Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Dragon Raja helps Tencent claim top four highest grossing spots in China
Rankings from July 22nd to 28th
Coming To China
Tencent and Nintendo reveal plans to localise Switch games in China
The companies appeared at a conference together in Shanghai
Game Shut Down
Pokemon Duel is shutting down on October 31st
Gems can still be spent but can no longer be purchased
Hyper-casual
Voodoo’s ad monetisation and the recipe for hyper-casual success
Thanks to the Mintegral-led campaigns, the ad fill rate for Voodoo’s titles increased from 30 per cent to a high of 75 per cent
East Meets West
East Meets West: Tencent and ByteDance get in the smartphone game, and India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Going 5g
Tencent and Qualcomm team up to work on various mobile technologies
Other projects include the Qualcomm Snapdragon elite gaming enhancements
Event
One week left to save up to $310 on Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Super Early Bird prices for November’s two-day mobile B2B games industry conference ends next week.
New Company
Bandai Namco opens new mobile games-focused branch in Barcelona
The new company will open its doors in 2020
Event
Tamatem, Zynga, Triple Dragon and iDreamSky feature in first wave of speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Speaker lineup for the two day B2B games industry conference begins to take shape
Partnership
My.Games partners with iDreamSky for mutual global expansion
“For us, this deal represents a valuable opportunity to engage with players in the Asian market”
Sensor Tower
India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2 2019 with 5.4 billion
13 per cent increase from Q1 2019
Frenemies
Epic Games “one of our best partners” says PUBG Corp
“We talk all the time”
Bytephone
TikTok owner Bytedance confirms plans to develop a smartphone
Rumours about a Bytedance phone circulated back in May
$$$
Sega Sammy Holdings sees a 246.6 per cent increase in operating income this quarter
Games, animation and arcade continue to be the company’s biggest earner
New Tech
Appier launches new marketing solution to re-engage mobile gamers
“Aictivate is powered by Appier’s tried and tested AI, helping gaming companies recoup lost revenue”
Mobile Up
Nintendo Switch sales continue to be strong as hardware reaches 36.87 million
Software builds to 210.13 million with Mario Maker 2 selling 2.42 in three days
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs as firm is struck with class action lawsuit
“We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly”
Be Connected Be Discovered
Facebook tops mobile app publishers worldwide for Q2 2019
Google dominates the App Store however
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Game for Peace reclaims top spot from Honor of Kings in China
Rankings from July 15th to 21st
East Meets West
East Meets West: Supercell pulls out of Vietnam, Pokemon partners with Tencent and Animoca Brands is making an Addams Family game
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger, Zynga taps classic major IP and whatever happened to Wizards Unite?
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Toys Means Toys
Bandai Namco’s new Tori platform merges physical toys with mobile gaming
Use of physical objects will control the virtual world
Licensing Deal
Animoca Brands’ Pixowl is making an Addams Family mobile game
Mystery Mansion will be based on the upcoming animated film
Flying High
Thatgamecompany’s Sky soars past one million downloads
Title estimated to have generated $175,000
Switch China
Tencent and Nintendo to host joint Switch press conference in China
Press event will take place in Shanghai on August 2nd
Hyper-casual In China
Google, Voodoo, JoyPac and more to speak at hyper-casual games summit in Shanghai on August 1st
Google, Voodoo, JoyPac, App Annie and Tenjin to speak at seminar
New Studio
NetEase opens Montreal studio
CEO says city offers “clear advantages and favourable conditions” for international games companies
Pocket Gamer Connects
First Pocket Gamer and Blockchain Gamer Connects Hong Kong wows the crowds of more than 750 delegates from 45 countries
390 companies joined the event in total
Subscription Service
Tencent invests in retro games streaming platform Antstream Arcade
Terms of Series A funding round were undisclosed
I Choose You
The Pokemon Company partners with Tencent on new games
PUBG: Full Ahead studio Timi will develop a new title
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle strikes up US top grossing spot
Rankings from July 8th to 14th
Deja Moo
Zynga taps classic major IP for newly soft-launched FarmVille 3 - Animals
Farming simulator has made its way to Android in the Philippines and Thailand
Regulatory Brawl
Supercell pulls games out of Vietnam in face of regulations
Likes of Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars no longer playable in the country
East Meets West
East Meets West: WeGame mobile streaming, NetEase acquires minority stake in Behaviour, and why Tencent is helping publish Drodo Auto Chess
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Medically Sound
Dr. Mario World encapsulates five million downloads in first week
Half a million dollars generated from player spending
Moving Location
Zynga India moves to new studio in Bangalore
Developer currently hiring for multiple roles
Douyu Ipo
Chinese live-streaming platform DouYu launches $775 million IPO
The IPO was announced back in April but was halted a week later
Kyoto Drift
Nintendo Switch owners are suffering Joy-Con drift issues
This follows Joy-Con desyncing fault near consoles launch
Auto Success?
Why Dragonest partnered up with Tencent to publish Drodo Auto Chess in China
"A good product needs to be known by as many people as possible"
Switching Up
Nintendo unveils new Switch model with longer battery life
Offers up to nine hours of portable play
$$$
Detective Pikachu becomes highest grossing video game film
Warcraft drops from top spot after the Pokemon movie generates $436m at the box office
Join Us
Come and meet China's top publishing companies at our free mini-summit in Cologne
Get important insights from the people on the ground at our event on Tuesday, August 20th
Ongoing Partnership
Snap and Baidu renew sales partnership to continue reach in Asia
“Our partnership with Snap Inc. provides Chinese companies new avenues to expand their businesses through Snapchat advertising”
Investment Round
Indian ed-tech firm Byju's raises $150m
Funding is said to value the company at around $5.5 billion
Fighting Poverty
China looks to mobile game in bid to eradicate poverty
Title lets users sell in-game goods to earn discount credits on real food
Linked In
Tencent launches Steam Link-like mobile streaming app for WeGame
Users can stream PC games to their smartphones over Wi-Fi
Global Advertising
The top global game advertisers in the US, Japan and South Korea for June 2019
SocialPeta data shows which games are generating the highest number of ad impressions
Strategic Investment
NetEase acquires minority stake Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour
Influence of Chinese companies increases at Canadian firm following last year's deal with GAEA
Nfts
PGC Hong Kong: WAX strategic advisor Malcolm Caselle to host talk on the purpose of digital goods and NFTs
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong 2019 will take place on July 17th to 18th
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Honor of Kings is only the third top grosser in China as it faces a new challenger
Rankings from July 1st to July 7th