Catharina Lavers Mallet joins Talla, what makes MZ so successful, and Subway Surfers devs face class-action lawsuit
Everyone loves a good lawsuit story - either because the suit itself is patently ridiculous, or because there's a very real chance of wrongdoing.
Whatever the reason, our readers were definitely interested in the story of Kiloo and Sybo Games facing a class-action suit claiming that they have been selling the personal information of children to advertisers without their parents' permission, as it was our most read article of the last week.
Second on our Hot Five is the first part of Anil Das-Gupta's breakdown of what makes MZ such a successful developer, starting with a brief history of the company and what games it actually makes.
AI, India and UA
Thirdly, King's former General Manager and Studio Head Catharina Lavers Mallet has joined AI firm Talla as its COO.
And finally, Zynga is making a move on India with a game designed specifically for the region by the studio's Bangalore office, and Jon Jordan takes a look at Glu Mobile's current experiments in user acquisition.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our reader's eye over the last week.
#5: Glu Mobile’s great user acquisition experiment
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Glu Mobile’s great user acquisition experiment »Glu has gone from strength to strength ever since it picked up Crowdstar and its impressive game Design Home - though it's still not out of the woods yet.
What this means is that the company is starting to experiment with its approach a bit, something Jon Jordan has taken note of as he uncovers what it's doing regarding its user acquisition strategy.
"Previously the company tended to be revenue-neutral in terms of UA, choosing to spend roughly the same on UA as it generated in terms of in-game advertising and offerwalls," he writes.
"This changed at the start of 2017 as UA spending rose from around $10 million a quarter to $14 million in Q1 and $27 million in Q2. In terms of that Q2 spending, $4.8 million was spent marketing MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2017 and $13.9 million on Design Home."
#4: Zynga makes push for India with localised match-3 game Rangoli Rekha: Color Match
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Zynga makes push for India with localised match-3 game Rangoli Rekha: Color Match »With Zynga just turning its fortunes around and posting profits instead of losses, it's interesting that the studio would then decide to make a potentially risky move of focusing in on a particular market.
But nothing ventured, nothing gained, and the company has started testing a casual game designed specifically for India called Rangoli Rekha: Color Match.
It's being developed by Zynga's own Bangalore studio, and it features plenty of culture-specific items such as Rangoli, chakras, and Diwali that should help it fit in well with the India market.
"Our Zynga India team is beta testing a new Match-three mobile game – Rangoli Rekha – for players in India," a Zynga spokesperson told us.
"The game is in the early stages of development and we look forward to hearing from local players during this initial testing period,”
#3: King General Manager and Studio Head Catharina Lavers Mallet joins AI start-up Talla as COO
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King General Manager and Studio Head Catharina Lavers Mallet joins AI start-up Talla as COO »Former King General Manager and Studio Head Catharina Lavers Mallet has joined AI firm Talla as its new COO.
Mallet joined Talla as a consultant in January 2017 before going full-time as its COO in June 2017. Her role has so far has seen her oversee product development and customer relations as well as refining hiring practices.
Mallet joined King from EA's Playfish studio back in May 2012 before leaving in November 2016. During her time at the company she built two studios, Farm Heroes and Monarch Studios.
"Many start-ups don't know they need a COO, and the ones that do know are pretty far along in their growth and maturation," she wrote on a blog post about the new job.
#2: Deconstructing the secrets of MZ's success part one: The history
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Deconstructing the secrets of MZ's success part one: The history »MZ is widely known as a money-making machine thanks to its games Mobile Strike and Game of War.
But how exactly does the developer make so much money from two games that are basically inaccessible to the average mobile gamer? Anil Das-Gupta has decided to find out.
The first part of their deep-dive into MZ's success is a general overview of the company and how it got started, as well as a basic introduction into what a 4X game actually is.
"This series of posts takes a holistic view of this game category known as 4X games, breaks down some of the key designs and features of the genre, discusses the monetisation drivers, and finally, makes some predictions of where these games will go in the future," he writes.
#1: Subway Surfers devs face lawsuit for exporting children's personal information to advertisers
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Subway Surfers devs face lawsuit for exporting children's personal information to advertisers »If you've ever wondered why most games aimed at younger players ask you to confirm that you're over 13 years of age before you start playing, let this lawsuit be a very important explanation.
Kiloo and Sybo are both named in the suit, which alleges that their games are illegally tracking and selling children's personal information to advertisers.
The main problem is that they're allegedly selling the information without first asking for parents' permission to do so, violating the COPPA law set in place to protect children from being tracked online.
And this could be a real issue for Subway Surfers, which has been downloaded over one billion times worldwide and therefore has an enormous base of potentially affected players.