Game Insight appoints new CEO, GREE president jumps ship, and Kabam make waves with new RPG Moonrise
The games industry transfer market was full of movement this week, as some big signings were made on a variety of fronts.
GREE made the most unexpected move by convincing Kabam's president of worldwide studios, Andrew Sheppard, to jump ship. Tapjoy also struck up a deal with Korean analytics firm 5Rock, while Game Insight appointed a new CEO in the form of industry veteran, Anatoly Ropotov.
Refusing to be left out, Kabam also dipped into the transfer market, striking up a partnership with developer Undead Labs who will work with the company to create Moonrise, an all new mobile RPG.
As always, there's more news where that came from, which is exactly why you should catch up on what you've missed by chowing down on our rather tasy Week that Was. Tuck in.
Industry Voices
- Our Finnsider went on a mission to get under the hood of Finland's real 'free to play' scene.
- We spoke to Chillingo general manager Ed Rumley about the evolution of the mobile publisher in an exclusive two part interview: you can find part one here, and part two here.
- Jussi Kasurinen stressed the importance of synergies between universities and game start-ups
- DropForge's David Bluhm on finding success on smartphones, and why, ultimately, "mobile wins".
- Wooga's Sebastian Kriese explained that developers need to inflate their player's ego rather than crush it.
- Apple explained that the app 'revolution' has added 500,000 jobs to European economy.
Monetisation
- Chillingo founders Byatte and Wee are aiming to up dev revenue with new 'smart' 3D printing firm, Things3D.
- We revealed that 66.3 percent of all App Store software is freemium.
User acquisition, retention, and discovery
- A study by analytics firm Flurry found that women more likely to invest time and money in mobile gaming.
- Micromon dethroned Minecraft as Crazy Taxi hit new highs on this week's exclusive look at the UK App Store Charts.
- Creative Mobile accelerated past the 200 million download mark on Google Play.
Tools & Platforms
- Unity revealed plans to both showcase and discover at this year's Gamescom.
- Apple and Samsung put one foot forward on the road to peace as both firms dropped all non-US lawsuits.
- Sony revealed that it will pull support for PlayStation Mobile on Android.
Funding, acquisitions, personnel and shutterings
- Tapjoy made headlines with its acquisition of Korean analytics platform 5Rocks
- As it switched focus to 3D games, Game Insight appointed Anatoly Ropotov as new CEO.
- As FY14 Q2 sales rose by 104% to $41.5 million, Com2uS' market cap burst through the $1 billion barrier.
- Despite ongoing business reset, Square Enix saw its game sales increase by 103% to $373 million.
- A US artist filed a lawsuit after claiming her trademarked 'Angry Birds' IP was sold to Rovio illegally.
- Kabam made a statement of intent by partnering with Undead Labs to create mobile RPG, Moonrise.
- Kabam's president of worldwide studios jumped ship to GREE.