Four Of A Kind
Indie Spotlight: How Foursaken Media upped the ante for War Tortoise 2
"Knowing where to draw the line between polished enough to be great and over-polished is one of the most important things"
Slapping Downloads
Slap Kings racked up the most mobile downloads in March 2020
Voodoo had three entries
Cook Out
Office Create is "evaluating all legal action" against Planet Entertainment over unauthorised Cooking Mama title
"The quality of the game builds failed to meet the standards that our customers expect and deserve"
The Big Two-oh
Gameloft celebrates 20th anniversary with free Gameloft Classics collection
Play NOVA, Modern Combat 2, and High School Hook Ups on your smartphone
Independence
Demiurge becomes an independent studio after its co-founder buys it back from Sega
It will continue to run Marvel Puzzle Quest and Sega Heroes
Big Indie Pitch
Attractive Interactive's Paper Game is crowned the winner of the first ever digital Big Indie Pitch
We reveal the winners of the first ever digital Big Indie Pitch
Typing...
Storytelling platform Unrd raises $2.5 million in funding
To be used for new formats and audience growth
Tv Show
TinyBuild reveals an animated Hello Neighbor TV show
A six-minute pilot is available for free on YouTube
Shut Down
Pokemon Rumble Rush is shutting down just over a year after launching
The servers close on July 22nd
Bad Liar
Pop star Selena Gomez files lawsuit against Clothes Forever developer LoveCrunch
Suing for damages, profits, and for the game to stop using her likeness.
Hypercasual Help
Supersonic Studios partners with ITI to help publish Japanese games internationally
"We are excited to help other Japanese developers see their games achieve international success"
Yoke On Tiktok
Why influencer marketing firm Yoke thinks TikTok is "the platform of the future"
Yoke founder and CEO Jidé Maduako on why the firm is now exploring CPI campaigns
Nifty Moves
Nifty Games closes $12 million series A funding round as it reveals NFL licensing agreement
NFL Clash will be the studio's first game
Call Me Maybe
Activision Blizzard CEO gives out personal number to employees amid pandemic
Bobby Kotick also confirms all games are on track
Subject To Approval
Nordisk Film Games becomes largest shareholder in Nitro Games following $4.5 million investment
Funds will go towards more shooter games
10 Years On
Opinion: How iPad's launch confused game developers
Next generation proving much like the old one
Event Latest
First Pocket Gamer Connects Digital smashes expectations with over 1,100 attendees from 60 countries
Representatives from almost 650 companies witnessed over 160 expert speakers and organised 2,600 digital meetings throughout the week!
Investment
Sony invests $400 million in streaming platform Bilibili
It owns 4.98 per cent of the Chinese firm
Jobs In Games
Remote Working: How Dan Sturman went from researcher to Roblox CTO
"The biggest challenge for me has been being new to the team and not yet knowing who is who"
Shifting Units
Apple shipped 2.5 million iPhones in China last month
Five times more than February
End Of An Era
Alien: Blackout developer Rival Games closes its doors as coronavirus shuts down partnership opportunities
"It shut down all the leads that we had and left us lost in the dark with no way out"
Surprise Mechanics
ESRB to flag random loot mechanics in games
Follows the introduction of in-game purchases more than two years ago
China Isbn
What does China’s tightened ISBN policy mean for developers entering the market?
Nativex Europe's general manager Leticia Ye digs in
Collaboration Spree
Kabam soft-launches action-RPG Disney Mirrorverse in the Philippines
Set to feature familiar faces from the world of Disney and Pixar
Most Read
Hot Five: Scrabble Go has a huge launch, Super Evil Megacorp saves Vainglory, and the making of Shantae and the Seven Sirens
The hottest articles of last week
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: How China convinced Yodo1 business manager Marina Espin to join the industry
"When I was little, I never even thought about the existence of a whole industry, not to mention actual jobs there"
Going Digital
I attended my first online conference last week, and I loved it
PGBiz Editor Ric Cowley discusses why online-only conferences are a boon for the whole industry
This Week In China
This Week In China: Minecraft adds epidemic prevention content and 37Games plans to raise money for cloud gaming
A look back at the biggest stories direct from China
Brand Survival
Four tips to help your brand survive social distancing
Admix founder Samuel Huber offers advice in these tough times
Here's A Story
Tamatem secures strategic partnership with Nanobit for launch of Hollywood Story in the MENA region
Now know as Fashion Queen
Nerf This
Homa Games partners with Hasbro on NERF Epic Pranks! and more
First of several games to be released
Welcome Aboard
Double Eleven hires Ian Ng as Malaysian studio head
Used to work for Ubisoft Singapore
Streaming
Microsoft is bringing Project xCloud streaming service to Western Europe
11 countries will get access
Take Two
GDC Summer registrations are now open
It is being held between August 4th and 6th
Making Of
Making Of: How Shantae and the Seven Sirens found its way to being an Apple Arcade launch title
"This was our shortest dev cycle for a Shantae game"
Try It Out
Google Stadia Pro is free for two months
1080p is now the default resolution in order to not take up too much bandwidth
Family & Friends
Words With Friends booms in troubled times
Crunching the data with App Annie
Hyprmx Interviews
15 exclusive one-on-one chats with games industry experts from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020
The HyprMX interview sessions return for another year
Aso In China
ASO for China: Intro to localisation practices
Yodo1 breaks down some best practices
Will Mama Fix It?
Cooking Mama: Cookstar launch spoiled by cryptocurrency mining rumours and potential lawsuits
Game still available in physical form
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Why you shouldn't just "follow your GPS" and listen to your audience when designing live ops
GamePoint live ops manager Wouter Schrijvershof looks at the studio's work on GamePoint Bingo
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Looking at live ops from an analytics perspective
Small Giant Games lead data analyst Peitsa Hynninen
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: East Side Games on how it handles live ops, even when working remotely
CEO Joshua Nilson outlines the company's strategy
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Using AWS to make the most of live ops
AWS Game Tech's Chris Finch and Tabitha Graves dig into the specifics
Missing Gravity
World of Tanks Blitz gives players chance to win a piece of the moon in new Gravity Force game mode
"This is one small step for man, but one giant leap for Tank-kind."
Money Money Money
Embracer Group raises $164 million in investment
Will be used for acquisitions and expansion
Jetfuel
N3twork launches $50 million growth fund to scale tomorrow’s hit mobile games
Get 10,000 ad campaign for free
Sky Soaring
Indie Spotlight: How thatgamecompany transitioned from console to mobile with Sky: Children of Light
"We wanted to make the essence of Journey accessible to a broader audience"
What A Shame
ESA confirms that E3 2020 digital event won't be taking place
But trade body says it will be supporting companies who were meant to be at the show
Helping Out
EA will donate up to $2m to support coronavirus relief efforts
Publishing giant to match funds raised by staff