Hot Five: Ares Interactive raises $70m, Google's Project Genie sparks gaming shares decline, and Arknights: Endfield hits $30m in two weeks
To help get you primed and ready for another week in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the last seven days.
1) Arknights: Endfield hits $30m in two weeks on mobile
Gryphline’s new gacha RPG Arknights: Endfield surpassed $30 million in mobile player spending in its first two weeks.
According to AppMagic estimates, Japan has led early mobile spending at 35% of global revenue, followed by China at 33%. The US ranks third at 10%, with these early figures pointing towards the same key markets as the original Arknights.
2) Ares Interactive raises $70m as it plots expansion plans and new game launch
Ares Interactive has raised $70m in a Series A round to expand its operations as its look to launch Baseball Hits 26 this year.
The company was founded in 2024 by former Glu Mobile CEO Niccolo De Masi and has established studios in San Francisco and Berlin.
3) Google's Project Genie sparks fall in gaming shares as industry experts question use-case
As Google rolled out its AI-powered world-building tech Project Genie in the US, shares in some of the world’s largest public games companies began to fall.
Project Genie can build virtual worlds through text prompts and uploaded images. It allows users to choose between first-person and third-person perspectives and lets them control a character within that space for 60 seconds.
AppMagic's Mobile Landscape report revealed that 56% of the top 100 grossing games now use AI-driven ad creatives.
At the same time, direct-to-consumer monetisation gained momentum in 2025, and 72% of apps released were games. However, mobile revenue rose merely 0.2%.
5) Nexon to refund MapleStory Idle RPG players following pricing error
This January, Nexon discovered a coding issue had wrongly applied probability values to certain paid items in MapleStory: Idle RPG.
Following player complaints, Nexon acknowledged the error, announced internal process reforms, and offered compensation or full refunds for in-game purchases made between November 6th, 2025 and January 28th, 2026.
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