Fight
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle passes $1.6 billion during its best month ever
Dokkan Battle beats its previous record by hitting $78.6 million in one month
Another Zelda
GDC 2019: Nindies Showcase reveals Cuphead, Blaster Master sequel and Zelda spinoff
New Double Fine game Rad given spotlight too
Gather Around
GDC 2019: Google reveals cloud streaming platform Stadia
Ubisoft, ID Software and Unity all partner with the firm.
Cloud Tech
GDC 2019: Unity partners with Tencent to help bring more developers games to China
The service will become accessible later this year.
Call Of Duty
GDC 2019: Activision partners with Tencent for Call of Duty Mobile set for release in Western markets
Pre-registrations open on Google Play
Indies Time To Shine
Nintendo streaming Nindies Showcase this Wednesday
30 minutes of content
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent's Perfect World debuts top in China while Dragon Ball Z falls
Charts from March 4th to March 10th
Rich As A King
Honor of Kings has made $4.5 billion since launch
295 million installs to date
Mobile Auto Chess
Hit PC mod DOTA Auto Chess is coming to mobile minus the DOTA
Mobile game will be called 'Auto Chess' and will drop DOTA 2 characters
Real World Gaming
Lessons from a year of location-based games with Google Maps
Real world gaming said to drive engagement; most successful when integrated with AR and social elements
Firing Line
PUBG Mobile banned in several Indian cities
Ban will be in place until March 30th, 2019.
Spend
Sony's Fate/Grand Order hits $3 billion in player spending
Sensor Tower suggests Fate/Grand Order could be one of Sony's all-time gaming highs
Quarter Mile At A Time
Indie Spotlight: SMG Studio on going from Flash to Fast and Furious
"Know if you want to make games or run a business because sometimes the business side can get in the way of making games."
Ranked
Tencent and NetEase top App Annie's Top 52 app publishers list for 2018 as APAC companies dominate
33 of the top 52 companies hail from APAC
China
Tencent starts the road to recovery after a rocky 2018 with a $40 billion boost in share value
The publisher’s share value has already grown 10 per cent in 2019 so far
Expansion
Animoca Brands agrees $8.9m deal to resell iClick advertising inventory
“This deal with Vigame is an important first step in our broader partnership with iClick”
Ad Tech
How live user comments for in-game mobile ads are boosting developer revenues
AdTiming explains the benefits of its Creative Timing and AdMuing tools
Esports
Konami's new high-rise esports centre wants to bring Japan's competitive gaming scene up to par
"Compared to esports pioneers America and Europe, Japan has still a long way to go"
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Florence composer Kevin Penkin on how to get a job creating music for games
"Music isn’t black magic! It’s just like any other craft where it takes hours and hours of (sometimes) pain-staking work to get what you want to say just right"
Licensing Royale
NetEase gets the jump on Fortnite and Tencent as FortCraft is approved for China launch
95 games receive licence for release
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: MZ's Final Fantasy XV and IGG's Lords Mobile edge into the US top 10 grossing positions
Charts from February 25th to March 3rd
Say What?
Tencent’s Honor of Kings generated more than $1 billion in February alone
Version 2.0 sparks huge boost in earnings for the mobile MOBA
Asia Roundup
East Meets West: The battle to acquire Nexon heats up, and Nintendo is wary of looking greedy on mobile
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Women In Games
Yokozuna Data CEO Africa Perianez on a career in machine learning and a company where half of the engineers and all the data scientists are women
Profiling a few of the industry's stars to celebrate International Women's Day
Ps Go
Sony introduces iPhone and ipad remote play for PS4
Four years after Sony Xperia 73
East To East
How a China partnership turned Steppy Pants into a number one chart topper in Japan
Super Entertainment co-director Stephen Last discusses how a collaboration with Yodo1 produced significant returns
Niantic Used Happy Hour
Pokemon Go trainers have spent $2.45 billion in less than three years
Franchise as a whole on mobile reaches $2.5 billion
Nintendo Cardboard
Nintendo steps into the world of VR with new Labo kit for Switch
Blaster, camera, elephant and more included in new bundle
Keep Your Money
Nintendo urges mobile partners to not focus on player spending
Mario maker does not want to be seen as greedy
Mayday! Mayday!
Framed director and designer Joshua Boggs heads up new studio MayDay
Framed won over 30 awards and accolades
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Playrix's Homescapes resurgent in the US top grossing rankings
Charts from February 18th to 24th
Acquisition Battle
Nexon shortlists five bidders including Kakao and Tencent
Formal bidding process starts in early April
How Many Rupees
Nintendo stats and salary revealed for Japan employees
Tom Nook thankfully not part of the accounting team
Locked Down
Tencent applies digital lock restriction for young Chinese players that requires parental consent to play games
Guardians need to unlock games for kids under the age of 12
Heart Of The Cards
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links summons more than 90 million downloads worldwide
Commemorative in-game campaign held to celebrate milestone
Interview
MapleStory M director on the challenges of bringing a 15-year-old MMORPG to mobile
Nexon's mobile MMO helped drive the Japanese publisher to one of its strongest years yet
Surprise Surprise!
Tencent and Intel partner for Instant Play streaming service
Details are scarce, but we'll likely know more at GDC
Reignited
Com2us launches Skylanders Ring of Heroes worldwide
Available in 120 countries
Tech For Change
Alibaba’s Tech for Change initiative aims to tackle global social and humanitarian challenges
A collaboration with iamtheCODE aims to support one million women coders by 2030
Bidding Battle
Report: EA, Amazon and Comcast all submit acquisition bids for publisher Nexon
New challengers join a growing collection of suitors
Sword And Shield
Pokemon Sword and Shield coming to Nintendo Switch in 2019
Launching worldwide later this year
Stretch Those Shoulders
OliveX raises $1 million to turn getting fit into a game
Funding comes from the likes of Alabaster and Antanas Guoga
Fold Wars
Huawei’s Mate X is a competitive foldable phone to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold
Huawei keen to compete with South-Korean rivals
China
Tencent and NetEase see non-China mobile game revenue soar 500%
China's biggest publishers look abroad as the nation's market remains unpredictable
Playable Demos
Delving under the hood of Synative's Try Now demo tech as it partners with Google Play
Synative gives us the lowdown
Dragalia Won
Dragalia Lost outpaces Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp with $75m lifetime sales
Still a way off of Fire Emblem Heroes
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Matchington Mansion a new US top 10 grosser as Fortnite and Dokkan Battle dominate
Charts from February 11th to 17th
Interview
How hard is it to bring a PC hit like Human: Fall Flat to smartphones anyway?
We speak to 505 Games’ Steve Woodward and Thomas Rosenthal to find out more about the wobbly platformer’s port
East Meets West
12 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019's East Meets West track
Track sponsored by JoyPac
Fiscal
Netease ends 2018 on strong footing with almost $3 billion in Q4 revenue
Lifetime successes and strong newcomers drive Netease to a job well done this year