Rip
Sony to cease production of physical PlayStation Vita Games, except in Japan
Creation of games cards to finish by the end of March 2019
One V One Me Bro
Street Fighter characters touch down in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars
Cammy, M. Bison, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Akuma set to join the fray
Netease Financials
NetEase profits tumble 20% in Q1 as Onmyoji and New Ghost lose traction
Battle royale hits Knives Out and Terminator 2: Judgement Day offset lost revenue
God Like
How NadiaSoft plans to mix Eastern and Western influencers for global appeal
The new IP will feature an array of gods and heroes from Greece, China and more
What's Next?
Monster Strike publisher Mixi plots $900m investment in biz dev and M&A over next five years
$100 million earmarked for Monster Strike and new IP development
Tencent Financials
Tencent’s mobile games revenue up 68% to $3.4 billion in Q1 2018
But investors concerned by historically low operating margin
Uninstall Rates
Three out of 10 apps uninstalled after 30 days
But games one of the least likely to be deleted, according to Appsflyer report
Gladiators, Ready
Nintendo and Cygames' Dragalia Lost picks up 200,000 pre-registrations
Game set for summer launch in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
Racing To Mobile
Slightly Mad partners with Gamevil for new Project Cars mobile game
But no release date announced
Power Of Ip
Lineage M spikes NCSoft profits up 570% year-on-year to $189m
But revenues are down quarter-on-quarter as Lineage sales stabilise
Still Going Strong
GungHo’s sales and profits continue to fall amidst Puzzle & Dragons decline
But still hugely profitable
East To West
Chinese livestreaming platform Huya raises $180 million in US IPO
15 million shares sold at $12 each
Going Public
Kakao Games applies for IPO in South Korea
Publisher set to go public on South Korea's second-tier stock exchange Kosdaq
Financial Fantasy
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Hoshi no Dragon Quest help bump Square Enix to profits of $348 million
Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light and Kingdom Hearts Union X also given nods
Take To The Seas
Overseas sales push Com2us to $100m revenues for Q1 FY18
85 per cent of revenues came from abroad as Summoners War continues to draw players
Ouch
Tencent up against worst margins ever as value drops $78 billion
Rising costs and continued investments will strain profits
Financials
Netmarble revenue and profits tumble year-on-year as sales slow
Lineage 2: Revolution takes 35 per cent of revenue share of game sales
Rapid Growth
Chinese mobile games sector set to double to over $24 billion by 2022
Set to surpass PC this year
Down
Revenues and profits down for DENA’s games segment over the past year
Virtual currency consumption for browser titles declined
Oh
Mobile games Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Pro Evo 2018 power Konami to record profits of $413m
Revenues also grew 4.2 per cent year-on-year to $2.19 billion
Rip
Nintendo’s social app Miitomo goes offline two years after launching
The decision to take the app was revealed earlier this year
Mobile Game Trends
Malaysia snapshot: Mobile Legends extends its lead
Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad takes a close look at the hottest trends
Witness The Fitness
Animoca Brands nabs investment to create AI-based exercise app
Animoca Brands’ subsidiary OliveX to lead the development
Not Bad
Top 25 public games companies captured 77% of global games revenues in 2017
Tencent, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard took the top five spots
Tencent... Again
Tencent signs strategic partnership with UK's Department for International Trade
But barely a mention of video games at the event announcing the collaboration
Flip The Switch
Virtual Console unlikely to be coming to Nintendo Switch Online
The games giant also revealed data cloud backup and pricing for Nintendo Switch Online
Mena Expansion
PocketGamer.biz expands with new Arabic-language sister-site PocketGamer.me
Steel Media partners with leading Jordan games publisher Maysalward
Pokemon Goes On Tour
Pokemon Go Summer Tour heads to the US, Germany and Japan
Events will feature a host of interactive adventures and special challenges
Rewarding Creativity
IMGA founder on rewarding creativity and its ambitious plans for 2018
Maarten Noyons discusses hot industry trends and brand new events
Royale Royalty
NetEase recruits Battle Royale film scriptwriter for Knives Out
Kenta Fukasaku to build story and lore for hit mobile game
Streaming Ads
Synative’s HTML5 cloud tech offers a new streamable approach to playable ads
Founder Ken Liu on an interactive way to acquire users
Partner Up
Nintendo could partner up with more developers to make mobile games
"If we find other partners that can bring unique strengths that are not found within Nintendo, then we may work with them as well"
Smart Expansion
Mobile a key driver for Nintendo's growth in Asia and Middle East
Access to IP leads to strong Switch sales, says company president
Ready To Float
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi files for world's biggest IPO since 2014
Could value company at as much as $100 billion
Heroic
Crazy Defence Heroes helps boost Animoca Brands’ revenues to A$3.4 million for 1Q18
The tower defence RPG game brought in A$2.6 million during the quarter
Not Bad
Fate/ Grand Order helps launch Sony Music’s revenue to $7 billion in FY17
The division saw a 24 per cent year on year increase
On The App
Annual consumer app store spend to increase to $157 billion by 2022
Mobile app downloads will also increase to 258 billion by 2022, according to App Annie
Less Mario, More Rpg
How Nintendo plans to create an annual $1 billion mobile games business
Starting over with a clean slate
Formulated
Gumi’s The Alchemist Code racks up five million downloads worldwide
The Japanese mobile games developer is celebrating with special in-game events
Making Of
Hack and slash: The making of MIHOYO's Honkai Impact 3rd
MIHOYO president Forrest Wei Liu breaks down Honkai Impact 3rd's world
Top Tips
8 tips for mobile games publishing success in China
Mobvista lays out some key advice from its ‘Looking East: How to launch mobile games in China 2018’ report
Connect
CyberAgent’s new release Princess Connect! Re:Dive propels games revenues to $368m in Q2 2018
Company credits Princess Connect! Re:Dive for the improved financial performance
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Little Lost Fox's Niamh Fitzgerald on Valleys Between and finding the balance
"Some of my favourite days are ones where I get to focus on game design or technical art"
Big Deal
Tencent eyes investment in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds outfit Bluehole
Local media reports investment could equal around $468 million
On The App
Mobile games revenues to hit $70 billion in 2018
Revenues will account for more than half of the $137.9 billion made across all platforms
Key Release
$1 billion mobile title Disney Tsum Tsum comes to Facebook Instant Games
'Introductory version' launches globally
Lost And Found
Nintendo taps up Cygames for new RPG game Dragalia Lost
New RPG will be released this summer
Switching It Up
Nintendo’s mobile games brought in $359.5 million in the last year
Overall revenue increased 116 per cent to $9.66 billion
Going Up
Chinese publisher 37 Interactive doubled its mobile revenue to more than $500m in 2017
Overseas revenue for mobile games also jumped up 80 per cent
Stepping Down
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima to retire
Leaves after nearly three years in the role