Phone outsells iOS, and why Rovio's new publishing label is a 'magical place'

Last week's top five stories

Family Guy's quest for cash, Windows Phone outsells iOS, and why Rovio's new publishing label is a 'magical place'

Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping the advertisers happy by serving up page views.

Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.

Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.

Handy for you, each headline in the list also allows you to click through to the article in full, so you can make sure you've not missed out on any of last week's big stories.


Click here to view the list »
  • 5 Firing blanks: Is there any hope for the FPS on mobile?

    Firing blanks: Is there any hope for the FPS on mobile? logo

    What was the last great mobile FPS you played? Okay, you don't have to answer that, it was a trick question.

    After all, we all know that - thanks to god-awful touch controls - a truly brilliant mobile FPS is a tricky proposition at the best of times.

    Still, dreams can come true, which is why we asked our all-powerful, all-knowing Mobile Mavens whether or not there's any hope for the FPS on mobile.

    Unsurprisingly, opinions were divided. 


  • 4 Player to player economies: Why mobile needs to do it, and how Hay Day did it badly

    Player to player economies: Why mobile needs to do it, and how Hay Day did it badly logo

    When Vili Lehdonvirta of the University of Oxford suggested that mobile extraordinaire Supercell had made a mistake within one of its games, it, quite rightly, turned a few heads.

    During his talk at a recent F2P summit in London, Lehdonvirta explained that developers should be looking to include a player to player economy in their games, before pointing to Supercell's Hay Day as an example of how not to implement the system.

    "In Hay Day, you have a road side shop where you can sell your produce to other players," said Lehdonvirta.

    "But what's happened is, because the UI doesn't facilitate exchanging goods for goods directly, unofficial trading forums have sprung up where people request goods, friend each other, and then use a strange signalling system.

    "This is how not to do it."


  • 3 Did Family Guy's quest for cash push it to the top of the charts?

    Did Family Guy's quest for cash push it to the top of the charts? logo

    What happens when you take a major cartoon franchise and turn it into a F2P mobile game?

    Well, The Simpsons: Tapped Out already answered that question, which is exactly why Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff wants a slice of that lucrative F2P pie.

    Unfortunately, Family Guy is a little late to the party - a few years to late to be exact - which means that it'll need to perform a minor miracle if it hopes to complete, and eventually catch up with its Springfield-based predecessor.


  • 2 The 24 countries where Windows Phone is outselling iOS

    The 24 countries where Windows Phone is outselling iOS logo

    Windows Phone has come on leaps and bounds since it first launched in 2010, and even though the platform has failed to meet the targets set by some of the industry's more optimistic analysts, the IDC has revealed that it's actually outperforming iOS in some markets.

    According to the IDC, Microsoft's tiled operating system is now outperforming iOS in 24 countries, including the likes of Finland, Poland, India, and Mexico.

    Mobile payments expert Fortumo also unveiled an infographic which shows exactly where Windows Phone is doing better than iOS.

    You should probably go and feast your eyes on it.


  • 1 "LVL11 is a kind of magical place": Jami Laes talks Rovio's new publishing label

    "LVL11 is a kind of magical place": Jami Laes talks Rovio's new publishing label logo

    There aren't many indie outfits that make the journey from revered developer to successful publisher, but Angry Birds creator Rovio is focused on becoming one of them.

    As well as publishing indie games under its Rovio Stars banner, the company will now also look to step into the unknown by launching another publishing arm in the form of  LVL11.

    Naturally, we wanted to find out more about what LVL11 means to Rovio, so we spoke to the firms EVP of global games operations, Jami Laes, to get some answers.

    "LVL11 for us is kind of a magical place. We actually had a place called LVL11 where there was a lot of collaboration involved with lots of different people, from different walks of life," explained Laes.

    "We wanted to take part of our heritage, and part of cultural influences, and take it to - pun-intended, by way of Spinal Tap - LVL11.

    "[We want to] show the world the new and experimental things that we've been working on internally, and start publishing games."


What do you call someone who has an unhealthy obsession with video games and Sean Bean? That'd be a 'Chris Kerr'. Chris is one of those deluded souls who actually believes that one day Sean Bean will survive a movie. Poor guy.