Barbie On Board
Barbie hits Stumble Guys in mass-multimedia promo campaign
It's getting harder to miss the arrival of the Barbie movie with mobile a prime promo target
Finding Funds
Mythical Games raises a further $37million, hitting a valuation of over $1billion
Investors include Animoca Brands, MoonPay and veterans from Activision Blizzard
Results
Slovakian games made €77 million in 2022
That number only a slight dip from the €80m in 2021
Investment
Scriptic raises $5.7m in funding for AI-driven narrative mobile games
The round was led by perennial investor Bitkraft Ventures
Ranking
AppLovin takes downloads top spot for US companies worldwide
Data.ai's latest shows mobile-first beating the big names to take pole position
New Deals
Scopely acquires Dundee-based Tag Games
Doubling down on 2021’s investment, the firm have now made Tag Games a Scopely Studio
Meet The Experts
Get an exclusive look at the stellar speakers of Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto!
Get a sneak peek at the star-studded lineup of PG Connects Toronto, sharing their insights with us this July.
Feature
Case Study: How Jackpot Party Casino keeps on winning
Oxana Fomina shares the winning formula of Jackpot Party Casino’s continued success
Celebrating Canada
Celebrate Canada Day with us and enjoy 20% off your Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto ticket!
PG Connects Toronto is just around the corner, don’t miss out on taking advantage of our limited time flash sale this holiday weekend!
Redundancies
Montreal-based Ludia lets 45 staff go in new round of layoffs
The company has clarified the impact its restructuring will have on its employees
New Features
Niantic adds Campfire to Pokemon Go in social gaming push
The new feature aims to draw players of their biggest game into their social ecosystem
Shock Report
Google accused of misleading its advertisers on over 80% of ad placements
“Repackaging shitty, brand-unsafe outstream as instream is a big problem," quotes a new report with potential refunds running into billions
Data & Research
Skrmiish announces new Head of Data, Dr. João Pela
Bringing CERN-style data analysis to the world of play-to-earn
Unmissable Savings
Ten reasons why you need to attend Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki this September!
Book your ticket to PG Connects Helsinki ahead of time and save up to £330 using our Early Bird offer!
Updates
Unity goes deeper into AI as it announces two new tools
The game creation platform has positioned the use of generative AI as increasing focus of its offering
Financials
MAG Interactive sees in-app purchases soar 54% year-on-year in latest financials release
The company is known for titles such as Wordzee
Report
Midcore makes up 35% of total gaming revenue on iOS in the United States
The findings come as part of a report from analytics firm Liftoff
Feature
Five tips for scaling your mobile game in a post-ATT market
SuperScale CEO Ivan Trančík offers advice on running effective user acquisition campaigns and improving monetisation in a challenging market
Let's Get Gaming
YouTube gets into games with new Playables product
Employees are starting to test the platform's first steps into games as it moves beyond video
Series Surge
In-game Ads solution Anzu raises $48M in Series B funding
Funding round led by Emmis Corporation and supported by many new high-profile investors
Finding Funds
Pixion Games raises $5.5 million for Web3 RPG Fableborne
Investments come from Blizzard, Shima Capital and more
Restructuring
Hi-Rez announces layoffs in studios, dissolving Rogue Company: Elite developer First Watch Games
Right now it's not entirely clear who will take over development of the mobile title
Investment
SuperScale raises $5.4m in Series A funding round
The scaling firm raised €5 million as part of the funding
Documentation
Zynga, Playrix and Niantic were all potential entries on Microsoft’s shopping list
News comes as part of the revelation Microsoft considered buying Sega
Thanks For Coming
The Dubai GameExpo Summit powered by PG Connects was our biggest and most successful debut event in a new territory – here’s what you missed!
1300+ attendees, 800+ leading companies, 60+ countries represented and over 100 expert speakers congregated in Dubai at our first event in the city
Features
Subway Surfers to introduce first AR features into the long-running title
Sybo introduced the “Subway Studio” feature as part of their latest update
Roblox On A Roll
Stefano Corazza: Roblox’s generative AI has seen a "promising start" but is only just beginning
Roblox Studios head Stefano Corazza reveals progress in Roblox AI usage
Metaverse
Roblox is introducing experiences for users 17 and over
Users over 17 accounted for 38% of Roblox’s daily active users in 2022
Q&a
King's Vanesa Tate on re-crafting the soundtrack to Candy Crush Saga
After a decade of Candy Crush the team decided to revamp its soundtrack. But with a game this popular any changes required an expert touch
Coming To Kwalee
Kwalee hires Adrian Garton as VP of HR in mission to find the industry’s "best talent"
Garton has more than 25 years’ experience in HR
Success In Funding
Animoca Brands subsidiary Anichess raises $1.5 million in seed round
The company is working on a decentralised chess game
Mini-games
WeChat’s mini-games have over 400m monthly active users
The all-in-one social media app and platform is used extensively throughout China
On The Up
June's China game approvals make it 2023's biggest month yet
In an incredibly consistent year, approvals have eked ahead to 89
Very Big Indie Pitch
Smash Head Studio's roguelite action platformer wins the first ever Dubai Big Indie Pitch
Winners breakdown
Conference Round-up
Investment and AI: more highlights from GameExpo Summit
Our inaugural conference in the UAE revealed essential insights and perspective about the regional and global games industry (part II)
Event Highlights
Global trends, influencers and esports: insights from GameExpo Summit
Our first live event in Dubai delivered essential facts, figures and opinions about the worldwide game development scene (part I)
Q&a
King's Luken Aragon talks 10 years of keeping Candy Crush on top
Their 10 Years of Fun campaign recently reasserted Candy Crush's dominance and won our best marketing/PR award at the MGAs
Week That Was
Week in Views - What caught our eyes in the last seven days
The Pocketgamer.biz team take their pick of this weeks big news including EA's big break up, new looks, new opportunities and new challenges…
Big Festival
BIG Festival is here! Inside Latin America’s biggest gaming event
The festival kicks off next week, and we’ll be on the ground reporting from the show
Interview
Elena Grigoryan on My.Games’ new global outlook
The company has refocused from its European homeland and into the wider world, including MENA
Milestones
Goddess of Victory: Nikke passes $400m on mobile
Latest figures put it in spitting distance of heavyweights like Diablo Immortal
Rewarded Play
Zebedee and adjoe partner to bring bitcoin rewards to games
The partnership will let players earn blockchain as they spend time in-game
Gaming In Mena
The MENA region scores 26,200 app downloads per minute
Data.ai examines the state of mobile in the region with impressive numbers throughout
Q&a
Pride Month 2023: How diversity and creativity go hand in hand at King
King's Sabrina Carmona, Head of Farm Heroes Saga outlines how they promote diversity and inclusivity throughout their gaming portfolio
Investment
Flexion gains new shareholder in Alta Fox Capital
The Texan firm has invested an undisclosed amount in the publisher
Q&a
How Monopoly GO! became the #1 mobile board game in the world
Scopely general manager Massimo Maietti discusses launching the biggest casual game of 2023
Trading
Hero Wars developer Nexters to restructure as GDEV Inc
The company resumed trading on the NASDAQ this year
Accelerating Diversity
Ten game makers named for the Wings Elevate 2023 accelerator program
The Netflix sponsored program features ten game makers all from gender diverse development teams
Investment Fund
Lumikai launches new $50m game fund backed by Supercell, Krafton and more
The fund focused on investing into early-stage game makers
Harry Potter
$360M grossing Harry Potter: Magic Awakened finally gets a global release on June 27
The game generated over $228 million in it's first two months alone from initial China release in 2021