Hot Five

Hot Five: Vainglory changes hands, what's next for Playtika? and Rush Wars' weak KPI revealed

The hottest stories

Hot Five: Vainglory changes hands, what's next for Playtika? and Rush Wars' weak KPI revealed

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. Playtika considers international IPO after Chinese deal fails again

In the fight to buy Playtika from Casaer's Palace, a China consortium lead by Giant Games outbit South Korean oufit Netmarble by $100 million. 

It may be regretting that decision, however, given Chinese regulators have rejected Giant's plan to acquire the social casino publisher because of concerns over how its operations fit within China's gambling laws. 

The result is the consortium is now rumoured to considering an international IPO to offload the company, which now also consists of non-gambling European developers such as Seriously and Wooga 

4. Call of Duty: Mobile gains top grossing momentum, while Mario Kart Tour’s downloads fall away

In our regular article tracking the global performance of mobile games, Call of Duty: Mobile gained one place in the top 10 grossing list, while Mario Kart Tour dropped four places on the most downloaded list. 

3. Social Point's Legend at War, Nexon's MapleStory Blitz, and Space Ape's Rumble League all canned

Supercell wasn't the only developer to can a game in soft launch testing last week. 

Supercell-owned Space Ape got the week rolling with the news it was shutting down PVP game Rumble Arena. 

In addition, Take-Two-owned Social Point's Legend at War and Nexon's MapleStory Blitz have been removed from the country app stores that they were being tested in. There's been no official word, but these games are also assumed to have been cancelled. 

2. Rogue Games takes Vainglory as Super Evil raises $10.5 million for cloud game Project Spellfire 

US developer Super Evil has fought hard to make its mobile-turned-PC MOBA Vainglory a successful esport but this news suggests it's moving on. 

Future development of the game has been handed over to startup Rogue Games, while Super Evil will now concentrate on its just-announced new game Project Spellfire. It's an action game that will be run in the cloud and work across all gaming platform. 

Super Evil raised another $10.5 million of VC cash to fund future operations.

1. The hard data behind Supercell’s decision to can Rush Wars

While Supercell said it canned Rush Wars because it didn't meet its high expectations, data from Sensor Tower suggests one aspect of this was a low level of monetisation that would have been almost impossible to increase to sustainable levels. 


Tags:
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.