Start your week right, with our quick take on the stories that are impacting the mobile industry right now.
To help get you primed and ready for another week in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the last seven days.
1) New release roundup: Our weekly pick of the best new mobile games
In the .biz realm, our news is often centred around investments, deals and stats of the gaming world, but it’s important to highlight the games themselves too. They are, after all, the fruits of the labour that can only appear after years of research, funding and, of course, development.
With multiple ports from Switch to mobile, puzzle games galore and a new release from Dragon City creator Socialpoint, last week had no shortage of exciting games to play.
2) Monster Hunter Now set to be Niantic’s third biggest game with $14 million in first month revenue
Niantic launched Monster Hunter Now on September 14 and generated five million downloads in its first week alone, making it Niantic’s fourth-largest launch to date. Now is also its fourth highest-grossing game with approximately $14 million during that period - and is poised to overtake Pikmin Bloom’s $20 million in lifetime revenue to become the third highest-grossing Niantic game.
The game has proven to be particularly successful on the iOS market with around $12 million in revenue. In contrast, Google Play has seen the game generate around $2 million.
3) Epic Games lays off 800+ staff: CEO Tim Sweeney expects "degradation in quality"
After Fortnite creator Epic Games laid off more than 800 members of staff, representing 16% of the company’s workforce, CEO Tim Sweeney acknowledged that Epic has been spending "way more money than we earn".
Finances have supposedly stabilised thanks to the layoffs, but in discussing the company’s next course of action, Sweeney also admitted that "a degradation in quality" of certain games should be expected.
4) MoreFun's Hanjin Zhang on the success and future of Arena Breakout
Arena Breakout launched on July 14 2023 and in the short time since its release the title has already seen massive success, surpassing 80 million users. The game is currently in its first season, with a second in sight.
In light of this success, we caught up with MoreFun Studios president Hanjin Zhang to discuss the ambition and creation of Arena Breakout, in addition to what comes next for the widely popular mobile hit.
5) Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile delayed once again
Among the announcements covered during the annual Call of Duty Next event, Activision Blizzard showed off a new trailer for the hotly anticipated Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile and revealed that the game has been delayed once again, this time to Spring 2024.
The game was originally announced in September 2022 as the second mobile title in the Call of Duty franchise, and while the title won’t offer crossplay, it will offer cross-progression, giving gamers who already play the title on PC or console a head start when it finally launches.
