Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Indie dev Anna Jenelius on narrative in games and industry maturity
"If you want to make games, make games."
Ninten-no
Nintendo's theme park not opening till 2021
A Mario cafe and shop will open on October 16th
Hybrid Event
DevGAMM 2020 goes online and offline on November 9-20 - tickets are available now
DevGAMM goes hybrid with both online and offline aspects of the conference, inviting industry professionals from around the world to take part as well as holding networking events in live venues
Go Pro
The first all-female team joins Honor of Kings esports league
"Most teams believe that female gamers are not as capable as men"
Simply Business
Yodo1 launches free Business of Mobile Gaming course
The course lays out everything from monetisation and app store features to community management and influencer marketing
Going Mobile
Google Stadia now fully supports mobile data streaming
At a resolution of 720p
Acquisition
My.Games acquires a majority stake in mobile games dev Deus Craft
"We are happy to welcome Deus Craft to the My.Games family"
Shall Not Be Named
Genshin Impact prohibits players from saying "Taiwan" and "Hong Kong" via in-game chat
There are strict rules that Chinese studios must abide by
Court Date
Epic Games and Apple are heading to court in May 2021
The companies will have a bench trial
Funk It Up
N3twork launches Funko Pop! Blitz on Android and iOS
"Funko Pop! Blitz is the ultimate pop culture mashup game"
Nintend'oh
Nintendo faces another lawsuit, this time by a mother and son duo
"The Joy-Con drift became so pronounced that the controllers became inoperable for general gameplay use"
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Farmville 2 lead designer on game design deftness and trends in India
"Game development as a career was almost unheard of back then in India."
All About Survival
The Escapists universe expands as The Survivalists hits Apple Arcade
Various Apple Arcade games have recently recieved updates
Incredible Indies
Perfect for indies: FREE opportunities for independent developers at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #4
Fantastic opportunities await indie developers at November’s online Pocket Gamer Connects event, enabling them to connect with the global industry
Dev.play Online
Dev.Play 2020 goes online on November 3-4 - registrations open now
The online conference takes this November, and you can get 10% off using code PGConnects
Lawful Diversity
The US Labor department is investigating Microsoft's diversity initiative
"We are clear that the law prohibits us from discriminating on the basis of race"
Check Those Ads
Anzu expands its partnership with Axis Games
"Anzu's premium blended in-game ads represent a new chapter for the gaming and advertising industries"
Trust Issues
US antitrust committee completes investigation into 'monopolistic' practices of Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google
"These firms typically run the marketplace while seven also competing in it—a position that enables them to write one set of rules for others, while they play by another"
Make An Impact
Genshin Impact generates $60 million in its first week
China accounted for 42 per cent of earnings
Indie Spotlight
Headup Games CTO Mark Aldrup on returning to office life in Germany
"Every two to three years the market seems to shift completely and you always have to be up-to-date."
Follow The Light
Sky: Children of the Light soars past 50 million downloads
Three months after its Chinese launch
Elected
Hendrik Lesser has been re-elected as president of the European Game Developers Federation
September 9th saw the new board of directors elected for the EGDF with the role of president being reprised
Money Money Money
Ten Square Games sees record breaking quarter in Q3 2020
"The third quarter, in particular July, was yet another period of strong sales for Ten Square Games"
Breaking Tradition
Analysts claim Nintendo could break the traditional console cycle
"With every console generation, the install base resets to zero, and their earnings power essentially resets to zero"
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Koron Studios CEO brings live ops expertise to PGC Digital #4
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #4 takes place on November 9th - 13th
Time To Hunt
It appears Netflix's The Witcher is getting a third series
Showrunner and executive producer Hissrich still attached
Dynamite
BTS World and BTS Universe Story close in on $50 million combined revenue
Estimated 15 million downloads between the two titles
Terraforming
Tilting Point acquires TerraGenesis from Edgeworks Entertainment
“This acquisition is an organic next step in our progressive publishing relationship with Edgeworks"
I'm Lovin It
Jam City is the first mobile games firm to partner with McDonalds
“We couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with McDonald’s on this iconic promotion"
Reasons To Attend
18 reasons why you need to (virtually) attend Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #4
200+ speakers, 16 conference tracks, 1,500+ industry professionals, exciting fringe events - November’s digital conference is set up to be an early Christmas cracker!
Shake Up
Tencent's Chinese iOS game revenue drops $125 million as Lingxi and Lilith see strong growth
Trends in the world's largest market
New Acquisition
JetSynthesys acquires Real Cricket developer Nautilus Mobile
"With the online gaming industry skyrocketing, the acquisition also sets the ball rolling on our plan to deepen our foray into cricket esports"
Fully Immersed
Gameloft and Asus team up to bring immersive gaming experiences to ROG Phone 3
"Exploring different approaches and providing distinctive features for mobile gaming has always been our ultimate goal"
Breath Of The Who?
Genshin Impact's early popularity explodes to 23 million downloads in first week
Number one title across 74 countries on iOS and 33 on Google Play
Remote Working
Square Enix Montréal's Nathalie Gauthier explains why soft skills are the key to managing people
"You certainly have to clearly understand that producing has nothing to do with authority or micro-managing every decision."
Catch Em All
Niantic to help 1,000 small businesses through Pokemon Go sponsorship
As part of the Local Business Recovery Initiative
Hacked Off
Two members of hacking group Team Xecutor have been arrested
"Imagine if something you invented was stolen from you and then marketed and sold to customers around the world. That is exactly what Team Xecutor was doing"
Acquisition
Thunderful Group acquires Shadow Point developer Coatsink
”We have established a good relationship with the founders and key personnel of Coatsink"
Master The Meta
Master the Meta: Understanding gaming’s dark horse - Stillfront Group
The Master the Meta team dives into Stillfront's success
Lawsuit
Nintendo insists joy-con drift issues are not "a real problem"
"We are working on putting together a montage of video clips from Nintendo Switch owners"
Clik
Crazylabs launches CLIK dashboard for hyper-casual game developers
The new self-serve platform for testing hyper-casual games will reward developers who pass the CTR test with up to $25,000
Touchdown
Nifty Games discuss NFL Clash strategy, long-term goals, and Colin Kaepernick
"Nothing makes us more upset than the pay-to-win mechanics that would make the game unfair."
Delayed Change
Google delays Play Store changes in India to 2022
"We are setting up listening sessions with leading Indian startups to understand their concerns more deeply"
Get The Latest Trends
Get early access to the mobile games developer trends survey results from this Wednesday October 7th by signing up to our events mailing list!
Receive incredible benefits including early access to unmissable content like our survey results
Fighting Toxicity
Around 25 per cent of Ubisoft employees have seen misconduct
"New channels have been put in place so that each report can be escalated anonymously to the group level and handled by our partner, Idoko"
Shoot Em Up
Call of Duty: Mobile nears $500 million in revenue
The third top-grossing shooter in the US
Ready For Launch
Pocket Gamer LaunchPad #2 is coming. Join us in November for the biggest show in mobile gaming
The digital consumer showcase event returns to put the spotlight on developers as they present their exciting upcoming titles across multiple platforms - get involved now!
So Long
Rovio CEO Levoranta will step down at the end of the year
"We will continue working closely together until the end of the year, and then it will be time for me to thank everyone for excellent cooperation"
Most Read
Hot Five: Sumo acquires Pipeworks, ironSource opens in-app bidding platform, and Call of Duty: Mobile peaks at nearly one billion hours
The hottest articles of last week
#wordswithhope
Zynga partners with the American Cancer Society for #WordsWithHope
"Words matter and #WordsWithHope is a creative way to increase awareness about the importance of breast cancer screening"