Just Like Magic
Niantic and EE partner to bring Wizards Unite bonuses to the UK
Inclusive data, sponsored Inns and licensed merchandise
Stadia Hurdles
Google Stadia mobile support “a hard technical challenge”
"I really want to have Stadia gameplay on every mobile device, across Android and iOS at some point"
Up In The Clouds
Mobile will play “important role” in Ubisoft’s grand plan to reach 5bn players
CEO Yves Guillemot discusses the blurring lines between platforms and regions
Npd Numbers
Nintendo Switch US sales top PlayStation and Xbox in June
“Nintendo Switch is the only platform showing year-on-year growth”
Medically Sound
Dr. Mario World encapsulates five million downloads in first week
Half a million dollars generated from player spending
Elite Game Developers
Elite Game Developers: Building Dazzle Rocks
Joakim Achrén speaks with co-founder and CEO Stella Wang about founding a company and gets her advice for entrepreneurs
Event
Just one week left to save up to $450 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Super Early Bird ticket prices end next week for October’s two-day B2B games industry conference
Business Deal
Kongregate acquires mobile and web RPG Bit Heroes
Juppiomenz-developed title has made generated $10 million in net revenue on mobile
New Competition
Skillz reveals $25,000 Global Game Development Challenge
First competition was won by the CodeCube Brothers
Moving Location
Zynga India moves to new studio in Bangalore
Developer currently hiring for multiple roles
Douyu Ipo
Chinese live-streaming platform DouYu launches $775 million IPO
The IPO was announced back in April but was halted a week later
Best Canaries
Seriously partners with Norwich City football club for Best Fiends sleeve sponsorship
“The first character ever to feature permanently on a Premier League shirt”
Kyoto Drift
Nintendo Switch owners are suffering Joy-Con drift issues
This follows Joy-Con desyncing fault near consoles launch
Live And Kicking
Four years on: Bethesda on the mutation of surprise hit Fallout Shelter
"Many decisions we made with The Elder Scrolls: Blades were based on our learnings from Fallout Shelter"
Falling Sales
Ubisoft cites lack of new releases for 24% mobile revenue decline in Q1
Mobile made up seven per cent of total net bookings
Auto Success?
Why Dragonest partnered up with Tencent to publish Drodo Auto Chess in China
"A good product needs to be known by as many people as possible"
New Horizons
Horizon Blockchain Games raises $3.75 million seed investment
Horizon is currently working on its debut release, an Ethereum-based trading-card game called SkyWeaver
Studio Closure
Terraforming Mars developer LuckyHammers closes down
70 staff lose their jobs
Event
Small Giant Games, Square Enix Montreal, Riot Games and ZeptoLab join the star-studded lineup of speakers at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Two-day B2B games industry conference looks set to make an incredible return to Finland in October.
Switching Up
Nintendo unveils new Switch model with longer battery life
Offers up to nine hours of portable play
$$$
Detective Pikachu becomes highest grossing video game film
Warcraft drops from top spot after the Pokemon movie generates $436m at the box office
New York New York
New York’s biggest two-day game convention Play NYC returns for third annual event
Play NYC will take place between August 10th to August 11th, 2019
Stepping Down
Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin steps down amidst sexual harassment allegations
Another creator from the network was dropped last month
Site Opening
Pole To Win opens Montreal office
New location will offer QA, customer service, engineering and translation services
Funding News
Esports outfit 100 Thieves raises $35m
Organisation plans to develop a new 15,000 square ft HQ in LA
Decade Of Publishing
Merge Games opens $4 million indie games fund
“It has always been fresh ideas that have made the business thrive”
Join Us
Come and meet China's top publishing companies at our free mini-summit in Cologne
Get important insights from the people on the ground at our event on Tuesday, August 20th
Esports Funding
Pixion Games raises $2 million to fund mobile esports development
“We are seeing a re-segmentation of casual players looking for a more core experience on mobile”
Business Deal
Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Vungle
Deal reported to be worth $750 million-plus
Mobile Gaming
18.6 million people in Germany play games on their smartphones
Mobile games and in app purchases earn €1.5 billion
Top Sellers
The top 20 best selling games on Nintendo Switch in Spain
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the top seller
Ongoing Partnership
Snap and Baidu renew sales partnership to continue reach in Asia
“Our partnership with Snap Inc. provides Chinese companies new avenues to expand their businesses through Snapchat advertising”
Investment Round
Indian ed-tech firm Byju's raises $150m
Funding is said to value the company at around $5.5 billion
Job News
PlayStation vet John Drake heads to Disney to lead games biz dev and licensing
Follows five years at Sony
Fighting Poverty
China looks to mobile game in bid to eradicate poverty
Title lets users sell in-game goods to earn discount credits on real food
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Level designer Jay Foreman on going from Kent Police force to making games at King
"Suddenly I’d gone from policing the streets of Kent to policing the mean streets of Stormwind as a game master for Blizzard"
Sick Acquisition
My.Games acquires Love Sick studio Swag Masha
Companies had already worked together to launch the developer's flagship title
Linked In
Tencent launches Steam Link-like mobile streaming app for WeGame
Users can stream PC games to their smartphones over Wi-Fi
Global Advertising
The top global game advertisers in the US, Japan and South Korea for June 2019
SocialPeta data shows which games are generating the highest number of ad impressions
Strategic Investment
NetEase acquires minority stake Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour
Influence of Chinese companies increases at Canadian firm following last year's deal with GAEA
Nfts
PGC Hong Kong: WAX strategic advisor Malcolm Caselle to host talk on the purpose of digital goods and NFTs
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong 2019 will take place on July 17th to 18th
App Shutdown
Niantic is shutting down its first app Field Trip
Field Trip has already been removed from app stores
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Honor of Kings is only the third top grosser in China as it faces a new challenger
Rankings from July 1st to July 7th
Dev Fund
ROKiT launches $50 million development fund for indie games
Developers are being encouraged to contact ROKiT games for a chance to secure upto $500,000 for their game.
Medical Bills
Dr. Mario World prescribes two million downloads in 72 hours
Game generates a disappointing $100,000 in revenue from player spending
Nexus Interview
Wargaming Nexus wants to find the next Fortnite on mobile
"For the near future, we plan to keep joining forces with external studios that are well-versed in Unreal Engine and willing to shoot for the stars alongside us"
Event
Special thank you to the sponsors for this week’s Blockchain Gamer and Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
The companies supporting the B2B games industry event’s first outing to the East
Reality And Streaming
Finnish start-up Surrogate.tv raises $2 million
“We want to rethink this process by bringing in unique benefits that the real world has to offer”
Roundup
Games industry roundup: EA and Riot vets set up Vela Games, Gods Unchained open beta, and how the top 5,000 dominate Twitch
15 articles from PocketGamer.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockchainGamer.biz
East Meets West
East Meets West: Nexon no longer for sale, Tencent negotiates better revenue share, and Chinese companies eye new age-rating system
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market