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"
1.5 Million Users
Live and Kicking: How World of Tanks Blitz has battled its way up through the charts for six years
"If your project is successful it bestows some power on you"
Mix It Up
GDC 2021 will be hybrid of physical and digital events
Will be held from July 19th to July 23rd
Game Taxonomy
Sensor Tower expands platform with new Game Taxonomy and ARPDAU features
Game Taxonomy developed in partnership with Deconstructor of Fun
You're A Winner
Voodoo to award $100k and a publishing contract to the winner of its hypercasual competition
It will be held through September
Narrative And Culture
Playtra Games’ founder and CEO Dan Bernardo on different cultures creating different narrative structures for media and entertainment
“What we see today is an emphasis on watching games more than playing them and LGBTQ+ representation are products of what happened to the industry a couple of years ago.”
New Acquisition
Testronic acquires Whyttest to expand its QA capacity
"I'm delighted that Whyttest is now part of the Testronic family"
The More You Know
New research demonstrates the positive impact of videogames on young people's literacy
They can also help with creativity, empathy and wellbeing
China Ua
User Acquisition in China: Capturing the world's largest mobile gaming audience
Yodo1 explains the audience and channels you should be using
Still Running
Subway Surfers has surpassed three billion downloads
Adding 500 million downloads since May 2019
Welcome Aboard
Sybo hires ex-Gram Games VP of product Jeremy Stein to head up its Copenhagen studio
"With multiple top-grossing mobile games to his credit, Jeremy's proven success is a big win for SYBO"
Embrace Diversity
Report: 46 per cent of all gamers are female
The majority of gamers are above 20 years of age
Bluff Plus
Interview: How Zynga mixed casual card gaming with strong social mechanics in Bluff Plus
Zynga Turkey general manager Buğra Koç talks us through the design and development
Helping Charity
Quakecon at Home raises more than $30,000 for charity
The online event took place over the weekend
Expansion
THQ Nordic appoints Eric Wuestmann as its first North American CEO
"We certainly see an opportunity to expand our team on the ground in North America"
Financials
Stillfront Group revenue up 148% year-on-year in Q2 2020
The growth has been attributed to recent acquisitions
Apple Arcade
Indie Spotlight: How Amanita Design's Radim Jurda created the prototype for Creaks as his diploma thesis
"The games that have impacted me the most are usually indie games"
Money Money Money
PUBG Mobile shoots through the most mobile games revenue in July 2020
Lineage M had its best month since April 2018
Money Money Money
US games spending hits a quarterly high with $11.6 billion in Q2 2020
"During the pandemic, many have turned to video games not only to keep them preoccupied, but also to stay in touch with family and friends"
Reasons To Attend
20 reasons why you need to (virtually) attend Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Digital 2020
250 expert speakers, 21 conference tracks, 1,500+ industry professionals, exciting fringe events - next month’s online conference is set to be a cracker!