There Are Dozens Of Us
Pokemon Masters has five million Trainers already pre-registered
Release date tentatively set for August 29th
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Fortnite’s mechs send the battle royale hit to number one in the US
Rankings from July 29th to August 4th
Trump Tariffs
US video game console and mobile tariff delayed until December
“As part of USTR’s public comment and hearing process, it was determined that the tariff should be delayed to December 15 for certain articles”
Perfect Growth
Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile and Perfect World power Tencent's smartphone revenue to $3.2bn in Q2
Overall online games business grew eight per cent to $3.9bn
Hard Pill To Swallow
Dr. Mario World’s first month revenue is Nintendo’s lowest on mobile to date
$1.4 million in revenue places the puzzler last out of all five major releases
Jaffajam
New Zealand hyper-casual start-up JaffaJam wants to shake up the sector
Studio soft-launches new title Mountain Madness built on its own BubbleGum toolset
Os Wars
Huawei unveils new Android rival HarmonyOS
The announcement comes amidst US trade war that has seen smartphone manufacturer banned from working with US firms without government approval
East Meets West
East Meets West: US to overtake China as world's most lucrative games market, and PUBG Mobile makes more than Fortnite
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Company Acquired
Animoca Brands acquires digital marketplace Quidd for up to $8 million
$8 million was raised in strategic capital funds
Winner Winner
Sensor Tower: PUBG Mobile is making more money than Fortnite
July saw sales increase by 748 per cent year-on-year
Market Value
The US will overtake China as world’s most lucrative games market this year
Global games market estimated to be worth $152.1 billion by the end of 2019
Event
Take a peek at the first ever Asia Digital Entertainment Summit
Two day event supporting the digital entertainment industry, with companies like Sony, Valve, Activision and more involved.
Loot Boxes
Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will now require developers to disclose loot box odds
Agreement has been made for odds to be shown by the end of 2020
Event
Last chance to save up to $310 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan 2019
Super Early Bird ticket prices end tonight at midnight for November’s two-day B2B games industry conference
Closing Doors
Square Enix shutting down Star Ocean Mobile
Less than two years into game being available worldwide
Financials
Animoca Brands posts highest revenue quarter in company’s history
Company took $5.8million in sales during Q2 2019
Esports Park
NetEase plots $725 million esports park investment in Shanghai
The facilities will be located in Shanghai
New Partnerships
Tencent Cloud chases new partners in South Korea and Southeast Asia as it plots international growth
The division has set a goal for five-fold international revenue growth
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