Indie Spotlight
How Top Gear's "car football" inspired Lavaskull to create Soccer Rally: Arena
"There is still opportunity, but it’s rare that an indie can go without a publisher"
New Acquisition
Moon Active snaps up mobile games dev Melsoft
"We were searching for a company that has the right products and at the same time shares our culture and values that will allow us to grow together in synergy"
Journalist Bar
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Happy Holidays
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #5 advent calendar: Day 24: Christmas special offer - 20% off!
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Loot Boxes
Report: 31% of young gamers don't know how much they spend on loot boxes
"We are calling for parents to be aware of the risks of loot boxes when buying presents this Christmas"
What A Year
Voodoo's portfolio saw over two billion downloads in 2020
It also had 300 million monthly active users
Winner!
Huawei names Free Fire as the best shooting and multiplayer game on AppGallery
Archero, AFK Arena and Asphalt 9 were also winners
Nailed It
A hypercasual love story: how Acrylic Nails utilised the CLIK Dashboard to cross 30 million downloads in less than 8 weeks
The app hit the milestone in less than 8 weeks
Free Falling
Human: Fall Flat hits two million Chinese sales in six days
It shot to the top of the charts
Money Money Money
Mobile app marketing specialist Liftoff secures backing from Blackstone
“We’re excited to be partnering with Blackstone, one of the premier private equity firms in the world"
Independent
Digital Extremes will maintain creative independence after Tencent takeover
"We will continue to create great content for Warframe, and we will remain creatively independent"
Public Potential
Playtika IPO shows revenues and debts of $2.3 billion
It aims to raise over $1 billion
Connect With Top Talent
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Need To Know
Raw Fury makes its publishing agreement public
“We believe having publisher contracts out in the open helps level the playing field"
Got Stock
Stillfront and Embracer Group dominate the stock market
Both companies have made various acquistions this year
#freefortnite
Epic Games returns to its #FreeFortnite campaign
It sent out packages to journalists and infleuncers
Switched
The Nintendo Switch is entering the "midpoint" of its cycle
"We believe we're just at the midpoint of this life cycle on this platform"
Positive Influence?
Game influencers could get hit by weird additions to US coronavirus relief bill
Amendments to the legislation could give companies an edge in handling how their IP is used
Going Digital
The digital games market grew 15 per cent in November
Mobile was up nine per cent year-on-year
Possible Deal
ByteDance is looking to acquire mobile games publisher CMGE
Its company stake would be worth $275 million
Remote Work
"It’s a passion job, in that every angle and approach is appreciated but inspiration can come at any time," says N3twork Tetris director Mari Burns
"For those who don’t play video games, I think it’s misunderstood as a filler of time"
An Imposter!
Among Us hit 500 million monthly active users in November
Majority of users are on mobile
Gobble Gobble
Bandai Namco teams with the NBA for Pac-Man content
"Everyone at Bandai Namco Entertainment is extremely proud and excited to bring Pac-Man together in partnership with the NBA"
Wide Appeal
Toca Boca still riding high on US kids download chart
Crunching the data with App Annie
Welcome To The Family
Voodoo acquires Paris-based studio OHM Games
"We're thrilled to be able to build on our existing relationship with OHM Games"
Farm Life
Goodgame Studios opens pre-registrations for Big Farm: Home & Garden
Only avaiable through Google Play
Master The Meta
Master the Meta: deconstructing Genshin Impact - mobile’s next frontier
This week, MTM looks back on the astronomical rise of Genshin Impact
Hyped Up
TapNation to host its first $150,000 game jam in January
"We are very happy to host the first hyper-casual game jam of the year, which is also the first one for TapNation"
Your Next Job
FREE entry for games industry jobseekers with Careers Week at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #5, February 8th to 12th
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Case Study
Securing fair play in mobile games: Traplight and Battle Legion
Check out how Denuvo’s Mobile Protection technology helps games combat cheaters and hacks
Catch A Cheat
Over two million PUBG Mobile accounts have been suspended for cheating
Due to a variety of cheats
Proving Popular
KamaGames hits 150 million unique users across its library
"We're both humbled and proud to say we've hit the 150 million unique user mark"
Welcome Aboard
Jagex hires Shaun Rees as its new submission and release manager
Rees previously worked for PlayStation
Acquisition
Mag Interactive snaps up Swedish studio Apprope
"We are impressed by Apprope's combination of rapid development and high quality"
Top Dog
Rovio names Alexandre Pelletier-Normand as its new CEO
"We are delighted to appoint Alexandre as a new CEO. In accordance with our strategy, we have shifted our focus in the past years to our games business"
Most Read
Hot Five: PUBG Mobile tops billion dollar list, Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales pushed back, and leadership lessons of the pandemic
The hottest articles of last week
Online Courses
Discover new skills with deep dive games industry courses – your chance to shape the curriculum
What skills do you want to learn in 2021? Win free PGC tickets for filling in this MasterClass survey now
Deeper Magic
Harnessing the power of gaming for good in challenging times
Games For Good wants you
Switch It Up
Nintendo Switch remains the best-selling console in Canada for 25 consecutive months
790,000 units have been sold in the country this year
Down Under
Diablo Immortal enters a technical alpha in Australia
"This is an early look at Diablo Immortal—an exciting new chapter in our action role-playing game series"
Pgbiz Goty 2020
PocketGamer.biz's Games of the Year 2020
Danielle, Kayleigh and Matthew reflect on a huge year in games
Firm Foundations
Rise of Kingdoms leads Chinese build-and-battler subgenre
Crunching the data with App Annie
Clawee
Play with in-app claw machines and win real prizes with arcade app Clawee
Clawee is a mobile app that lets players win real, physical prizes, by controlling in-app machines
Competition Time
Voodoo is hosting a hypercasual tournament with a top prize of $150k
Entries must be in the puzzle or runner genres
Coming Of Age
China introduces a new age-rating system for games
The categories are eight-plus, 12-plus and 16-plus
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Money Money Money
Discord valuation has doubled to $7 billion
Firm raising $140 million in new funding round
Ninten-yay
Nintendo to show off its new theme park in a showcase later today
No gameplay will be shown
Scholarship
Ubisoft reveals scholarship for UK Black students to study computer science
"We wanted to go one step further and tackle an area where we can truly make a meaningful difference to diversify the UK games industry"
See You In Court
Glu Mobile sues Reworks Oy for patent infringement
"Glu is not a litigious company, but given this clear patent infringement by Reworks, we have a responsibility to file this lawsuit—we must protect the value of our innovation and intellectual property"