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
Super Smash Brawl Stars
Brawl Stars becomes first new mobile game to break into top 10 worldwide revenue chart since June 2018
Fighter has generated $110 million in two months
Job Losses
Huge layoffs strike staff at Australian studio EA Firemonkeys
As many as 50 staff could be affected
International
Chinese publisher East2West opens its USA branch in San Francisco
"Our current lineup, which will be announced shortly, is already impressive"
Tencent Rules
Tencent brings in new broadcasting rules to police hurtful content across its products
These updates prohibit discussions or behaviour that could cause offence to the company’s home market of China
Job Losses
Razer lays off 30 staff as mobile future is put in doubt
Rumours suggest Razer Phone 3 cancelled
Yes It Actually Folds
Samsung unveils first foldable phone Galaxy Fold
Unity also shown for new Galaxy S10
Redo
An underwhelming Q3 sees Square Enix streamline its business units
11 reduced to four, won’t result in any workforce reduction
$$$
Report: Tencent's 2018 was the firm's best ever for investments
122 of the 700-plus companies the Chinese tech and entertainment giant has invested in worth over $1bn
Game Freeze
China blocks new game approvals again as it strives to clear extensive backlog
As many as 5,000 games could be awaiting the greenlight
Rip Ps Vita
PlayStation Vita shipments to end soon in Japan confirming end for handheld
Vita Island is no more
Acquisition Strike
Japanese developer Mixi partners with XTech to accelerate M&A plans
Partnership could see expenditure of up to $271 million
Nexon-marble
Netmarble on Nexon acquisition: "With some leverage we could do the funding ourselves"
Been execs remain coy on exactly how a deal might be structured
Financials
Netmarble profit tumbles 72% year-on-year in Q4 due to slowing sales and lack of new releases
Publisher appears to be struggling to fill the hole from fading Lineage 2 and Harry Potter revenue