Welcome To The Family
Epic Games snaps up RAD Game Tools
"RAD and Epic combining forces will allow even more developers access to tools that make their games load and download faster"
Entering China
Pixel Federation enters Chinese market with Diggy's Adventure
"We are very excited to bring our most popular game to Chinese players and we hope to steal their hearts"
Outta Here
Twitch removes PogChamp emote following Capitol Hill riots
"We've made the decision to remove the PogChamp emote following statements from the face of the emote encouraging further violence after what took place in the Capitol today"
I'm A Survivor
State of Survival surpasses 60 million downloads in one year
"2020 has been a remarkable year, and this is just the beginning."
Imposter
Among Us clone 'Werewolf Among Us' accumulates 663k lifetime downloads, 100k in a single day
International version 'Murder Party' picks up 19,000 downloads too
Making Of
How a trip to Antarctica helped bring authenticity to South of the Circle
We speak to State of Play Games co-founder Luke Whittaker regarding the development of South of the Circle on Apple Arcade
Proving Popular
Over 28 million Americans became mobile gamers last year
"Our latest Facebook Gaming Marketing Report showed that the unpredictable nature of 2020 led to a significant increase in gaming audience and player engagement"
Ninten-yay
Take a tour around Super Nintendo World on its new website
Due to open on February 4th
Proving Popular
TikTok picks up the most non-gaming downloads in December 2020
It had nearly 56 million installs
Going Public
Roblox to go public via direct listing at a valuation of $29.5 billion
Following a $520 million Series H funding round
Discount Ends
ONE WEEK LEFT to save up to 50% on the price of tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #5
Don’t miss out on our incredible Early Bird savings by booking your tickets now to February’s digital conference
Bricked
Minecraft Earth failed to cross $500k in lifetime revenue - are location-based games off the map?
While Pokemon GO has adapted and thrived, others have come up short
Money Money Money
Digital games spending hit $126.6 billion in 2020
The majority was generated via mobile
A Good Deed
Kwalee pledges profits from Teacher Simulator to charity
"We're huge admirers of Marcus Rashford's campaigning and strongly believe in the work done by FareShare"
Put 'em Up
Call of Duty: Mobile fires through $14 million in its Chinese launch week
The game has generated $644 million in lifetime revenue
What's New
Five trends that will drive social mobile gaming in 2021
Oren Todoros gets out his crystal ball
Fashion Go
Niantic brings The North Face x Gucci collection to Pokemon Go
Available in 100 cities worldwide
Tick Tock
TikTok reigns supreme as the top-grossing app for December 2020
Followed by YouTube at No.2
Save The Planet
Apple to modify exec bonuses based on environmental values
"Beginning in 2021, an environmental, social, and governance modifier based on Apple Values and other key community initiatives will be incorporated into our annual cash incentive program"
Fat Or Thin?
2021: Mobile gaming’s year of reckoning?
Was 2020 extraordinary or the new ordinary?
Get Hyped
Hypercasual publisher Ducky is generating $1 million a month
Its games have been played 145 million times
Stand Up
Google employees rally together to form the Alphabet Workers Union
"Our goals go beyond the workplace questions of 'Are people getting paid enough?' Our issues are going much broader"
Schedule Revealed
Conference schedule revealed for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #5
Kick off the new year in style by finding out what’s happening at next month’s online-only mobile games industry conference
Farewell
Minecraft Earth set to shutdown in June 2021
The AR title launched in October 2019
Welcome To The Family
Niantic snaps up games community platform Mayhem
Terms of the deal were not disclosed
Proving Popular
Mobile gaming in the UK has been on the rise over the past year
"Mobile gaming has exploded in the last 12 months as people across the UK have spent more time at home"
Money Money Money
Ten Square Games hits nearly $50 million in Q4 2020
“This has been another great quarter for Ten Square Games"
Goodbye Farmville
Down on the FarmVille: The rise of Zynga's social gaming icon
As Zynga closes down the first FarmVille, we take a look back at what made it special
Playables
Is it time for more publishers to add playables to their advertising mix?
Mindworks' Stella Zhu discusses the benefits of including playable ads
Cyberspace
Japanese games firm Koei Tecmo hit by cyber attack
Forums of UK subsidiary breached, user information potentially stolen
Remote Working
"An average programmer with good communication and social skills is easier to train," says CoolGames technical lead Kasper Boonstra
"Working remotely felt like a bigger issue than it turned out to be"
Catch Em All
Niantic offers players chance to be a real trainer in Pokémon Go
"Try giving yourself a theme, like a cool and dynamic Electric-type Trainer or a fluid and powerful Water-type Trainer"
Green Thumb
Ustwo games is planting a new tree for each download of Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
So far 276,490 trees have been planted
Money Money Money
Mobile consumer spending hit $111 billion last year
An increase of 30.2 per cent year-on-year
Hackernom
Cut the Rope star Om Nom gets new soft-launched title with Cybernom
ZeptoLab will be looking to recreate the success of Om Nom: Run
Ninten-yay
Nintendo snaps up Luigi's Mansion 3 dev Next Level Games
The deal is expected to close on March 1st
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Mobile app Roshambo Live picked up by ITV for pilot live TV show
ITV's Studio 55 cited the game as a potential 'media landscape gamechanger'
Investment
Mobile Dev Memo's MDM Investment Syndicate has already made four deals
"The Mobile Dev Memo Syndicate closed its fourth deal just before Christmas, putting it at an investment cadence of one per month since its launch in September"
Homecoming
Epic Games purchases a shopping mall to be its new HQ
Construction will begin this year
Splash The Cash
Nordisk Games acquires 40% of MercurySteam
This is the firm's first investment outside of the Nordic region
Over The Horizon
Animal Crossing: New Horizons closes out 2020 at the top of the UK charts
It experienced a seven per cent increase in sales
Big Spender
European consumers spent $54.6 million on mobile apps on Christmas Day
Globally mobile spending hit $407 million that same day
Getting The Boot
Apple purges 39,000 titles from its Chinese App Store
As a result of apps not having a license
Welcome Back
Huawei returns Tencent's games to its storefront
Following removal due to a revenue share dispute
Rip
Yoozoo Games CEO and chairman Qi passes away at 39
Allegedly due to being poisoned
2020 In Review
"The IDFApocalypse will force developers to rethink ad models," says AdInMo CEO Kristan Rivers
As part of our 2020 in review series
2020 In Review
Gismart VP of business development on company growth, expansion, and juggling hypercasual titles
As part of our 2020 in review series
2020 In Review
Mobile Groove's Peggy Anne Salz on 'the year that forced many to rewrite the marketing playbook'
As part of our 2020 in review series
2020 In Review
Steel Media in 2020: connecting the games industry with 55 events, 7,600 media stories and a whole lot of love
Locked down... but by no means out in 2020
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: "I see a bright future ahead for virtual conferences," says Mowhawk Games CEO Leyla Johnson
PGC Digital #5 kicks off on February 8th