War
Pixonic’s War Robots racks up $190m in revenue
The third-person shooter originally launched back in April 2014
Time Out
Tencent's relationship with Riot strained over differences on mobile gaming
Riots declining playerbase also a point of contention
Nice
PUBG Mobile has made $50 million in revenue
The battle royale received a shot in the arm following the introduction of the Royale Pass
Winner Winner Chicken Salad
Tencent soft-launches PUBG Lite in the Philippines on Android
Just a lite update for you
Get Online
Nintendo Switch Online will arrive in the second half of September
Long-delayed online subscription services pegged for the end of next month
Field Trip
Indian learning platform Quizizz raises over $3 million in funding
Homework gamification app has amassed over 10 million active users
Fine Catch
Pokemon Quest captures $8 million in revenue from mobile after one month
The RPG has proved most popular in Japan followed closely by the US
Oh No
Netmarble shares plummet to all-time low as Lineage 2 popularity fades
Shares dropped 11.27 per cent on August 9th to close at 126,000 won
Banned
No end in sight as South Korean games companies locked out of China for over a year
No signs of issues being resolved
Chinese Exports
Chinese games raked in more than $600 million in the US for the first half of 2018 alone
The haul was a 52 per cent increase year-on-year
Games Suspended
China hasn't approved any new mobile games since March 28th
Market sees single-digit growth in first half of the year, the slowest since at least 2009
Financials
Square Enix profits drop after three months with no new games and new mobile titles fail to perform
Three-month financial results show a slow quarter for the Japanese publisher
Diverse
Mobile diversification strategy helps drive NetEase to $2.5 billion revenue for 2Q18
Horror game Identity V and battle royale title Knives Out were namechecked specifically
Not Too Shabby
Nexon’s MapleStory M hits five million downloads globally in two weeks
The side-scrolling adventure game originally hit three million within its first week
Mobile Awards
One week left for International Mobile Gaming Awards Southeast Asia submissions
Deadline is August 15th
Don’t You Mean Football?
Sociable Soccer dev Tower Studios snags China publishing deal with China Mobile
Arcade football game is will land in China first and is pencilled in for launch in Autumn 2018
Decline Continues
GungHo revenue and profits fall again as publisher struggles to replace Puzzle & Dragons
New release Yo-Kai Watch World surpasses one million downloads
Take To The Seas
Pirate Code walks away as the second Big Indie Pitch in China winner
Big Ear takes second while Hexland Heroes walks away in third
Who Are Ya
Bandai Namco soft-launches Doctor Who collectible card game on Android
The collectible card game is currently available in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Thailand
Billions
Lineage 2 Revolution follows Lineage M in breaking $1 billion barrier
Still making $30 million a day 20 months on
Mobile Mixer
G-STAR, NetEase, Gamevil and iDreamSky to discuss key Asia trends at Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer panel at Gamescom
Mix with industry bigwigs in Cologne
Take Three
Kakao Games makes a third $16.8 million investment in esports developer Neptune
The South Korean company now holds an 11 per cent stake in Neptune
Well Traveled
Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler hits one million copies sold worldwide
The turn-based RPG hit the Nintendo Switch eShop three weeks ago
Duty Calls
Activision working with Tencent on new Call of Duty mobile game for China
Collaboration confirms a free-to-play mobile entry in the long-running first-person-shooter franchise
Winner
South Korea takes home $200,000 Prize from inaugural Arena of Valor World Cup
The event was held at the TCL Chinese Theatre and had a total prize pool of $550,000
Fired Up
Fire Emblem Heroes fires up $400m in worldwide revenue
The RPG launched just under 18 months ago and has proven to be Nintendo’s most popular outing on mobile
New Marketing Tools
Facebook reveals new UA tools as it claims 50% of all app revenue will come from ads by 2021
Social network reveals playables, retention optimisation and value optimisation solutions at ChinaJoy
New Horizons
Shop Heroes dev Cloudcade opens games studio in Pakistan
Shop Heroes developer plans to invest in Pakistan as a new technology hub through the new location
Watch Out
Sony's multi-billion dollar mobile hit Fate/Grand Order snags two films and a spin-off anime series
Type-moon’s mobile RPG is getting tie-ins to explore its Babylonia and Camelot storylines
Downloads Story
MapleStory M racks up three million in one week after global launch and is a US top 100 grosser
A top grossing game in 29 countries including the US
Report
Nintendo Switch nears 20 million sales
Earnings report for the Japanese publisher shows a strong start to the year, with $1.5b in overall revenue so far
Crazy Financials
Animoca Brands posts record $6m revenue for Q2 2018
Profits come in at $193,000
Market Dominance
Is the dominance of Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu stifling creativity and innovation in China?
AppBi looks into the data
Financials
Capcom delivers record $35m profits despite mobile decline
Revenue jumps to $155 million for the three months ending June 30th 2018
Funding Round
Japanese studio Bank of Innovation floats on Tokyo Stock Exchange
Mobile RPG developer ends first day with $77 million market cap
Brand Power
The curious tale of how Lineage’s mobile releases shook up (and didn’t) South Korean gaming
Shots of adrenalin
Not So Improbable
NetEase invests $50m in UK tech company Improbable
Ties between Chinese publisher and SpatialOS developer deepen following partnership announced back in February
Deal
Beijing Bosi Interactive secures exclusive $740k deal with Animoca Brands to distribute Crazy Kings in China
BBI wins rights to distribute Android and HTML5 ports of the iOS strategy title, due next year
Xhance
Xhance reinvents game data analytics and performance with blockchain
Control your game-analytics with Adrealm’s mobile data attribution platform Xhance is decentralised, open-sourced and revolutionary
Come Say Hello
Meet the PocketGamer.biz team at ChinaJoy 2018
We'll also discuss opportunities on PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockchainGamer.biz
Korean Market
Your G-STAR guide to entering Asia's biggest games market
Exclusive interview: the chairman of the G-STAR organising committee explains the importance of understanding the South Korean games industry
Indie View
The Big Indie Pitch interviews: What does it take to make a game all about esports?
Agate talks creating a title all about competitive gaming
Punch Up
Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle amasses over $1 billion in revenue over two years
Bandai Namco continue to find success with the Dragon Ball license
Tree Time
Side-scrolling MMORPG MapleStory M launches worldwide
Nexon celebrates the mobile edition’s launch with a fortnight of in-game rewards
Right Track
Public transport puzzler Mini Metro has sold over a million units
Minimalist metro manager will also be added to Boston Children’s Hospital’s Mightier program
Machine Learning
Keywords snaps up predictive analytics outfit Yokozuna Data from Silicon Studio in $1.5m deal
Draws on AI and machine learning tech
Legendary
Moonton’s popular MOBA Mobile Legends plunders $200m in global revenues
$25 million of that comes from the US
Caught In The Act
Alleged stalker arrested by police claims he was just playing Pokemon Go
Report suggests man has a history of stalking the same woman
Big Deal
China’s iQIYI acquires developer Skymoons in deal worth up to $300 million
Online video platform hopes to utilise IP across mediums
Event
Big Indie Pitch heads to ChinaJoy
International game developer competition returns to China this August