Hyper-casual
Voodoo’s ad monetisation and the recipe for hyper-casual success
Thanks to the Mintegral-led campaigns, the ad fill rate for Voodoo’s titles increased from 30 per cent to a high of 75 per cent
Event
Win FREE expo space in the Big Indie Zone at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Get the chance to showcase your game to the global games industry FREE this October, worth $650
Roundup
Games industry roundup: The future of conversational games, DragonGlass pauses operations, and Ninja drops Twitch for Mixer
The biggest stories of the last week from the PC, mobile and blockchain spaces
Data Leak
E3 organiser ESA leaks contact details of journalists, influencers and analysts
US trade body has apologised for the, er, "inconvenience" that this has caused attendees
East Meets West
East Meets West: Tencent and ByteDance get in the smartphone game, and India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Apex Legends heading to mobile, EA Mobile's declining revenue, and Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Actor Playing Games
Zynga brings in Alec Baldwin to celebrate Words With Friends 10th anniversary.
The game launched in 2009
Going 5g
Tencent and Qualcomm team up to work on various mobile technologies
Other projects include the Qualcomm Snapdragon elite gaming enhancements
Ramping Up
Ustwo begins work on Monument Valley 3
New game director needed to lead “creative vision”
Event
Speakers revealed for free mini-summit near Gamescom
Explore the Chinese territory’s potential with Mintegral, Huawei, Xiaomi, iDreamSky, Leiting Games, and Habby Games. PLUS: WIN A SMARTPHONE!
Pr Tips
The beginner’s guide for games trade PR
Raptor PR founder Rana Rahman offers his top tips
Remember To Subscribe
Google testing new Apple Arcade-like Android subscription service Play Pass
Monthly cost of $4.99
Twinkies Sold Separately
Sony Pictures and Tilting Point 'nut up' for new Zombieland RPG on mobile
Company partners with Tilting Point and Metagame Studio on project
Live Ops
A Thinking Ape on inclusivity in live ops content
We’ve spent the last couple of years exploring the impacts and developing our process for creating effective inclusive content.
Event
One week left to save up to $310 on Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Super Early Bird prices for November’s two-day mobile B2B games industry conference ends next week.
Financials
Zynga’s strong portfolio gives firm best-ever revenue and bookings for Q2
Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons contributed $70 million
Gotta Catch 'em All
Pokemon Go catches one billion downloads
Half of those were picked up in the game's first two months back in September 2016
Having A Blast
Toy Blast dev Peak Games blasts past $1 billion in player spending
Toy Blast has earned 51 per cent of the total revenue
New Company
Bandai Namco opens new mobile games-focused branch in Barcelona
The new company will open its doors in 2020
Event
Tamatem, Zynga, Triple Dragon and iDreamSky feature in first wave of speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Speaker lineup for the two day B2B games industry conference begins to take shape
Acquisition
Ubisoft acquires majority stakes in Green Panda Games
70 per cent stake in hyper-casual mobile specialist
Partnership
My.Games partners with iDreamSky for mutual global expansion
“For us, this deal represents a valuable opportunity to engage with players in the Asian market”
European Expansion
Interview: Hyper-casual specialist Voodoo opens new Istanbul studio
“The move to Istanbul follows recent studio openings and that growth really demonstrates our drive to develop the sector and expand the hyper-casual market”
Sensor Tower
India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2 2019 with 5.4 billion
13 per cent increase from Q1 2019
Job News
Xbox co-creator Nat Brown joins Apple
“I’m looking forward to continuing to work on my obsessions by focusing on all applications of graphics”
Mobile Here
EA confirms Apex Legends is on track for mobile
Battle royale on course to arrive in China too
Financial Results
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes nears 80 million players but EA’s mobile revenue drops by 16%
The company earned net revenue of $1.21 billion for this fiscal year
Relocation Relocation
Red Kite Games relocates to Leeds
“We’re really excited to take Red Kite to the next level in a city full of talent”
Licence Royale
7% of Games Workshop royalty income comes from mobile
Total War: Warhammer 2 and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 cited for their strong performances in boosting royalty revenue
Frenemies
Epic Games “one of our best partners” says PUBG Corp
“We talk all the time”
Deuces Wild
KamaGames expands portfolio with new social casino title Video Poker
“A core focus for us in 2019 was to create a diverse portfolio of standalone apps that would complement our already existing titles”
Cloud Partnership
Cloud partnership is driven by Sony according to Microsoft CEO
Historically Sony and Microsoft are rivals in the games industry
Bytephone
TikTok owner Bytedance confirms plans to develop a smartphone
Rumours about a Bytedance phone circulated back in May
$$$
Sega Sammy Holdings sees a 246.6 per cent increase in operating income this quarter
Games, animation and arcade continue to be the company’s biggest earner
New Tech
Appier launches new marketing solution to re-engage mobile gamers
“Aictivate is powered by Appier’s tried and tested AI, helping gaming companies recoup lost revenue”
Augmented Reality
PuzzlAR: World Tour is the first game released from Magic Leap’s independent creator programme
More apps and games are set for release in the coming weeks
Event
Top 10 things to do in Jordan while at Pocket Gamer Connects
Why not make November’s two-day mobile games industry conference a working holiday?
Mobile Up
Nintendo Switch sales continue to be strong as hardware reaches 36.87 million
Software builds to 210.13 million with Mario Maker 2 selling 2.42 in three days
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs as firm is struck with class action lawsuit
“We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly”
Be Connected Be Discovered
Facebook tops mobile app publishers worldwide for Q2 2019
Google dominates the App Store however
Event
We're heading to Cologne during Gamescom week with four events
Mini-Summit, Games Mixer and Big Indie Pitches all in the same action packed week next month
New Deal
Intel sells its smartphone modem business to Apple
Around 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple
Dragalia Found
Dragalia Lost becomes Nintendo’s second most successful mobile title grossing $100 million worldwide
Fire Emblem has grossed $591 million worldwide
Tax Credits
Rockstar North hasn’t paid corporation tax in the UK for 10 years
Grand Theft Auto V earned $800 million in its first 24 hours of release
Event
Cheer on your champions in next month’s Big Indie Pitch
Watch the indie showcase competition in person at a venue near Gamescom
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Game for Peace reclaims top spot from Honor of Kings in China
Rankings from July 15th to 21st
Winner Winner
Fortnite World Cup drops $30 million in prize money
A teenager won the solo competition taking home $3 million
East Meets West
East Meets West: Supercell pulls out of Vietnam, Pokemon partners with Tencent and Animoca Brands is making an Addams Family game
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger, Zynga taps classic major IP and whatever happened to Wizards Unite?
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Seed Funding
Strafe gets $3 million in seed funding for esports companion app
The app currently covers eight games