The future of app intelligence, our favourite games of 2017, and the top-performing mobile game stocks
It was first week back from the Christmas and New Year holidays and what better way to celebrate than by looking ahead and predicting the demise of a part of the mobile games industry.
Our story looking into the future of app intelligence and how companies providing such data may need to evolve in 2018 was our most read article of last week.
Second on our Hot Five list is our own personal favourite games of 2017, with a wide range of choices showing off the best that the mobile games industry offered us last year.
Stocks, soft launch and jobs
Third up, Jon Jordan takes a look at the top-performing stocks of 2017 and notes a couple of surprise performers.
Finally, we look at the games that failed to leave soft launch in 2017 and Michail Katkoff joins Rovio as its new product development manager.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our readers' eyes over the last week.
#1: Could 2018 spell the end for mobile app intelligence as we know it?
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Could 2018 spell the end for mobile app intelligence as we know it? »Revenue estimation is already a tough gig - unless a developer explictly says how much money they're making, it's impossible to truly know what a game or app is actually worth.
But according to Eric Seufert, it's about to get a whole lot worse and 2018 may spell of app intelligence as we know it.
It's partly due to factors such as subscriptions and the rise of advertising revenues, the latter being incredibly tough to estimate accurately.
And with more apps being published by public companies, we're able to see actual revenues anyway thanks to their quartlerly financials.
#2: PocketGamer.biz's Games of the Year 2017
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PocketGamer.biz's Games of the Year 2017 »We're a diverse bunch here at PocketGamer.biz, so it's no real surprise that we all opted for vastly different games in our personal Games of the Year 2017.
Craig opted for Playdemic's Golf Clash, calling it "a brilliantly designed game that never feels like it's reaching into your pocket to take your money".
Jon went with Grand Cru's Battlejack, saying that "in the endless ebb and flow between the gameplay and metagame of free-to-play mobile games, Battlejack has a strong claim to breaking new ground".
And Ric chose Jam City's Snoopy Pop, noting that "there's still a part of me that remembers the joy of finally clearing a level, getting the three stars and immediately moving on".
#3: Which mobile game stocks performed best in 2017?
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Which mobile game stocks performed best in 2017? »If you love both looking back on the past year and digging deep into some big numbers from major companies, you're in for a treat here.
Our contributing editor Jon Jordan took the time to look back on the best-performing mobile game stocks of 2017, complete with colourful graphs to show you exactly what he's talking about.
"The biggest surprise of 2017 was it was some of largest global games companies which performed strongest," he wrote.
"Most notable was Tencent, which passed $500 billion in valuation, while Activision Blizzard and Nintendo both broke through the $50 billion market cap, although Activision Blizzard couldn’t maintain that level, ending the year worth $48 billion."
#4: The five biggest games that failed to leave soft launch in 2017
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The five biggest games that failed to leave soft launch in 2017 »We cover a lot of games in soft launch and while the vast majority of them make it out of the initial period, a handful didn't clear this first step and ended up canned or put on hold indefinitely.
So while we were looking back at every other aspect of 2017, we also thought we'd explore the games that didn't make it out of soft launch and their place in the history of their developers.
The list covers Car Town Racing, Smite Rivals, Legacy of Zeus, Breaking Bad: Empire Business and Mafia Wars, most of which showed potential but all of which failed to make it worldwide.
Car Town Racing is perhaps the most tragic loss of the lot - the studio working on it was threatened with closure by Glu Mobile if it failed to hit internal targets, all while Glu was transitioning to focus on games like Design Home and The Swift Life.
#5: Ex-FunPlus studio lead Michail Katkoff heads to Rovio as product management director
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Ex-FunPlus studio lead Michail Katkoff heads to Rovio as product management director »Former FunPlus San Francisco studio lead Michail Katkoff has joined Angry Birds developer Rovio as product management director.
In the new position he’ll play a key role in game development and work with studio heads and product managers on product management best practices.
"It is my pleasure to announce that industry heavyweight, Michail Katkoff, joins Rovio Entertainment as the product management director,” said Rovio SVP of corporate communications and investor relations Rauno Heinonen.
“Michail will take a key role in the development of our next big hit. He will also work with studio heads and product managers to establish principles for efficient product management across the company. Next year is the year of live ops for us and knowledge sharing between teams is key.”