Event
Blockchain Games Next - Free Half-Day Mini-Summit During GDC - 19th March
Presented by Tron in association with Cocos BCX and brought to you by the team behind Blockchain Gamer Connects
Big Indie Pitch
Mousetrap Games feel the rhythm as Run The Beat races to first place at The Big Indie Pitch at White Nights Berlin 19
The Big Indie Pitch goes on the road and crowns its second winner of 2019
Playable Demos
Delving under the hood of Synative's Try Now demo tech as it partners with Google Play
Synative gives us the lowdown
Enterprise Ar
Microsoft unveils $3,500 HoloLens 2 headset
Epic's Tim Sweeney praises tech giant's open approach to development
Dragalia Won
Dragalia Lost outpaces Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp with $75m lifetime sales
Still a way off of Fire Emblem Heroes
Ka-ching
Activision Blizzard and EA bosses Kotick and Wilson appear on Top 100 Most Overpaid CEOs list for a second time
Third year that games industry execs have shown up in this ranking
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Wargroove recovers dev costs in three days, GDAC partners with Enjin, and the death of the MCN
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Hot Five
Coin Master rakes in the cash, Brawl Stars a worldwide top grosser, and Activision Blizzard is stuck between a rock and a hard place
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Matchington Mansion a new US top 10 grosser as Fortnite and Dokkan Battle dominate
Charts from February 11th to 17th
Interview
How hard is it to bring a PC hit like Human: Fall Flat to smartphones anyway?
We speak to 505 Games’ Steve Woodward and Thomas Rosenthal to find out more about the wobbly platformer’s port
East Meets West
12 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019's East Meets West track
Track sponsored by JoyPac
Fiscal
Netease ends 2018 on strong footing with almost $3 billion in Q4 revenue
Lifetime successes and strong newcomers drive Netease to a job well done this year
Investment Reality
Mixed reality technology firm Cooperative Innovations secures $650k in funding
Leeds-based outfit raises $652.741 to bring on more staff and find licensing partners for its animation tool
Trade Trends
9 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019's Trade Trends track
Track sponsored by GameAnalytics
Imagination Has No Limit
Roblox players amass more than one billion hours worth of engagement each month
Platform engagement has increased by 20-times in six years
Good News
Goodgame Studios names new CEO and CPO
Developer promotes from within for top jobs
Where We Dancing Boys?
Fortnite’s DJ Marshmello concert surpasses game’s concurrent record with 10.7m players
Tilted Towers was rocking
Super Smash Brawl Stars
Brawl Stars becomes first new mobile game to break into top 10 worldwide revenue chart since June 2018
Fighter has generated $110 million in two months
Job Losses
Huge layoffs strike staff at Australian studio EA Firemonkeys
As many as 50 staff could be affected
Goodbye Reggie
Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime to retire
VP of sales and marketing Doug Bowser to succeed him in role
International
Chinese publisher East2West opens its USA branch in San Francisco
"Our current lineup, which will be announced shortly, is already impressive"
Tencent Rules
Tencent brings in new broadcasting rules to police hurtful content across its products
These updates prohibit discussions or behaviour that could cause offence to the company’s home market of China
Life Finds A Way
Jurassic World Alive grosses $40 million in nine months
These scientists have not been preoccupied
Job Losses
Razer lays off 30 staff as mobile future is put in doubt
Rumours suggest Razer Phone 3 cancelled
Yes It Actually Folds
Samsung unveils first foldable phone Galaxy Fold
Unity also shown for new Galaxy S10
Cloud
Keywords’ latest acquisition is Dutch UA tools provider GetSocial
Social networking platform is expected to become profitable for Keywords Studios by 2020
Event
NBCUniversal Media, NCsoft, and NetEase confirmed to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
First speakers announced for 2-day games industry conference, May 13th to 14th
Come Together
Report: Apple wants to combine Mac, iPad and iPhone development with new SDK
Codenamed Marzipan, could be about to make life much easier for software creators
War Chest
THQ Nordic raises $225 million through share sale for further mergers and acquisitions
European publishing firm's M&A shows no sign of slowing down
Youtube X Games
Pocket.watch on how partnering with influencers gives it an edge in the mobile games market
Vice president of games Greg Hayes speaks to us about the new concept
Grim
Epic shuts down shabby Fortnite Live festival organiser
"These proceedings by Epic Games has had a catastrophic impact on the company's ability to trade"
Consult
The Oliver Twins launch new consultancy firm Game Dragons
Andrew and Philip Oliver want to help developers, investors and brand holders scale up
Redo
An underwhelming Q3 sees Square Enix streamline its business units
11 reduced to four, won’t result in any workforce reduction
Social Gaming
Teatime Games: "Mobile games have lost the value of playing together"
Start-up launches video communication platform Teatime Live with first title Hyperspeed
Erfolg
Messenger games developer Softgames opens up larger headquarters in Germany
Can expand up to 130 employees
$$$
Report: Tencent's 2018 was the firm's best ever for investments
122 of the 700-plus companies the Chinese tech and entertainment giant has invested in worth over $1bn
Job News
Ex-Blizzard and Disney veteran Bill Roper departs cloud tech firm Improbable
Returns to game development at Seattle studio AuthorDigital
Tonk You Very Much
Ex-Disney and Pixar animators raised $2m for new Texas mobile studio Tonk Tonk Games
Funding led by BITKRAFT esports ventures
Game Freeze
China blocks new game approvals again as it strives to clear extensive backlog
As many as 5,000 games could be awaiting the greenlight
Rip Ps Vita
PlayStation Vita shipments to end soon in Japan confirming end for handheld
Vita Island is no more
Google
Google to unveil a mystery gaming project at this year’s GDC
"Gather round" for the web giant's next step into gaming on March 19th
Acquisition Strike
Japanese developer Mixi partners with XTech to accelerate M&A plans
Partnership could see expenditure of up to $271 million
Stark Rabbid Mad
Ketchapp utilises Ubisoft IP for new Rocket Rabbids mobile game
Keep calm and Bwahhh
Nexon-marble
Netmarble on Nexon acquisition: "With some leverage we could do the funding ourselves"
Been execs remain coy on exactly how a deal might be structured
Financials
Netmarble profit tumbles 72% year-on-year in Q4 due to slowing sales and lack of new releases
Publisher appears to be struggling to fill the hole from fading Lineage 2 and Harry Potter revenue
Too Little, Too Late?
Why Activision Blizzard’s mobile strategy is between a rock and a hard place
The wrong IP at the wrong time
Deepening Losses
Up to 30 full-time jobs on the line at Finnish dev Nitro Games
Studio employs 51 staff
Time For Change
US labour organisation pens open-letter to games developers urging unionisation
AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler fronts message
Financials
Ubisoft mobile bookings soar 77.6 per cent over the first three quarters of the publisher’s FY2019
"Ubisoft delivered a solid performance in a quarter when, as expected, competition was particularly fierce.”
Mark Zuckerberg Likes This
Facebook top apps publisher for mobile downloads in Q4 2018
800 million downloads in three months