Region Focus
Region Focus: The opportunities and challenges facing South Korea’s lucrative games industry
In-depth analysis of the sector with comment from executives at Netmarble, Com2uS and Pearl Abyss
Fab
Unity on the long and challenging road to developing workable nested prefabs
"We were building something, not for ourselves, but everybody else"
Indie Focus
How the Busan Indie Connect Festival is connecting developers with consumers
Event director Dustin Lee gives us the lowdown on the show
Trendy Sector
What's up with the South Korean games market?
Mobile and PC MMOs rule the roost in a sector-defining part of the world
Lineage Of Ips
Netmarble on Lineage 2 Revolution's runaway success and finding the next big hit
Simon Sim talks up the company's global strategy and M&A activity
Studio Profile
South Korean developer Ekkorr on Endless Frontier making $60m and the importance of sharing ideas
CEO Myeong Yong Shin offers up the details on the studio's work
Meewow
How a Plants vs. Zombies producer and a former NFL team tech lead are shaking up idle games
The bold philosophy of MeeWow Games
New Horizons
Animoca Brands' Yat Siu on why mobile games are leading the charge to take blockchain mass-market
Time to gain scale
Looking Eastward
The quiet opportunity for games developers in Iran
With projected games revenues of 602m for 2018, it could be a fair market indeed
Space Odyssey
Toys-to-space: The making of Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle for Atlas
"It was something that none of us had ever done before"
Studio Profile
NHN Entertainment on dealing with South Korea regulations and topping the mobile charts with a fishing game
Publishing business department director Sang Ho Kim discusses the company's vast operations
Social
At Game Closure the future of gaming is social
The studio's Battle Cats Galaxy and Fishing Star QUICK are currently on the LINE QUICK GAME platform
Studio Profile
Webzen: "There is a lot of pressure to always acquire a new cash cow"
CEO Tony Kim gives us the lowdown on the company's plans
Summoning A Hit
Com2uS on Summoners War's rapid expansion and applying lessons learnt to Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
"I think that gaming is a hits-driven business in the same way that publishing is a hits-driven business"
Finding A Sweet Spot
Etermax on balancing the fresh with the familiar in Trivia Crack 2
Back for another spin
Breaking In
Can Snowprint’s Legend of Solgard break King’s midcore curse?
Studio CEO Alexander Ekvall discusses working with the Candy Crush maker as part of the latter’s new publishing initiative
The Big Freeze
"I don’t think the Chinese government is ready to lose its title as the world’s biggest games market"
Taptica division CEO Rivi Bloch discusses market expansion and the big freeze
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: SYBO's Amy Kalson on how to get a job as a games lead
"My advice to aspiring game makers is to study psychology. We make things for humans so understanding the human mind is vital for success"
Region Spotlight
Jordan: A pioneering history and promising future in mobile games
Shining the spotlight on Jordan's games industry
Big Deal
Advantage Solutions acquires HyprMX owner Jun Group in deal that brings brands and mobile games closer together
HyprMX general manager and senior vice president Dan Laughlin tells us what the deal means for the company and the mobile games industry at large
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: We talk Street Fighter meets Scrabble with Built Games
We talk to Built Games who took won our E3 Big Indie Pitch
Funding Bytes
Chile dev TinyBytes Games picks up $1.4m investment
CEO Andres Constantinidis on why Initial Capital and London Venture Partners have made their first foray into Latin America games funding
Yo-yoing Between
Why GameMaker Studio's YoYo Games is getting into indie publishing
"This comes from something that is an extension of what GameMaker has been trying to do for years, which is making the next generation of games developers"
Mobile Mavens
Is Telltale's closure part of a wider industry trend or a cautionary tale?
The mobile mavens offer their opinions
Indie Spotlight
From virtual boots to managerial suits: Simon Read on the evolution of New Star Soccer
"I was determined to make the game as accessible as possible and bring a bit of light-hearted fun back to football management"
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: Cameron Roberson talks about developing their idle RPG indie title Clicker Knight
We chat to the recipient of the 3rd place prize from The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: We talk AR escape rooms with The Pixel Crushers
We talk to The Pixel Crushers who took third place at our E3 Big Indie Pitch
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Rovio's Heini Kaihu on how to get a job as head of studio
"Games have become mainstream entertainment and the more diverse a group of people we have in the industry creating the experiences, the better"
Indie Mavens
Should indie developers release their games in Asia?
Our Indie mavens weigh in
Lighting The Fuse
"It absolutely puts us on the map": Fusebox's Michael Othen on the success of Love Island: The Game
“These conversations were a little bit harder to have when we were somewhat unproven and making these kinds of games"
Aso Case Study
How to win a successful relationship with a gaming client
The ASO & Publishing Agency, Lab Cave, talks about their experience and brings important insights on how to deal with a great mobile games customer
Universal Auction
Chocolate's Unified Auction resolves in-app header bidding conundrum
How Universal Auction can help developers make more money from ads by surfacing higher bids
Indie Spotlight
Grapefrukt's Martin Jonasson breaks down his career and the development of Holedown
"It all got started when I was playing another game with somewhat similar mechanics. Shoot a ball, break bricks. Repeat"
Hammered
How Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War reminisces the miniatures while adding midcore influence
“The real target for the game is midcore mobile gamers so the game plays well to a much wider audience”
Indie View
The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Former Blizzard and Riot developers talk defending cakes and winning pitches
We speak to the winner of The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Space Ape’s Ioannis Lefkatditis on leading the charge with Transformers: Earth Wars
From degrees to job misconceptions, Lefkatditis on how to get a job as a product lead
Guide To China
China's temporary games approval freeze - Your key questions answered
Niko Partners offers a complete breakdown of the current market situation in China and who it's likely to affect
Live Operations
What is live ops and why should you care?
It's the hot buzzword in the games industry, but what does it really mean?
Switching It Up
The good, the bad and the ugly of Nintendo’s Online Service
From cloud saves to NES games, we run the rule on some new features
Play Bigger
The surprising successes of PC-based Android gaming platform BlueStacks
Mobile games flourish on PC
Skin In The Game
How real-money competition platform Skillz is riding the wave of mobile esports for all
Hits $400 million annualised run-rate
Of Kings And Valour
From esports to Nintendo Switch: Tencent on its ambitions to grow Arena of Valor in the West
“The console space is an exciting one for us, and there really hasn’t been a big mobile game on the Switch device yet”
Fraud Against The Machine
Mobile gaming apps are the biggest victim of fraudulent app installs
Analysis of the impact of app install fraud
Jobs In Games
From the world's top Clash of Clans player to game dev: Space Ape's George Yao on getting a job as a product manager
"It all boils down to personal attitude and the desire to learn."
Hot Trends
China mobile game trends H1 2018: Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile top the grossing and download charts
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad delves into what the first six months of 2018 tell us about the Chinese mobile games market
Indie Spotlight
The story of Triple Topping Games’ Spitkiss puts polyamory front and centre
“We thought it was an interesting subject and also something you may have a lot of questions about”
Industry Lessons
Gamescom 2018: 3 things we learned about the mobile games industry
While much of the focus understandably fell on PC and console titles, there was also plenty to be learned about mobile gaming
Critical
Speaker Spotlight: Critical Force CEO Veli-Pekka Piiranen delves into company growth and culture
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland September 11th to 12th
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Zorka.Mobi's Dmitry Chudovsky on influencer marketing trends and tools
Will speak at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018, which takes place on September 11th to 12th
Evasyst
Speaker Spotlight: Evasyst CEO Evasyst Dr. Mark Ollila
Dr. Mark Ollila will be talking about Why gaming today is less about the game and more about social experiences at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki