Third Time Lucky?
Starbreeze applies for third extension to reconstruction period
Follows acting CEO Mikael Nermark saying that his No.1 priority is "securing the long-term financing for the company"
Supporting Vr
Ex-Beat Games boss Beck looking to invest in VR projects
“I think it will be great to put a bunch of money together and start supporting new developers”
Global Expansion
Virtuos expands with new offices in Montreal and South Korea
"As we continue our global expansion plan and open new offices around the world our mission remains focused on creating great games”
Lego Star Wars
TT Games Brighton developing a new LEGO Star Wars game for mobile devices
The game feature content from all nine Skywalker saga films, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rogue One
Small Giants
How Small Giant Games made it big
We speak to studio co-founder and CEO Timo Soininen about the developer's incredible journey
Gotta Sync ‘em All
Pokemon Masters champions 10 million downloads in four days
Number one for downloads across 27 countries including the US and Japan
New Studio
Fate/Grand Order developer Type-Moon opens new subsidiary studio
New location is headed up by Dragon Quest Builders series director Kazuya Niinou
User Acquisition
Using Facebook to drive people to your games
Smartly.io head of gaming, EMEA Fernando Pernica discusses how to best utilise the social network to acquire users
Deal Closed
Annapurna Pictures reportedly resolves more than $200 million in debt
The agreed deal will see participants in revolving credit facility receive an estimated $0.82 on the dollar
Jobs In Games
"Game design isn’t all about grand ideas and blue-sky visions of exciting new games"
“The devil is in the detail”
Perfect Balance
Modus Games acquires Brazilian dev The Balance
The developer is the first acquisition by the publisher and will be renamed as Modus Studios Brazil as part of the deal
China Expansion
Huya picks up minority stake in ESL for $30m
The two companies plan to expand esports services in China following the deal
Spectator Games
Lucky’s Tale developer Playful Studios raises $23 million for spectator games
“We’re working on a large project It’s about the fact that video games are becoming a spectator sport”
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Funday Factory’s Emil Kjaehr to discuss game developer life lessons
“First thing I'd say is that you should be willing to relocate! In the Nordics, for instance, studios mostly cluster around a few large cities”
Job News
Stillfront names Goodgame’s Phillip Knust as group chief product officer
"Establishing this role on the Group level is an important step to further accelerate synergies and develop Stillfront"
Obituary
Night in the Woods developer Alec Holowka dies
He had worked on titles such as Aquaria and TowerFall Ascension
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Voodoo's top 10 download dominance wanes
Rankings from August 19th to 25th
East Meets West
East Meets West: Mobile esports games earned $15.3bn in 2018, and Blizzard sues Chinese dev over WoW 'clone'
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Beyond Mobile
Interview: Big Screen Gaming brings PC and console experts to 2019 Helsinki conference
For the first time, tickets to October’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019 include access to a track dedicated to making PC and console games
Hot Five
Rush Wars heads into soft launch, Supercell analysis, and Zynga's growth track
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Lawsuit
Blizzard sues Chinese developer Sina Games over World of Warcraft ‘clone’
Glorious Saga was shut down on August 29th for "irresistible reasons" following the lawsuit filing
Event
Last week's Games Mixer 2019 near Gamescom was a great success
An international audience learned about the potential in the Korean games market with G-STAR
Region Focus
Region focus: A deep dive into the MENA games industry
Kickstarting a series of features looking at the opportunity and challenges of the burgeoning MENA mobile games sector, we take a broad look at the reality of the market
New Tv Show
Etermax unveils new Trivia Crack animated series Triviatopia
The new show will launch for free on YouTube and YouTube Kids on September 12th
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Full HP Ltd’s Murad Musakaev to discuss balancing priorities between growth and retention
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki is being held from October 1st to 2nd
Mobile Esports
Mobile esports games earned $15.3 billion in 2018
Over 51% of China’s domestic games market was grossed by mobile titles.
Esports Team
Pole to Win launches its own PUBG Mobile esports team
Orange Rock Esports to compete at the Vodafone 5G PUBG Mobile finals in Milan
Gears Royale
Gears Pop snags one million players
The title has been an early top 100 grossing game in the UK and US
Who's There?
Instant games developer Knock Knock raises $4m
The San Francisco-based studio has raised $6 million to date
Event
One week left to save up to $250 on Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Early Bird prices for the two-day B2B conference are set to end next week
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Quicksave’s Elina Arponen to host a talk on the challenges of games as a business
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki is being held on October 1st to 2nd
Event
Just one week left to save on the price of tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Mid-term prices are set to revert to full price for October’s two-day B2B mobile games industry conference next week.
Company Expansion
Keywords expands offices in Poland and Mexico
Services provider set to recruit more staff
Lacking Influence
Futureplay: We blew our brand marketing budget on influencers
"It failed miserably. So we donated $10k to charity instead"
Jobs News
Rogue Games appoints ex-Kabam COO to board of directors
Joins company co-founders Mike DeLaet and Matt Casamassina, and Mail.Ru founder Dmitry Grishin on the board.
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Playrix's Gardenscapes, Homescapes and Township bag top 10 grossing spots
Rankings from August 12th to 18th
Critical Hit?
Pokemon Masters launches globally on iOS and Android
Title had surpassed five million pre-registrations ahead of release
Finding Funding
Cerberus Interactive secures $1.75m for location-based augmented reality games
Debut title Atlas Empires due for a Q1 2020 global release
#metoo
Members of the games industry come forward with allegations of sexual assault
Now survivors from all over the industry are detailing alleged harassment, assault and abuse
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Gametapas’ Juan Gril to host talk on game depth in hyper-casual games
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki takes place from October 1st to 2nd
Seed Funding
Hyper-casual competitive gaming platform Ready secures $5 million in seed funding round led by Bitkraft
The money will be used to expand the company’s audience of engaged players
Telling New Tales
It looks like Telltale Games is coming back from the dead
“There is still a huge fanbase of Telltale players and that’s one of the main reasons we decided to make this investment"
Mental Health
New Toronto event to deal with mental health in the games industry
It will take place over World Mental Health Day on October 9th and 10th
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Olivér Papp on why it's important to acknowledge your learnings at the end of a project
"You gained so much knowledge and experience during your journey and you should acknowledge it"
Licensing Odyssey
New studio Virtual Realms taps Warhammer licence for mobile MMORPG Odyssey
Yet another developer picks up a licence from Games Workshop
Webinar
FREE player retention webinar TOMORROW!
Learn about the good, the bad and the great of player engagement with deltaDNA
Jobs News
Adjust eyes Israel expansion with new GM
Former Rakuten Viber head of user acquisition Moshi Blum to spearhead the company's planned growth in the local market
Mena Expansion
Tencent Games sets up MENA HQ in Dubai
Chinese publisher set to invest in emerging market
Top Dog
How Zynga used M&A and forever franchises to become the world's number one mobile games company
"Personally, this is actually a quest that I’ve been going after since my days at EA Mobile"
Gamescom 2019
Gamescom 2019 attracts 373,000 visitors
"Gamescom once again impressively continued its success story this year: on-site and online"