Hot Five

Hot Five: Apple Arcade vs F2P, Android becomes revenue dominant, and Wargaming still love tanks

The hottest stories

Hot Five: Apple Arcade vs F2P, Android becomes revenue dominant, and Wargaming still love tanks

To help you keep on top of a busy news cycle and the latest hot topics in mobile gaming, each week we round up the five most-read stories on PocketGamer.biz.

Read on and digest...

5. NBCUniversal shutting down game publishing division to focus on licensing

Despite only being in the space for three years, NBCUniversal‘s mobile game publishing division will shut down, with executive vice president of games and digital platforms Chris Heatherly set to step down at the end of the year.

As with Disney’s similar decision-making process, NBCUniversal has cited the highly competitive nature of building and successfully operating mobile games. Also, like Disney, in future it hopes to license its IP to external developers and publishers.

4. Android to finally overtake iOS as the dominant mobile gaming platform by revenue in 2019

It’s long been a given that while Android is by far the dominant mobile platform in terms of users and downloads, iOS is the place to make money.

But market intelligence outfit Newzoo predicts that will soon not be the case.

In its latest report, it reckons 2019 will be the tipping point when Android and Android-based thirdparty stores and OEMs (mainly in China and south east Asia but also including Amazon) take the lead in terms of total revenues generated.

3. How Wargaming is tweaking its strategy in the search for new hits, while remaining totally tanked up

We all know Wargaming still loves tanks. And why not. Its mobile shooter World of Tanks Blitz recently recorded 1.5 million DAUs, while revenue in 2019 is up 8 per cent year-on-year.

But the company is also looking for new content.

As head of products Andrew Muesse explains, it currently has three games in development that it hopes to get into soft launch in 2019, including a squad-based RPG involving what else? Tanks.

2. Zynga launches Merge Magic! Gram Games’ follow up to key hit Merge Dragons!

Turkish developer Gram Games has launched Merge Magic!: its first new game under Zynga’s ownership.

Building on the success of Merge Dragons! - now one of Zynga’s Forever Franchises, generating over $100 million a year - Merge Magic! is a game that mixes elements of adventure, puzzle and relaxation.

Players match items and merge creatures to create unique hybrids within the mysterious world of Mythia to unlock enchanting new surprises.

 1. Can Apple regain control of mobile gaming with Apple Arcade?

Mobile gaming is currently one thing. Apple wants it to be something very different. Which vision will win?

That was the basic question asked by F2P game designer Will Luton.

“Apple’s very much gunning for F2P with Arcade and the service is the company’s vision for the ways and types of games Apple wants its customers to consume.

"And while my expectation is very much that Apple Arcade will fail to find an audience, the history of games is littered with surprising upsets.

“A successful Apple Arcade would be an incredibly large change for us all,” Luton concludes.

 

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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.