I Want To Be The Very Best
Pokemon Quest catches $3million in revenues during first week on mobile
The cubed up adventure also snagged 3.5 million downloads
Quizzed
Indian publisher Nazara acquires minority stake in quiz studio Crimzoncode
Partnership will see Nazara publish the studio’s flagship quiz title in emerging markets
Skip, Jump
Super Mario Run leaps past $60 million worldwide revenue
American players account for nearly half of the revenue brought in since launching in 2016
Chicken Dinner
Say hello to China’s biggest mobile gaming export so far - battle royale
Goodbye matching coloured candy, hello machine guns, silly hats and shrinking maps
Click
Nintendo Switch is played docked about as often as undocked
Individual games more likely to skew one way or the other
Korean Event
Early Bird registration opens for South Korea’s G-STAR 2018
10% off tickets to the major Asian show taking place November 15th to 18th in Busan
Accelerate
Google opens applications for its Indie Games Accelerator in Asia
Four-month program open for Indian and Southeast Asian games developers
Job Klaxon
Animoca Brands signs up former Rovio EVP of games Wilhelm Taht for strategic advisor role
Taht also holds positions at Nitro Games, Dodreams and Remedy
Watch Out
Yo-Kai Watch World hopes to capture Pokemon Go-like success with Japan launch
GungHo works with Level-5 to location-based AR title
Switch Up
Nintendo Europe names new CEO as Shibata leaves role after 18 years
Satoru Shibata will head back to Japan to take up a new position
Why Not
Rovio opens Angry Birds World amusement park in Qatar
It’s called Angry Birds World, of course
Squared Away
Pokemon Quest lands on the iOS App Store and Google Play
The adventure RPG game has already caught 2.5 million downloads on the Nintendo Switch
Free No More
The Sims: Freeplay banned in seven countries due to “regional standards”
The Sims: Freeplay will be banned in China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt come July 5th.
Worldwide
GungHo banks on colourful chaos to go big with Nintendo Switch release Ninjala
Japanese developer hopes the wider appeal will help the game land on a global scale
Heading For Ipo
King of Fighters creator SNK and RPG dev Vespa set for South Korea flotations
Vespa joins the Japanese giant in going public in 2018
Going Public
Xiaomi heads for $6bn Hong Kong IPO but shelves mainland China listing
Smartphone manufacturer rolls back reported plans to raise $10 billion
Arrr
Nintendo bans Switch consoles with pirated games
Reddit post warns against pirating games to the handheld
Winner
Report: PUBG developer Bluehole snaps up mobile studio Delusion Studio
The terms of the deal are currently unknown
Catch Em All
Pokémon Quest snags 2.5 million downloads on Nintendo Switch
The RPG is also set to launch on mobile on June 27th
Fine Lineage
Lineage M breaks $1.2 billion in revenue a year after release
The popular MMO is also aiming for a global release
Mighty
Singapore dev Mighty Bear Games fetches several million dollars in seed funding round
Developer founded by King, Ubisoft, Jagex and Disney alumni
Event Report
First Chinese mobile internet global traffic exchange expo welcomes over 1,500 attendees
GTE 2018, hosted by Beluga Global, just launched in Beijing to great success
Switch It Over
Nintendo and Disney team up to put Switch on the telly
Two entertainment giants collaborate to create a game show based on the popular console
Gaming Disorder
Gaming Disorder included in WHO’s latest draft of International Compendium of Diseases
Members of WHO aren’t expected to report using the ICD-11 until 2022
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Brad Erkkila on Castle Pals and bringing a background of visual design to mobile
"As long as I can live pretty well and I can make the games I want to make, I consider that success."
Research
Middle East player habits: More Saudi women gaming on the go than men
Surveys show a region saturated with mobile gamers young and old
Partner Up
War Robots developer Pixonic enters China’s Android market with iDreamsky
Director of business development Mike Fei discusses the publisher's distribution model
Eve
Eve: War of Ascension mobile game enters soft launch in the Philippines
The Eve title is available on Android
Awards
The third IMGA Southeast Asia competition opens calls for submissions
Submissions for mobile game studios close on July 30th
Downloads Milestone
BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! English version racks up one million downloads
Milestone celebrated by series of in-game events
Virtual Gaming Only
Com2us reveals Skylanders Ring of Heroes mobile game but appears to ditch toys-to-life aspect
But appears to lack toys-to-life
M&a
Tencent-backed Chinese developer Seasun eyes Western partnerships
JX Online studio set to wrap up US investment
Winner Winner
Report: Tencent set to acquire 10% of PUBG developer Bluehole for $500 million
Sale is not intended to raise capital for Bluehole but instead is a chance for early investors to cash out
Eyes On Korea
Why Seasun and other Chinese developers are expanding their influence over South Korea's mobile market
Seasun Games overseas business development director Zhen Li tells us why Chinese games are so popular in South Korea
Developer Awards
Entries open for The Big Indie Awards at G-STAR
Gala ceremony in South Korea the grand finale to another fantastic year of international Big Indie Pitches
Crazy
Animoca Brands eyes Middle East revenue potential with Crazy Defense Heroes release
An Android version of the game is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018
Data Klaxon
Analysing player behaviour in the Chinese mobile games market
Chinese gamers are also more likely to surpass the world spending average
Top Tips
4 tips for tapping into the South Korean mobile games market
WeQ CEO Markus Malti on cracking one of the world's most lucrative mobile sectors
World Tour
Platinum Games and DENA soft-launch World of Demons in Southeast Asia
The RPG is seen as a spiritual successor to Clover Studio’s Okami
Galactic
CCP Games teams up with NetEase for new Eve Online mobile game
Project Galaxy will drop in 2019 for iOS with Android to come thereafter
Funding News
Australian developer iCandy receives $1 million investment from esports.com
Blockchain and esports firm to take 19.5 per cent stake in studio
Switching It Up
Square Enix sets up new Nintendo Switch games division
More Switch focused titles are on the way from Square Enix
Mobile Game Trends
Philippines snapshot: NetEase's battle royale hit Rules of Survival tops grossing charts
Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad takes a close look at the hottest trends
Killing It
Nintendo Switch takes lion’s share of Bloodstained: Cure of the Moon’s 100,000 downloads
Console/tablet hybrid takes 56 per cent of sales
New Digs
GameAnalytics continues APAC expansion with new office in India
The move is the mobile analytics firms second expansion in the region following an office opening in China in 2016
Tournament
Tencent makes E3 debut, partners with ESL and Razer to host Arena of Valor tournament
The Valor Series playoffs will take place at the E3 ESL Arena from June 12th to 13th in Los Angeles
New Clan
Chinese dev Seasun cracks South Korean market with Clans: Shadow of the Moon
Seasun managed to score a 170 per cent ROI through the Taptica’s targeted app install campaign
New Subsidiary
India’s Nazara taps real-money games market in Kenya
New company NZWorld formed
Competitive Investment
Tencent invests in Chinese esports tournament operator VSPN
Company already runs Honour of Kings and Clash Royale competitions
Destined To Be Partners
Destiny developer Bungie could be set for mobile push following $100m investment from NetEase
US studio could be set to explore the mobile games market