Layoffs
Update: EA's latest layoffs include the closure of its offices in Japan and Russia
Publisher vows to help newly-redundant staff find new roles in the local games industry
Big Indie Pitch
Highkey Games returns to The Big Indie Pitch during GDC week and walks away as champion
The Big Indie Pitch heads to GDC for the 7th year in a row
Angry Birds Movie 2
First trailer lands for The Angry Birds Movie 2
The titular birds team up with the pigs as they face a new threat
Reality
Newzoo: Games are leading the augmented reality charge
But support for AR is still restricted to a handful of handsets
Special Offer
Last chance to save up to $250 on Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Early Bird offer ends tomorrow!
Mobile Hunt
CD Projekt Red reveals Witcher card game Gwent will come to mobile
Due to arrive on iOS later this year with Android planned at a later date
Gotta Clean’em All
Niantic launches second annual Earth Day utilsing Pokemon Go and Ingress
Incentives given in-game to promote global cleanup
Start Your Engines
Animoca Brands partners with Formula 1 on blockchain game F1 Delta Time
First phase will launch from May 10th, 2019
No Monitisation
Indie Spotlight: Big Indie Pitch winner E McNeill on cutesy puzzler Squeelings and making it as a solo developer
"I'd love to keep making games as an indie for the rest of my life, but since I have no idea how the industry will change, I feel like I need to launch a hit game"
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Perfect World dethrones Honor of Kings as China’s top grosser
Charts from March 11th to March 17th
Past Or Future?
Apple Arcade versus Google Stadia: Two very different visions of gaming
Considering two subscription services
Royale
PUBG Mobile celebrates its first anniversary with a $2.5 million live event
Live music premier provides a soundtrack to PUBG Mobile's big esports plans
Switch
Nintendo to launch budget and high-end Switch models this summer
Two new console variations will reportedly be announced at E3 this year
More Job Losses
EA lets go 350 employees across marketing, publishing and analytics
“This is a difficult day”
Indie
Dead Cells has sold over 1m copies, and the Switch is leading the pack
"If we'd launched them at the same time, Switch would be winning. It's selling faster"
Legal
PUBG Corp and NetEase settle the battle royale cloning dispute
Two rival battle royale giants choose to settle the PUBG / Knives Out cloning dispute peacefully
Rest In Peace
Take-Two founder and former CEO Ryan Brant dies at 49
Brant oversaw the firm's initial IPO and the founding of industry juggernaut Rockstar Games
Everyone Is Here
A record 29,000 people attended GDC 2019, organisers say
Convention will return on March 20th, 2020
Jobs
Stillfront Group name eRepublik Labs co-founder Alexis Bonte new Group COO
Bonte will still act as CEO of eRepublik Labs until a successor is appointed
Stay And We Pay
Apple to fund exclusive games for Apple Arcade
Sims and Final Fantasy creators onboard
Moving On Up
Kabam snaps up Riposte Games & Co
Studio joining line-up of developers currently based in Vancouver, San Francisco and Austin
Cinemagraph Ads
Facebook partner on using UnrealFront’s Cinemagraph ad creative to market your mobile game
High definition images offer an eye-catching solution to getting user attention
Special Offer
Speak at the first ever Pocket Gamer Connects in Hong Kong
Explore this new market with 125 speakers and two shows for the mobile and blockchain games industry
Extra Life
Apple Arcade subscription breathes new life into premium and mobile game creativity, but may worry developers not on it
Bold move by Apple, but will it pay off for the games industry?
Apple Arcade Partners
Ustwo, Annapurna, LEGO, Bossa, SEGA, Platinum Games and more making games for Apple Arcade subscription service
The key developers backing the new games service
Apple Arcade
Apple unveils premium games subscription service Apple Arcade for autumn 2019 launch
Aimed to helping paid apps perform better on the App Store
Nindies
Top 10 best-selling indie games on the Nintendo Switch so far
Overcooked 2's entry gives Ghost Town Games the unique position of holding two top-selling Switch indie games
Play
A win for accessibility: Google Stadia will support the Xbox Adaptive Controller
Google's open approach to input opens the door for less able-bodied gamers
Jobs
Two dozen new jobs open as Google ramps up Stadia development
Tech giant launches hiring spree across Canada, Germany, Taiwan and Japan
Sharp Shiny Things
How does Raid: Shadow Legends engage, retain and monetise?
Plarium cracks the code
Show Time
It’s Show Time at Apple as it prepares to launch games subscription service
Could be announced tonight or later this year
East Meets West
East Meets West: Pocket Gamer Connects heads to Hong Kong, and Tencent's games make $19bn
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Google Stadia insights, Blockchain Game Alliance opens up, and TikTok explained
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Hot Five
WeChat Mini Games opens up, NetEase's new mobile shooter, and Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle makes $1.6bn
The hottest stories in the mobile games industry from the last week
Gdc Roundup
GDC 2019: All the top news in one place
We chart the breaking news and big interviews from each day at the world's biggest games developer show
Xbox Live
GDC 2019: 4.28 billion game hours played over Xbox Live across platforms every month
64 million monthly active users
That’s Walmart Price
Report: Walmart interested in games streaming service
Firm has been speaking with developers at GDC
Downloads
Nexon’s empire-builder DomiNations hits 50 million downloads
Mobile strategy hits the major milestone just in time for its fourth anniversary
Royale
Mobile was monumental in earning Tencent $19 billion in games revenue
Mobile success offset a decline in PC games revenue
Dead-ication
NetEase’s LifeAfter passes $125 million in revenue
97 per cent of revenue originated from China
Hole In One
GDC 2019: FoxNext Games picks up Big Indie Pitch winner What The Golf?
For people that hate golf
Slang And All
GDC 2019: Clinc unveils voice AI that is designed to understand natural language in games
Will it recognise Yorkshire though?
Rolling Out
GDC 2019: Facebook updates mobile app to include dedicated games tab
Social application looking to take games more seriously
For England
Bidalgo expands into UK with new London office
Former managing director of mobile ad tech company YOC Oliver Gold heads up branch
Special Offer
Dates and venue revealed for Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
International games industry conference lands in Asia, July 17-18. Super Early Birds save up to $450
Netflix For Games
GDC 2019: Cloud games subscriptions will be worth $1.5 billion by 2023
Data provided by IHS Markit
Location
Irish AR developer WarDucks raises $3.75 million
Veteran-backed studio raises funds to expand and increase development efforts
Shoot
GDC 2019: NetEase takes on Call of Duty Mobile with new shooter Disorder
Disorder to go head-to-head with Tencent-partnered Call of Duty Mobile in China
New Tech
GDC 2019: Denuvo launches anti-cheat solution for games and esports
"It’s time to level the playing field"
You Spin Me Round
GDC 2019: Mobile performance platform HeadSpin partners with NetEase
Zynga, Jam City and Bandai Namco all signup to the platform