Raking It In
Clash of Clans revenue jumped 72% to $71 million in month after Gold Pass introduction
Season Challenges and Gold Pass doing the business for Supercell
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: Roblox's Enrico D'Angelo on a UGC platform that encourages entrepreneurship
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
East Meets West
East Meets West: DOCOMO invests $280m in Magic Leap, the Middle East's growing games market, and Let's Hunt Monsters a top grosser in China
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
NBCUniversal's games strategy, Apple's offerwall crackdown, and why Clash of Clans' Season Challenges have proven so lucrative
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Sales Decline
King revenue falls year-on-year to $529m despite growth in MAUs
PC declines and Candy Crush Friends Saga impacts profitability
Movie
Sonic movie director promises drastic design changes following criticism on the hedgehog’s new look
Nine months ahead of release, Sonic is going back to the drawing board
Jobs News
Mobile ad tech firm Pocketmath appoints Joanne Joynson-Hewlett as CEO
“It is a time of unprecedented growth and opportunity for Pocketmath”
Interview
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: Funplus' Graham Gockley to discuss acquisition strategies
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
For The Throne
Game of Thrones: Conquest has largest revenue month in April
Title grew 90 per cent year-on-year
Event
Win FREE expo space in the Big Indie Zone at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Get the chance to demo your game to the global games industry FREE this July, worth $650
Interview
Ablegamers CEO Mark Barlet feels the future's bright for accessibility in gaming
“It’s not in a perfect state, but I believe everyone from the indies to triple-As is on that journey to a more accessible experience”
East Meets West
Development, publishing and opportunities in Asia: Inside East Meets West at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle will run from May 13th to 14th
Well Played
Phoenix Games makes UK studio Well Played its first acquisition
Leamington Spa developer is currently working on Warhammer Combat cards
Saved By The Bell
NBCUniversal's Chris Heatherly: "We don’t want to be a movie games company, we want to be a games company"
We discuss the company's licensing strategy, how it finances new projects and whether it will start acquiring studios for internal development
On The Move
Kongregate CEO Emily Greer steps down for new venture
COO Pany Haritatos named new interim boss
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Scopely's Rob Ricca to host session on the future opportunities open to games developers
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
Launch
GameClub raises $2.5 million to bring old premium games into the modern marketplace
Mobile startup is already working on making over 50 games compatible with current and future devices
Expansion
Esports organisation Immortals raises $30 million in funding
Firm also acquires Brazilian matchmaking platform Gamers Club
Expert Insights
17 one-on-one interviews with games industry leaders at PGC London 2019
Spend some time with a stellar lineup of industry pros including Supersolid, Playtika, Nanobit, PlayStack, and Super Evil Megacorp
Impressive Numbers
Voodoo outpaces hyper-casual rivals with 771 million downloads in six months
Lion Studios and Playgendary follow in second and third
Indie Track
UX design, team management tips and publishing advice: Inside the Indie Track at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle will run from May 13th to 14th
Good Dog
Zynga posts record mobile bookings of $341m in Q1 2019 thanks to Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons
However losses increased significantly due to the outperformance of these titles, resulting in bigger earnouts for Small Giant Games and Gram Games
Rising Up
Machine Zone's latest 4X strategy game World War Rising is a top 100 grosser
Developer's secret new title is off to a solid start
New Update
Facebook rolls out new Instant Games features
Shortcuts, redesign and group tournaments
Knocked Down
Devs lose out on thousands of dollars as Apple cracks down on offerwall ads
Developers on and off the record discuss impact
Event
Things are heating up! Here’s the 15 conference tracks at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Check out the amazing tracklist for July's two-day B2B games industry event
Studio Acquisition
Epic acquires Rocket League developer Psyonix
San Diego studio says deal boosts esports ambitions
Gotta Scan 'em All
Pokemon Pass mobile app launches in the US
Claim a shiny Pikachu or Eevee through Pokemon: Let’s Go
Partnered
Animoca Brands is partnering up with global venture accelerator Brinc
Both firms seal the relationship with a mutual investment of $750,000 in shares
Monetiser Track
The future of monetisation: Inside the Monetiser track at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle will run from May 13th to 14th
Interview
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: Rebind.io founder Emily Rose believes indies are paving a brave path forward
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
Esports
Fnatic expands its esports operation by raising $19 million in funding
British esports firm hopes to employ 1000 people worldwide by 2024
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: AntiSocialGames on developing and launching 12 games in 12 months
"The biggest challenge has been trying to get noticed and obtain downloads"
The Final Step
Financing your indie games development studio - part four: Due diligence
Game Dragons director and industry veteran Philip Oliver gives you the lowdown on that big deal
Fun For All
Tim Cook: Apple Arcade a service “for players of all ages”
Will be something "that families can enjoy together"
Apple Financials
Apple sales and profits fall as services gains fail to make up for hardware decline
iPhone sales down 17 per cent as services hits record $11.5 billion
Studio Closure
Robot toys maker Anki closes
Close to 200 people out of a job with one week's severance pay after funding round falls through at the last minute
Streaming Future
Google CEO: Publishers "want to see our commitment" to Stadia
"We see genuine excitement"
Great
Sea Hero Quest is a mobile VR game that can identify a player’s risk of Alzheimer’s
Glitchers' game uses spatial navigation challenges to detect early warning signs of the disease
Stack
Appodeal is now a part of umbrella ad tech solution brand Stack
Stack wants to help mobile publishers compete with an encroaching ad network industry
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: East Side Games CEO Josh Nilson on idle games as experiences for everyone
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
Blockchain Gaming
From augmenting your game for the best user experience to making as much impact as mobile: Inside Blockchain Gaming at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle will run from May 13th to 14th
Fast
The first trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog film was 'interesting'
Gotta watch fast
Financials
RuneScape maker Jagex revenue up almost 10 per cent year-on-year in 2018
Cambridge-based firm saw income of $120.7m
Future Of Streaming
Synative’s revolutionary playable ad tech is like Google’s Stadia for mobile
The company operates cloud-based gaming technology that lets users try games without downloading them
Error Code 403
Nintendo removes A Dark Room from Switch eshop after developer includes code editor
“I deeply regret how this has blown up"
Phone It In
Epic Games being sued by musician Leo Pellegrino over dance emote
Fortnite developer has been embroiled in several lawsuits over ownership of dance emotes
Jobs
Square Enix is hiring over 100 new positions at its Montréal Studios
Square Enix Montréal and Eidos Montréal are scaling up as part of an international collaboration.
Still In Early Access
The Elder Scrolls: Blades generates $1.5 million from player spending in first month
US accounts for $1.1. million of player spending
Exciting Times
Maysalward CEO: “The Middle East market is a key player in the mobile industry”
The MENA video games market has a 25 per cent year on year growth with the largest youth population in the world”