To keep you up to date on the biggest news in mobile gaming, we round up the five most-read stories on PocketGamer.biz each week.

Read on and digest…

1. Playtika to lay off 250 employees as it closes three development studios

Israeli mobile games developer and publisher Playtika has announced worldwide cuts and around 250 employee layoffs, equivalent to roughly six per cent of its workforce, as it prepares to close three development studios in the UK, US, and Canada.

2. Supercell acquires majority stake in Trailmix with $60 million investment

Mobile games industry leader Supercell has acquired a majority stake in London casual developer Trailmix, following a $60 million investment in the firm, after Trailmix’s pronounced success with its debut release, Love & Pies, released on 30 September 2021.

3. Founded by Rovio and Zynga veterans, Village Studio has raised €2.1 million

Village Studio, the Web3 games platform founded by games industry veterans Will Luton, Cyril Barrow, and Tak Fung, has raised €2.1 million in the pre-seed funding round.

Luton, Barrow, and Fung previously held exec positions within some of the largest mobile games companies – Luton was formerly executive producer at Rovio, Barrow former Rovio VP of operations, and Fung was the CSR2 lead at Zynga’s Naturalmotion.

4. Android games make $50 million through alternative app stores, states Flexion

On average, Flexion says that 10 per cent is added to a game’s revenue through alternative stores including Huawei’s App Gallery, the Amazon App Store, Xiaomi GetApps, the One Store, and the Samsung Galaxy App Store, generating over $50 million collectively.

5. Square Enix is creating an NFT ecosystem with Animoca Brands

Japanese gaming conglomerate Square Enix has plans to create a blockchain and NFT ecosystem across a number of its gaming assets within the year, following a previous collaboration in February 2022 that brought the Dungeon Siege franchise to The Sandbox.