Trade Trends
Partnerships, publishing and knowing the market: Inside Trade Trends at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Roundup
Games industry roundup: GAME Digital board pushes for Sports Direct sale, Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency, and FTC investigating YouTube
15 articles from PocketGamer.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockchainGamer.biz
World Record
LEGO Tower-inspired model sets new Guinness World record for largest brick diorama
Diorama came in at 21 square metres, smashing Minecraft's previous record of 17.13 square metres
Streaming
Streaming services not likely to take over the games industry as a whole, says WBIE president
"I don’t believe that it will automatically come together"
East Meets West
East Meets West: Tencent gaming phone, Apple's warning over US-China trade war, and Game for Peace could reach $1bn
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Job News
Blizzard's global esports director Kim Phan has left the company
Less than a month after Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer departed the firm for Epic Games.
Weekly Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Candy Crush Saga shoots down PUBG Mobile’s chances of topping gross ranking in the US
Rankings from June 10th to June 16th
Marketing Strategies
The 2019 mobile game marketing strategies that work
App Radar's Genie Patrathiranond offers some key tips
Galleons
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite makes $300,000 in first 24 hours from US and UK
Tops US App Store however can’t match the numbers of Pokemon Go
Ad Monetisation
How to monetise your IAP-based game with ads
IronSource VP of global partnerships delivers the lowdown on in-game ads
Hot Five
Women "underserved" in mobile games market, $1m potato artist joins Animoca Brands, and Empires & Puzzles hits 34m installs
The hottest mobile games industry stories from the last week
Trade War
Apple: New China tariffs will favour foreign competitors, not US
iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods and Apple TV will also be affected in new proposals are enacted
King Of Education
Roblox Summer Creator Challenge teams up with Godzilla to teach kids to code
The King of Monsters takes time out from his day job to incentivise children to learn programming
Games For Change
Games for Change: How students are leading the charge for positive social change
President Susanna Pollack discusses the organisation's mission and how it's enabling students to lead the charge for social change
Cheap As Chips
Artist who sold photo of potato for $1m joins Animoca Brands as creative director
Kevin Abosch will provide creative advice and direction on upcoming titles the Sandbox and F1 Delta Time
Esports And Kpl
Check out the Esports and Key Opinion Leaders track at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Auto Chess
Valve’s first mobile game DOTA Underlords heads into open beta
Title based on the new Auto Chess craze
'busiest Lady In The Biz'
What’s Good Games’ Andrea Rene on the state of mobile, Apple Arcade and 12 years in the games industry
"If you don’t have the passion somebody will take your place"
Event
Just one week to save up to $180 on tickets to Blockchain Gamer and Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
The Mid-Term ticket price timer is counting down for next month’s two-day B2B games industry conference.
Event
Speak at the first ever Pocket Gamer Connects MENA this November
Join us for the two day B2B conference and take your place among the 80 speakers exploring this market
Dcms
What we learned from EA and Epic Games' time at the DCMS select committee
How much money is Fortnite making, how much is FIFA actually played and what EA likes to call loot boxes
Monetiser
Monetisation design, profitability and gacha: Inside Monetiser at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Accio Wallet
Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite out now in the UK
Co-developed and co-published with WB Games San Francisco
Live And Kicking
Four years on: How Travelling Millionaire’s regular events have garnered an engaged audience in the Middle East
"I owe everything I’ve learned to Travelling Millionaire and it has been a privilege working with a lot of talented people.
M&a
Dutch firm Azerion acquires Spil Games’ mobile division
Also takes small minority stake in Spil's web portal business
Smart Design
How this award-winning studio uses Smartlook to make its games better
Madfinger discusses working with Smartlook on its mobile shooter Shadowgun Legends
Move Over Razer
Report: Tencent and Asus to unveil new gaming phone in July
The mobile is said to be designed for esports fanatics and hardcore gamers
Mario & Dragons
After making billions on mobile Puzzle & Dragons Gold is launching on Nintendo Switch
The game will make its debut later this year
Executive Shuffle
Ustwo names new CEO as it heads into multi-game development
Maria Sayans takes on top job as Dan Gray is promoted to chief creative officer and Peter Pashley is appointed chief development officer
Bebo X Twitch
Twitch acquires Bebo to expand esports platform
Bebo launched in 2005 before Facebook spearheaded the social media frenzy
Developer Toolkit
Unity, licensed IP and knowing your end goal: Inside The Developer Toolkit at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Style Spaces
“Women are most definitely underserved in the mobile games market”
Hutch CEO Beatrice Fischel-Bock discusses her entrepreneurial history and why she thinks Hutch can crack the mobile games market with Style Spaces
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Noodlecake Studios COO on transitioning to games-as-a-service for Golf Blitz
"You need to get your face out there, showing off your games and build a small community to champion it all"
Unionisation Platform
US president hopeful Bernie Sanders backs game developer unionisation
Democratic Senator says workers should be reaping the rewards games brought in in the US last year
Up In The Cloud
Microsoft's Azure cloud tech venture set up shop in the Middle East
Big M beats both Amazon and Google to the region
Data
Cultist Simulator generates $226,000 on mobile in less than two months
61,671 downloads across the App Store and Google Play
Peacekeepers
Tencent’s battle royale hit Game for Peace could reach $1bn in first year
Niko Partners claims high sales for recent release; speculates on a partnership with Nintendo to release mobile games in China
Engine Trouble
Report: Amazon is letting its dev teams use game engines other than Lumberyard
Developers say firm is struggling with maintaining the middleware
Wands At The Ready
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite launches in the UK and US this week
Niantic CEO John Hanke confirmed at a press event in Los Angeles
Forever Franchise
Empires & Puzzles racks up 34 million downloads
New update led by 20-year old Sofia Vanhanen adds base updates and Hunter's Lodge
Instant Demos
Synative Playable Studio now lets devs create Google Play ‘Try Now’ demos for free
, Google Play’s instant games are designed to be available instantly, without the need for a download
Lot Of Bottle Caps
Fallout Shelter accumulates $100 million in player spending on mobile
63 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play
Tagged In
How Tag Games balances work-for-hire development and live ops
CEO Marc Williamson reflects on the company's history and his year in charge
Acquisition
Niantic acquires tabletop games creator Sensible Object
The office will become part of Niantic London alongside AI technology firm Matrix Mill
The Doctor Is In
Dr. Mario World drops worldwide in July
Game will be available on both iOS and Android from launch
Growth Track
User acquisition, marketing and app store optimisation: Inside The Growth Track at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Outplay Entertainment’s Riccardo Tramma on how to get a job as an engineer
"The advances in technology and the quality of the games have contributed to creating completely new professional fields of expertise"
Event
Come and see Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki’s 12 conference tracks!
Check out the two-day B2B expo tracklist here
Job News
Nintendo promotes Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma
Splatoon producer Hisashi Nogami and Animal Crossing’s Aya Kyogoku see job boosts too
Gotta Hack ’em All
Niantic looking to catch Pokemon Go “hackers” with lawsuit
Firm seeking an injunction to prevent PokeGo++ and other apps from being distributed