Farewell
En Masse Entertainment is shutting its doors
"Our focus in the coming weeks and months will be on our team, helping them to find new opportunities, and on our games, to ensure a seamless transition for you"
See You In Court
EA faces lawsuit over Ultimate Team loot boxes
Firm facing a class-action lawsuit in California
Fantastic Finland
Rewatch the 25th Finnish Game Awards here PLUS PGC HELSINKI OFFER
The fantastic Finnish games industry revealed its 2020 winners in a socially distanced celebration
Sweet Home Alakazam
Pokémon Home captures $5.5 million in revenue across first six months
Seven million installs since launching on February 12th, 2019
Connect The Dots
Take-Two Interactive to acquire Two Dots developer Playdots for $192 million
"Diversify and strengthen"
Three Minutes With Nexon
Three minutes with Nexon
Bango speaks to Nexon team manager Lee WooChang about the studio's UA strategy
Fancy A Coffee
Pokemon Cafe Mix stirs up five million downloads
It was released on June 23rd
I Spy
East Side Games teams with FX Networks for Archer: Danger Phone
Was originally announced by Disruptor Beam in 2019
Meet The Investor
1Up Ventures’ general partner Ed Fries on their cycle of investment and how raising funds from 1Up Ventures can benefit you
“We like to call 1Up Ventures a community of game developers because we really focus on making strong connections between the founders of the game companies we invest in.”
Investment
Tencent makes minor investment in hypercasual specialist Voodoo
"We can improve the way we distribute on Android"
Jobs In Games
Remote Working: AppLovin director Jerome Turnbull on Machine Zone being acquired in the middle of a pandemic
"At first, it was a challenge to merge two large teams into one cohesive unit in a remote environment"
Retaliation
Epic files injuction to prevent Apple from removing its developer tools from Mac and iOS
"Apple's actions will 'break' Fortnite for millions of existing players"
Sweet Investment
Lumikai launches first venture capital fund for games in India
"India's 300M+ user gaming market represent a global inflection point"
Breaking Records
Consumer spending on mobile reached $50 billion in H1 2020
There were 64 billion app installs
Work Hard
Electronic Arts leadership has been in "wartime" mode since coronavirus pandemic
"We had to roll up sleeves and get in to work with our teams"
Taking Issue
Facebook criticises Apple for its App Store commission costs
Follows the removal of Fortnite
All Your Bases
Why the best is yet to come for Asian powerhouse Nexon
CEO Owen Mahoney talks geopolitics and secular shifts
Future Of Blockchain
Merfolk Games’ founder and CEO Gabriel Meredith on the future of blockchain technology in gaming
“More Chinese companies are going to focus on publishing games abroad to avoid restrictions at home.”
Roll With The Punches
Sports and Financial founder Alex Deacon on commiting to premium with Boxing Manager
"I feel like there is a real problem with the inflexibility of pricing options within the App Store"
Hybrid Monetisation
Gaming Spotlight: Why hybrid monetisation is a sustainable business solution
Join us and Facebook Audience Network for a webinar discussing best hybrid monetisation practices
Together Again
Netmarble teams with BTS for second game BTS Universe Story
"BTS Universe Story will bring fresh, all-new content to players"
Outta Here
Ubisoft fires creative director Ashraf Ismail due to misconduct
"Following an investigation by an external firm, it was determined that Ashraf's employment with Ubisoft had to be terminated"
Honest Work
Playrix soft-launches match-three puzzler Farmscapes
New mobile title is available across Canada, Australia and the UK
Trump Card
Trump is demanding that TikTok divest its US operations within 90 days
"There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States"
Creating Good Company Culture
Unicorn Pirates Studio’s COO Ana Toledo on the steps they have been taking to make their working environment toxicity-free
“Mobile and free to pay have become a lot stronger, players are more used to them, understand the business, and are willing to support developers who make the games they love.”
Funding
Wildlife raises $120 million with a company valuation of $3 billion
"We will use most of the resources from this round to expand our creative powerhouse"
Most Read
Hot Five: Subway Surfers crosses three billion downloads, China requires names for gamers, and Epic goes to war
The hottest articles of last week
Diversity Matters
POC in Mobile: Why Sumo Digital's Harinder Sangha believes "change needs to happen at every level of the industry"
"There is no role or level at Sumo where we would not benefit from having more women"
Hard Day's Fortnite
Why is Epic going to war with Apple and Google?
Untangling the mess of the Fortnite mobile debacle
Takin' Care Of Business
Mobile games jobs weekly: Street Fighter boss Yoshinori Ono resigns, Embracer Group acquires 8 studios, and THQ appoints first North American CEO
The movers, shakers and job opportunities in mobile gaming
Making Magic
Making match-3 magic: Elevating the genre with IP
Zynga director of product Peter Rosetti on what it takes to bring Harry Potter to match-3
Financials
NetEase generated $2.6 billion in revenue for Q2 2020
"We saw healthy gains across our business in the second quarter"
Financials
Rovio's games revenue increases 2.2 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2020
"We had an eventful Q2 and continued delivering on our strategy on multiple fronts"
Interview
Square Enix's Karla Reyes on how product management can bring value to your players
"The ‘games as a service’ model will further grow and console games will continue to adopt monetisation and Live Ops models that started in mobile."
Event
Next month's Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2020 features speakers from the best in the business
Join us online as we reveal the top 50, hear from some amazing talent - and network with them all - totally FREE!
New Game Concepts
Fingersoft’s business development director Daniel Rantala on how new game concepts and prototypes are born internally at Fingersoft
“Huawei's struggle with Google can potentially make an impact in the mobile games industry, and could even potentially pave the way for completely new Android Stores”
It's A Battle
Fortnite generated just $10 million in revenue from Google Play before its removal
It secured 11 million downloads in four months through Google's store
Financials
Netmarble experiences great growth in Q2 2020 as Seven Deadly Sins continues to perform well
"Netmarble had a very strong second quarter with strong performances from games launched in the first half of the year"
Booted
Update: Epic is suing Google after Fortnite's Google Play removal
The boot follows Fortnite's removal from the Apple App Store
Epic Battle
Epic sues Apple after Fortnite removed from App Store
Two titans of the mobile games industry have gone head-to-head
Regenerated
Blockchain-powered trading card game Doctor Who: Worlds Apart coming to mobile in 2021
Reality Gaming Group becomes the first developer to ever use a BBC IP on the blockchain
Like A Ninja
GungHo's free-to-play Switch shooter Ninjala has hit four million downloads
It was released on July 24th
Making Friends
My Talking Tom Friends was the most downloaded mobile game for July 2020
Several new entries make the top downloads list
Grab A Deal
Epic is circumventing Apple and Google's fees to offer discounted V-Bucks in Fortnite on mobile
"Epic passes along payment processing savings to you"
The Lightneer Approach
The Voodoo Approach: Lightneer on making the pivot to hyper-casual
"We really like that Lightneer and Voodoo are very aligned on the need to test as frequently as makes sense"
Masterclass
Code Coven's Tara Mustapha on how to get the most from your designers
"Creating elegant frameworks and common languages on a team gives everyone room to focus on the creative magic"
Busy Busy
Embracer Group acquires eight new studios including DECA Games
"It is with great pleasure and excitement for the future that DECA joins Embracer today"
Join The Creed
Lilith Games teams with Ubisoft to bring Ezio Auditore to AFK Arena
"We're thrilled to add Ezio from Assassin's Creed to our hero lineup from today"
Expelliarmus
Zynga opens pre-registrations for Harry Potter: Puzzles and Spells
"We'll be delighting fans with the memorable characters, sound and story of the original books and films"
Financials
Tencent's revenue up 28 per cent year-on-year as it generates $31.5 billion
"We achieved generally robust operating and financial results in the second quarter"