4 trends shaping F2P, the case for idle games, and our most anticipated titles of 2016

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Bastian Schweinsteiger does a Megan Fox as the German face of Clash of Kings »

When it comes to advertising mobile games, it's no longer uncommon to see the faces of famous women like Megan Fox and Mariah Carey cropping up to draw players in.

But rather than following the age-old adage that sex sells, Elex Wireless has instead brought in Bastian Schweinsteiger to be the face of its game Clash of Kings in a new TV advert.

The Manchester United football player is seen in the ad galivanting around in shiny armour and leading an army into battle to promote the game.

However, the advert will only run on German TV - or you can watch it below.

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Deconstructor of Fun Michail Katkoff leaves Zynga for FunPlus »

You may remember a particularly interesting blog from one Michail Katkoff about why it is that Clash Royale players are starting to churn.

But as well as writing insightful posts on Deconstructor of Fun, Katkoff is also the new Studio Head at FunPlus, a Beijing-based developer of social games.

Katkoff has had a fairly illustrious career so far, working at Rovio, Supercell, Scopely, and most recently as an Executive Producer at Zynga.

So he's evidently well-equipped for the role, and it will be interesting to watch what comes of his new appointment in the coming months.

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4 key trends shaping the future of F2P mobile games »

In case you weren't aware, free to play is the way to go on mobile if you're looking to rake in the cash. But if you want to really get in on the action, it's important to know what the current trends are.

So you'll be wanting to read this article by Leonard Frankel, head of business development at Plarium, who outlines the four key trends of F2P in 2016.

Those trends are the rise of Southeast Asia as a market, eSports, gacha mechanics, and "smarter in-game advertising".

Of the latter, he says, "game developers with detailed analytics will be well placed to sell in-game ad inventory directly - cutting the middle man and gaining greater control over where adverts are placed."

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Why all F2P mobile game designers should be forced to make an idle game »

Idle games, like Farm Away!, are great, if you're the kind of person who seeks reward from very little input and on a constant, steady basis.

But they're also very difficult to design well, and that's why Torulf Jernström, CEO of Tribeflame and regular columnist for PocketGamer.biz, thinks more F2P developers need to be making them.

"If there is nothing else in the game, we have no excuses. We have to make a good meta-game when that's all there is," he writes.

His reasoning is that making developers think purely about the meta-game will improve their ability to make any other type of game for mobile.

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Our top 10 most anticipated mobile games: from Assassin's Creed: Rebellion and Exiles of Embermark to The Sims Mobile and Brawl Stars »

Anticipation is a beautiful thing. It gives us hope, lets us work towards something, and the rewards at the end are often great.

Which is why we decided to start keeping track of our ten most anticipated games in 2016 and beyond, as and when we hear about them.

Special mention goes to action-RPG Heroes of Incredible Tales, the most viewed game in the list, which is already a huge hit in Korea, and will be finding its way West sometime this summer.

It's got a lengthy single-player campaign, 6v6 mutliplayer arenas, co-op dungeon raids, and it runs on the Unreal 4 engine, so it looks mighty nice to boot.