Anniversary Celebrations
GungHo stems quarterly decline as Puzzle & Dragons income recovers for fifth anniversary
Number of downloads surpasses 45 million in Japan alone
The Charticle
Worldwide top grosser but never in the US top 100: Why Mixi canned Monster Strike
Is the chasm between Japanese and American tastes a bridge too far?
Feeling The Crunch
Controversy over Icarus Mobile development crunch
Developer Wemadeio for long working hours and treatment of staff
Strike No More
Mixi to shut down Monster Strike's English-language version on August 1st
No refunds, no transfers
Super Fire Emblem
Deconstructing Nintendo’s $300 million mobile game success
The start of something bigger?
Mobair In China
Mobile marketing firm MobAir pushes into China with Shanghai office
Wants to offer personalised services to its local clients
50 Million Fighters
Netmarble's Marvel Future Fight hits 50 million downloads as it celebrates two-year anniversary
20 million downloads alone in Asia
Making India Play
Indian mobile game studio Mech Mocha raises $5 million series A funding
Shunwei Capital, Accel Partners and Blume Ventures invest
Still Running
Super Mario Run approaches 150 million downloads
Number of paid players said to be gradually increasing too
Cyberagent Financials
CyberAgent sales grow to $1.62 billion but profits fall sharply in H1 FY17
Profits are way, way down
Gree Financials Q3 Fy17
GREE's release blitz scores sales of $142.4 million thanks to three top 50 grossing games
Has plenty more where that came from
Capcom Financials Fy17
Capcom sales up to $782.5 million as it eyes stronger mobile performance
Hoping to "break through the current situation" with big IPs
Nintendo Financials Fy17
Nintendo profits soar to $921 million as Switch sells 2.74 million units
Goes awfully quiet on its mobile games
Go Xenko
Silicon Studio launches mobile and VR game engine Xenko after two years in beta
Pricing starts at $75 a month per user
Cents For Seasun
Tencent acquires 9.9% stake in Chinese mobile games developer Seasun for $142 million
Deal made in two parts by subsidiary Image Frame Investment
Mighty Partnership
Ubisoft partners with Tencent and Playcrab for China-focused Might & Magic strategy game
Might & Magic Heroes: Era of Chaos expected to launch June 2017
Big In Korea
Netmarble to raise $2.3 billion in IPO that values mobile games publisher at over $11 billion
South Korea's second biggest ever public offering
Player Preferences
South Korean mobile game user analysis for February 2017
A look at the most popular genres for men and women in South Korea
Indian Mavens
Do mobile games need a well-known IP to succeed in India?
And can developers gain traction on their own?
It Was Fate
Fate/Grand Order to launch in the US and Canada in summer 2017
Aniplex bringing an English text translation to the West
The Revolution Spreads
Netmarble plans to release Lineage 2: Revolution in Japan and China by the end of 2017
Might have some trouble with the China launch
Mainstream Mmo
"Creating an MMORPG that anyone can play": The making of Lineage 2 Revolution
Behind the scenes with Netmarble Game Director Cho ShinHwa
Big Bet
South Korea’s DoubleU Games splashes $825 million on social casino dev Double Down
London firm IGT sees a $325 million profit from previous buyout
Competitive Gaming
eSports will be a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games
Could mobile play a part?
War Chest
Netmarble plots $4.4 billion acquisition spending spree after May 2017 IPO
Mobile games publisher goes public on May 12th
Industry Event
South Korea games show G-Star 2017 dated for November 16th to 19th
Key expo returns to Busan
Icandy Acquisition
iCandy Interactive acquires Singapore mobile dev Inzen for $4.4 million to gain access to China market
Inzen gains access to iCandy's 17 million players too
Android Global Sales
Android sales in China accounted for 86.4% of all smartphones sold between December 2016 and February 2017
Kantar Worldpanel breaks down sales around the world
Switch Vulnerability
Nintendo offering up to $20,000 for information on Switch vulnerabilities
Prove there's a problem, get paid
Samsung On Top
Samsung reclaims spot as world's biggest smartphone manufacturer
Galaxy Note 7 troubles are behind it
South Korea Playtimes
Mobile gamers in South Korea spend 46 minutes a day playing games
Lineage 2: Revolution remains king of the market
Indian Mavens
What will happen to the Indian games market when smartphone adoption slows?
Is the industry's growth too dependent on sheer device volume?
Mobile Shift
Publisher Duoyi nabs exclusive China publishing rights for 505 Games’ Portal Knights on PC and mobile
Action RPG making its way to mobile
West To East
Wild City Rush developer Sviper partners with iDreamSky for China launch
Special localised version to launch in the region
Not Bad
Not Doppler’s Crash of Cars cruises to four million downloads in two weeks
.io games alive and well
Big Ambitions
Unity set to triple Indian workforce as it eyes industries outside of games
Game engine firm sets sights on AR and VR domination
Big Business
Six of the world’s top 10 biggest public companies are key players in the games industry
Chinese tech giant Tencent ousts Wells Fargo
Bowled Over
Nazara partners with Indian cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore for new game RCB Star Cricket
Hitting it for six in mid-April
Ball Battling
Chinese casual eSports game Battle of Balls hits 300 million users worldwide
Big plans for this year's tournaments
Appota Investment
Vietnam-based publisher Appota pushes towards $50 million valuation with series C funding round
Korea Invesment Partners and Mirae Asset Venture Investment throw some money in
Dokkan Downloads
Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle pushes past 150 million downloads in just over two years
Celebrating with a summon event to reward older players over new ones
Speeding Away
From Lithuania to India: The making of Chhota Bheem Speed Racing
How a Lithuanian studio topped charts in India
Xiaomi India Investment
Xiaomi plans to invest another $500 million into its growing India presence
Targetting $2 billion in revenues for the country in 2017
Inmobi Up
Mobile advertising firm InMobi sees operationally profitable 2016 following big boost in China
Even a $1 million fine couldn't bring it down
Cut-price Sale
Baidu sells mobile gaming business for $173 million
Getting out of the games space?
Still Switched On
Color Switch surpasses 150 million downloads in 15 months
Still going strong with 20 million downloads in last three months
Disrupting The Market?
Rakuten and Blackstorm want to disrupt Japan's mobile industry with launch of HTML5 social game platform RGames
Post-app store technology outfit teams up with Japanese ecommerce giant
Gumi Nordic Vr
Gumi and Nordisk Film partner for €100,000 incubation program Nordic VR Startups
Offering seed funding and advice to Nordic VR developers
Big Dreams
China's iDreamSky establishes $30 million fund to publish indie games globally
Wants to find the next Monument Valley
Midas Touch
Koei Tecmo establishes mobile-specific brand Midas
Wants its games to "shine like gold"