As 2019 begins to fade into memory, we're taking a look back at the events that have dominated the last 12 months in mobile gaming.

As such, we've asked the industry's great and good to give us their take on the year, as well as predicting the trends that will dominate in 2020.

• Mike Willis is CEO and Cristina Mereuta COO of Marmalade Game Studio

PocketGamer.biz: What do you think was the biggest news in 2019?

This has to be the launch of Apple Arcade. We welcomed the release of this platform as clear evidence that users crave high-quality curated games.

As a company making premium games, we have even more reasons to be happy about this. Such a bold move made by Apple is helping educate people that videogames are not a free commodity which they are entitled to by default.

What's the thing you're most proud of during 2019?

This year we signed our biggest license ever, in a partnership deal with Hasbro to bring Monopoly back to mobile this Christmas. We have tried to take all of our learnings from our other top-rated games, Cluedo and The Game of Life, to ensure this is the best digital version of Monopoly ever.

The game has just launched and so far we have been completely overwhelmed with the response and so glad we are making so many new fans happy.

Which mobile games have you most played/enjoyed during 2019?

Though we have favourites we always come back to (Game Dev Tycoon for Cristina, Boom Beach for Mike), the new games we had the most fun with this year are: Merge Dragons, Brawl Stars and Archeroo, all very polished and engaging.

What do you think will be the biggest trends in 2020?

We believe the biggest trend in mobile in 2020 will be a continuing shift towards high quality. After years of quantity over quality, we are starting to see that the games that make the headlines are innovative, sophisticated affairs.

Whether it’s by combining multiple genres or by using console worthy tech (true real-time multiplayer is starting to show up on mobile), we expect next year to bring us some sleek jaw-dropping games.

If you had one New Year's Resolution for the mobile game industry, what would it be?

Our new year resolution for the mobile games industry is that it embraces this shift towards quality and adopts it as a long term attribute, instead of a trend to grow out of at a later date. We hope this will make more room for games that push the envelope and give players the fun they are searching for.

You can check out all our 2019 in Review articles here.