How Pixonic has evolved War Robots, the making of Chhota Bheem Speed Racing, and why doesn't Clash Royale have any worthy competition?
It's a testament to the staying power of the game that we are still talking about Supercell's Clash Royale more than a year after it first launched, despite huge competition from other games around the world.
But what it hasn't had is any direct competition, and in our most read article of last week we decided to find out why by turning to our Mobile Mavens and posing them the question of where all the worthy rivals to Clash Royale are.
Second on the list might be the answer to our question, with the news that both Gameloft and Ubisoft are working on real-time multiplayer games that take a leaf out of Supercell's hit.
Racing, robots, and RGames
Third up, we chat with Lithuanian developer Tiny Lab Productions about the making of its title Chhota Bheem Speed Racing and how its partnership with Nazara Games came to be.
And finally, we check in with Pixonic to see how War Robots has evolved over the last three years, and we talk to Blackstorm about its new partnership with Rakuten to establish gaming platform RGames.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our readers' eye over the last week.
#5: Rakuten and Blackstorm want to disrupt Japan's mobile industry with launch of HTML5 social game platform RGames
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Rakuten and Blackstorm want to disrupt Japan's mobile industry with launch of HTML5 social game platform RGames »Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten has partnered with US startup Blackstorm Labs to launch a brand new HTML5 social game platform called RGames.
The two companies have established through joint investment a new outfit called Rakuten Games which is responsible for the operation of RGames and, at present, the development of all titles on the platform.
Rakuten's first serious move into gaming, RGames is launching with 15 titles - Pac-Run and Invader Blast - licensed new takes on Pac-Man and Space Invaders respectively - being two of the most recognisable. All of these games are playable through web browsers on mobile and PC.
Social features include competition between users and video replay sharing. Tying it all back into Rakuten's core business are Medals, RGames' virtual currency, which can be bought using the Rakuten Super Points earned for spending money in the online store.
#4: Three years on: Pixonic on the evolution of War Robots
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Three years on: Pixonic on the evolution of War Robots »Games are being built these days with a plan to be supported for years down the line, but how does this manifest in reality?
To answer the question, we hit up developers of long-running games to find out how things are going - like in our interview with Pixonic on how War Robots has evolved in the three years since it first launched.
"We've come a long way since the launch. Our initial goal was to launch the product as soon as possible, so as to develop it based on user feedback and raw data," said Igor Klyukin, COO at Pixonic.
"Looking back after all this time, I'm fully confident that we did the right thing."
#3: From Lithuania to India: The making of Chhota Bheem Speed Racing
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From Lithuania to India: The making of Chhota Bheem Speed Racing »Chhota Bheem Speed Racing has already proven to be popular in India, with over one million downloads achieved in its first three weeks of release.
But what you may not know is that the game is developed by Lithuanian outfit Tiny Lab Productions, who we chatted to about how the game came to be.
"India was always one of the top countries if we rank them by active players through our current games. We had lots of players from there but we always had trouble monetising them," the studio's CEO Jonas Abromaitis told us.
"This new partnership seemed a good way to know something more about one of our top geos."
#2: Gameloft and Ubisoft gunning for Clash Royale with Blitz Brigade and Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak
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Gameloft and Ubisoft gunning for Clash Royale with Blitz Brigade and Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak »Clash Royale is a big deal, so it's no surprise that developers are trying to jump in on the genre it created for itself (but more on that later).
The latest competitors to enter the fray are Gameloft and Ubisoft, both of whom are launching games that look very similar to Supercell's behemoth real-time MOBA.
Gameloft is sticking to the original's template pretty firmly with Blitz Brigade: Rival Tactics, which sees players sending waves of enemies across one of two bridges to destroy their opponent's towers.
Ubisoft is going for a different approach with Tom Clancy's ShadowBreak, which has players directly engaging in the battle via a high-powered sniper rifle.
#1: Why does Clash Royale have no worthy competition?
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Why does Clash Royale have no worthy competition? »Clash Royale quickly become one of the dominant forces in the mobile market when it launched, and to this day it's still got an incredibly engaged player base.
So why exactly haven't developers come along and tried to expand on it or rip it off as hard as they can? We're not sure, so we turned to our expert Mobile Mavens to find out what they think.
"I don't think all the Clash Royale clones have launched yet. I'm still waiting to see if Clash Royale gameplay can be considered too difficult to achieve for competitors," offered Adam Telfer.
Meanwhle Oscar Clark suggested: "Offering a watered-down example with a different brand slapped on it may not have the potential to scale or support the audience."