Thieves allegedly use Clash of Clans to launder money, Supercell on machine learning, and the 70:30 App Store split is doomed
Money-focused crime has been a staple of history for as long as cash existed, from forgery to bank heists. But now it seems to have found its way to video games with credit card thieves allegedly using Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Marvel Contest of Champions to launder money.
Our readers are obviously both fascinated and concerned by a new report into the matter, as it was our most read article of the last week.
For our second entry in the Hot Five we’re staying with Supercell to find out how they use machine learning to automate monetisation in Clash Royale. Predominantly, how the technology can serve players the most valuable cards for them.
70:30, hyper-casual and Mobile Legends
Elsewhere, we delved into why we believe that the 70:30 App Store revenue split is doomed.
Rounding off our Hot Five was the news that Huuuge Games launched a hyper-casual publishing label called Tap Tap Games and that Moonton’s Mobile Legends took $200 million in global revenues.
#5: Moonton’s popular MOBA Mobile Legends plunders $200m in global revenues
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Moonton’s popular MOBA Mobile Legends plunders $200m in global revenues »Since launching in November 2016, Moonton's hit MOBA Mobile Legends has racked up $200 million in global revenues.
As previously reported, $25 million of that has come from the US alone.
Mobile Legends overtook Vainglory in January to become the leading MOBA game in the US regarding monthly revenue. Simultaneously, it also managed to double the money it made through player spending.
For June, Mobile Legends’ revenue across the US App Store and Google Play totalled roughly $2 million.
That is almost three times the combined $720,000 which was allegedly spent by the country’s Arena of Valor and Vainglory players combined.
#4: Huuuge Games launches hyper-casual publishing label Tap Tap Games
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Huuuge Games launches hyper-casual publishing label Tap Tap Games »Social casino developer Huuuge Games has launched a new hyper-casual focused mobile games publishing label called Tap Tap Games.
An attempt to break into the broader casual market, the company stated that the new brand is part of its mission to become ‘the global leader in real-time free-to-play casual gaming’.
The Polish company is currently looking for casual games developers to partner with for Tap Tap Games, calling for submissions on its site.
#3: Why the 70:30 App Store revenue split is doomed
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Why the 70:30 App Store revenue split is doomed »10 years ago when the mobile industry was in the relatively infant stages the idea of a 70:30 revenue share from a store anyone could distribute on must have seemed heavenly.
Today, however, it could be seen as against the times. The mobile games sector is set to be worth $70 billion this year.
So are Apple and Google justified in continuing to take a revenue split on the App Store and Google Play of 70:30 at the expense of developers?
Our contributing editor Jon Jordan took a look at why this may no longer be appropriate.
#2: How Supercell uses machine learning to automate monetisation in Clash Royale
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How Supercell uses machine learning to automate monetisation in Clash Royale »Supercell data scientist Jarno Seppänen was on-hand at the Games First conference in Finland to explain how Clash Royale uses machine learning to target card sales at individual users.
A significant portion of his talk focused on how the technology can serve players the most valuable and relevant cards.
“We’re on a small team, we don’t want to grow the team. Whatever happens on a regular schedule, we try to automate that as much as possible,” said Seppänen.
“Then we focus the more human efforts on high-profile events.”
#1: Credit card thieves reportedly laundering money through Clash of Clans and Clash Royale
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Credit card thieves reportedly laundering money through Clash of Clans and Clash Royale »Supercell's Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, along with Kaban's Marvel Contest of Champions, have allegedly been the subject money laundering schemes.
Thieves allegedly used roughly 20,000 stolen credit cards from April 2018 to mind June 2018 to clean up the cash.
The thieves would go about doing this by creating accounts and making purchases with the stolen credit cards, then selling them on third-party markets.
The money received would then have zero attachment to the stolen cards.