Welcome to PocketGamer.biz's weekly rundown of the stories clocking up the hits, picking up the click-throughs and generally keeping us happy by serving up page views.
Or, if you'd prefer, the top five stories currently dominating our readers' attention.
Each week, we'll be counting down the biggest news from the previous seven days, giving just a glimpse of the industry's big issues, from five to one.
This week, we've got plenty of stories about money, numbers and mobile gaming middleware... and those publicly owned companies Zynga and Glu.
It would be a proper Hot Five without either Glu or Zynga.
Glu to launch cash prize competitions in US starting with Deer Hunter on Android
Having launched real-money gaming in the UK, Glu has turned its attention to the US.
Of course, you can't - yet - do pure real-money gambling online in the US, but in 37 states you can run real-money gambling on online skilled-based tournaments.
Glu has linked up with US company Skillz to integrated its platform, with the Android version of Deer Hunter: Reloaded the first titles to support the new service. More will follow in the second half of 2013.
Read more here.
50 million downloads-strong: HandyGames on taming and monetising Google Play
Having reached 50 million downloads from Google Play, we caught up with Christopher Kassulke, the CEO of German developer HandyGames to find out more.
"Quality first! That counts on all platforms, not only Google Play. The product itself need to be high quality otherwise consumers will not rate the product or speak about it," Kassulke said.
He also added, " Android is a very lucrative platform for us. You just need to understand how to monetise on Android. It's completely different to what you know and used on iOS".
Read more here.
Immersion shakes things up, adds SDK support via Unity, Marmalade and GameMaker
Haptics specialist Immersion has been making moves on Android, with over 600 apps and games now using its SDK.
Immersion is looking to increase that number substantially during 2013; something its announced integrations with Unity, Marmalada and GameMaker will no doubt greatly encourage.
Read more here.
Chart of the Week: How 0.0077% of players generate 33% of F2P game revenue
We've always known that a small number of players account for a large proportion of free-to-play revenue.
However, research from behaviour analytics outfit Playnomics suggest this is much more skewed than the assumed 20:80 or even 10:90 split.
It pointed out that just 134 players - out of total of 1.7 million in the survey - generated $192,874; that was 33 percent of the total F2P revenue.
Read more here.
The Charticle: After a slow start, Zynga accelerates with paid versions of Running with Friends
Zynga's Running with Friends was the subject for this week's Charticle.
It's been performing okay, mainly on iPhone, where it's been in the top 20 top grossing games in the US. It's not really working on iPad: interestingly Zynga has separate iPhone and iPad versions of the free-to-play app.
But even more interesting is the company is now also testing a $5 paid version of the game - something we're keen to see the impact of.
Read more here.
Hot Five
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
Feature
Jun 3rd, 2024
Hot Five: Squad Busters launches globally, AFK Journey gets innovative, and Juicy Button Games has big plans for 4X strategy genre
Feature
May 28th, 2024
Hot Five: Disney x Fortnite, Sega’s sonic speed, and a potential Keywords Studios buyout
Feature
May 20th, 2024
Hot Five: AppLovin revenue surges 48% Y/Y, Plarium and Big Fish up for sale, and a look inside Merge Mansion's growth
Top Stories
News
Jun 9th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Mobile Games E15 - Star Wars: Hunters finally launches, the West's MOBA problem, and Xbox handheld rumours
News
Jun 7th, 2024
Week in Views - The hunt for the new Star Wars game, Xbox goes handheld, and cats versus monsters…
News
Jun 7th, 2024
Week in Views - The hunt for the new Star Wars game, Xbox goes handheld, and cats versus monsters…
News
Jun 7th, 2024
Metacore's Teppo Soininen: “Anybody who has put a game into soft launch knows there’s still plenty of space for f*ck ups.”
Events
Tribeca Games Festival 2024 | North America | Jun 5th |
Steam Next Fest: June 2024 Edition | Jun 10th | |
GamesForum Hamburg 2024 | Europe | Jun 11th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
ESI London 2024 | Europe | Jun 13th |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Game Con Canada (GCC) 2024 | North America | Jun 14th |
Indie Dev Play 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |