Oh I Wish It Could Be...
Ogury, Tripledot, Lockwood, Jagex and Gram Games on the panel at the PG Christmas Mixer
Join us for an evening of talks, networking and drinks in London next week
On Tap
Tapjoy on Tapdaq acquisition: “We hadn't found the right combination of great team and differentiated tech until now”
Tapjoy SVP of strategy, corporate and business development fills us in on the decision to acquire mediation platform Tapdaq
One Hundred Million Dollars
Sniper Elite dev Rebellion doubles down on film and TV with $100m space in Oxford
500 new jobs to be created
Legal Battle
Apple heads to Supreme Court over App Store 'monopoly'
Is Apple's dominance over its closed-off iOS ecosystem inflating prices?
Out
Goodgame founders relinquish leadership positions following Stillfront deal
Doctors Kai and Christian Wawrzinek to focus on new roles as Stillfront shareholders
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Bossa Studios' Henrique Olifiers on accessible game dev tools and industry trends
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 will take place on January 21st to 22nd
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Gismart's Andrey Savitsky on how to be a sound designer
"Personal development is key. You need to stay on top of your game and constantly learn about new tools and technology all the time"
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects London Early Bird prices end this week
Save up to $400 if you book your tickets by Thursday, November 29th
On The Move
Marvel: Contest of Champions dev Kabam secures office move in Vancouver
Studio has signed a lease for 105,000 square feet of office space
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Space Ape's Lissa Capeleto on the pain and pleasure of F2P UI design
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 will take place on January 21st to 22nd
Start-up
Seven games start-ups kickstart new Northern Irish co-working and business support space The Pixel Mill
Belfast hot-housing location will also provide funding and business support for game developers
Growth
The UK's creative sector contributes nearly $118 billion to the nation’s economy
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport reports above-average growth in these industries
Mobile Stars
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019 finalists revealed
Ceremony takes place on the evening of Tuesday, January 22nd at the prestigious BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, London
Crashed
Nintendo investigates conduct of its Russia GM following Mario Kart live stream outburst
Russian Nintendo fans subsequently circulated a petition asking for his dismissal
Black Friday
From Unity assets to Udemy courses: some of the best Black Friday deals for games developers
Deals also involve discounts on GameMaker Studio 2 and RPG Maker MV
Special Offer
Pocket Gamer Connects London Black Friday offer - 23% off!
One-day only discount doubles down with Early Bird prices for up to 43% saving
Big Indie Pitch
Brawl Quest becomes the final Big Indie Pitch champion of 2018
We check out the top 3 prize winners at this years Big Indie Pitch at G-STAR 18
Game On
Discord experiments with games detection on Android
The feature shows others what a user is playing or listening to on Spotify
All Go
Blizzard reportedly working on a Pokemon Go-styled World of Warcraft spin-off for mobile
The game reportedly has single-player mechanics
Big Indie Awards
The Big Indie Awards 2018 Top 20 Countdown Part 2 - 10 to 1
We check out the top 10 games from the 2018 Big Indie Awards in association with G-STAR and sponsored by Jagex Partners
Gone
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee shifts three million copies on Nintendo Switch in first week
The haul is the highest first-week sales figure for a Switch title
Brexit Means Problems
What impact will Brexit have on the UK games industry?
Games4EU's George Osborn tells us more
Twitchcon Europe
TwitchCon heading to Berlin in 2019
The new TwitchCon instalment will take place in Berlin
Tough Times
“It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times": IGDA exec Jen MacLean on being a games developer in 2018
"We also know that the games industry is cyclical, and I suspect that some of the things that we see with studio closures are only the beginning"
Vroom
NaturalMotion’s CSR Racing 2 speeds past 73 million installs
The drag racing title has also hit the top spot for grossing in over 120 countries
Eastern Promise
Blizzard devs claim Diablo Immortal designed with China in mind
But Blizzard denies this
Uk Special
Region Focus: "Brighton is missing a giant like EA - but that might be a good thing"
Local firms big and small give us the down low on what is happening in this region's games scene
Chill
$1 million is on the line in Fortnite’s Winter Royale Online Tournament
Star players will be chosen to take part in the Fortnite World Cup in 2019
Job Klaxon
Animoca Brands brings in former Mozilla exec to head up strategic partnerships
As part of his role Gen Kanai will help to advance the company’s blockchain strategy
A Magneton Of Bad Reviews
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee struck by review-bombing for deviating from main-series formula
Amazon Japan appears to have purged its review section in response
Event
Tencent, Unity, Jumpship, NetEase, FunPlus and Makers Fund to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
It’s business first with these speakers covering investment, strategy and the global market
Va Va Voom
NaturalMotion VP on the importance of live ops as it rolls out CSR Racing 2 Legends update
"The reason people are loyal to the game, to the brand and to NaturalMotion is that we continue to support that player base throughout the year"
Charted
Weekly global mobile game charts: Pokemon Go enjoys grossing spike in the West following Pokemon Let's Go launch
The charts from November 5th to 11th
Uk Special
What's going on with the UK's games market?
This is one of the most influential sectors around but the future is somewhat uncertain
Point
King and Facebook veterans raise $8 million to kickstart London and Minsk-based dev Tripledot Studios
Mobile startup wants to put together the “Apollo program” of mobile games
Funding
Super.com will support Unreal Engine projects with a new $50 million investment fund
Funding site is looking for independent Unreal developers of all levels of expertise
Ocean
Sea Entertainment seals a five-year deal to publish Tencent games in Southeast Asia
Games will be published by Sea's entertainment division, Garena
A Well Honed Blade
How does Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion monetise?
Ubisoft’s got (F2P) game
Sweet
Candy Crush games have made King a sweet $1.3 billion in 2018 so far
$128m of that came in October
Decked Out
Indie Spotlight: Stefan Åhlin on leaving King and creating a roguelike deck-builder
"The single biggest challenge has been to simply finish such a big game"
Tap Tap
Tapjoy acquires ad mediation and app monetisation platform Tapdaq
Tapdaq by Tapjoy will team up with its new owner’s London office to work on its Maximum Impact Platform
Resurrected
Development on Telltale’s The Walking Dead starts up again
Former developers to return to complete the project
Acquisition Reality
Admix buys media site VRFocus and aims to rehire staff
Publication looked set to close earlier this month when all employees were laid off
Studio Profile
Big Pixel Studios: How this London studio is growing up with Rick and Morty
VP David Burpitt and lead artist Steffie Garcia on ramping up recruitment and a changing culture following its acquisition by Adult Swim Games
Jobs In Games
From Crackdown to mobile: Outplay's Phil Wilson on how to snag a job as vice president of operations
"We have successful games that are several years old and we’re continuing to build our portfolio. That excites me more than any triple-A pre-launch hype ever could"
Kingly
Game of Thrones: Conquest grosses $125 million in just over a year
Fantasy strategy saw a 500 per cent year-over-year increase in growth this October
Clash
Clash Royale players to fight over esports gig in the first EE Mobile Series
Fnatic is offering a place on its professional Clash Royale team to the overall winner
Uk Special
PocketGamer.biz kicks off UK special to shine a light on the country's vibrant games industry
We'll be analysing the trends that are affecting this market at this point in time, such as jobs, education, tax relief and - of course - Brexit
Funding News
Activision Blizzard vets raise $16m for item-based blockchain gaming platform
Mythical Games aims to deploy platform using the EOS blockchain
Hot Five
The Diablo Immortal debate rages on, Flaregames lays off 45 staff, and Brawl Stars gets a global release
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week