Dcms
What we learned from EA and Epic Games' time at the DCMS select committee
How much money is Fortnite making, how much is FIFA actually played and what EA likes to call loot boxes
Monetiser
Monetisation design, profitability and gacha: Inside Monetiser at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Accio Wallet
Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite out now in the UK
Co-developed and co-published with WB Games San Francisco
Live And Kicking
Four years on: How Travelling Millionaire’s regular events have garnered an engaged audience in the Middle East
"I owe everything I’ve learned to Travelling Millionaire and it has been a privilege working with a lot of talented people.
M&a
Dutch firm Azerion acquires Spil Games’ mobile division
Also takes small minority stake in Spil's web portal business
Smart Design
How this award-winning studio uses Smartlook to make its games better
Madfinger discusses working with Smartlook on its mobile shooter Shadowgun Legends
Move Over Razer
Report: Tencent and Asus to unveil new gaming phone in July
The mobile is said to be designed for esports fanatics and hardcore gamers
Mario & Dragons
After making billions on mobile Puzzle & Dragons Gold is launching on Nintendo Switch
The game will make its debut later this year
Executive Shuffle
Ustwo names new CEO as it heads into multi-game development
Maria Sayans takes on top job as Dan Gray is promoted to chief creative officer and Peter Pashley is appointed chief development officer
Bebo X Twitch
Twitch acquires Bebo to expand esports platform
Bebo launched in 2005 before Facebook spearheaded the social media frenzy
Developer Toolkit
Unity, licensed IP and knowing your end goal: Inside The Developer Toolkit at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Style Spaces
“Women are most definitely underserved in the mobile games market”
Hutch CEO Beatrice Fischel-Bock discusses her entrepreneurial history and why she thinks Hutch can crack the mobile games market with Style Spaces
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Noodlecake Studios COO on transitioning to games-as-a-service for Golf Blitz
"You need to get your face out there, showing off your games and build a small community to champion it all"
Unionisation Platform
US president hopeful Bernie Sanders backs game developer unionisation
Democratic Senator says workers should be reaping the rewards games brought in in the US last year
Up In The Cloud
Microsoft's Azure cloud tech venture set up shop in the Middle East
Big M beats both Amazon and Google to the region
Data
Cultist Simulator generates $226,000 on mobile in less than two months
61,671 downloads across the App Store and Google Play
Peacekeepers
Tencent’s battle royale hit Game for Peace could reach $1bn in first year
Niko Partners claims high sales for recent release; speculates on a partnership with Nintendo to release mobile games in China
Engine Trouble
Report: Amazon is letting its dev teams use game engines other than Lumberyard
Developers say firm is struggling with maintaining the middleware
Wands At The Ready
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite launches in the UK and US this week
Niantic CEO John Hanke confirmed at a press event in Los Angeles
Forever Franchise
Empires & Puzzles racks up 34 million downloads
New update led by 20-year old Sofia Vanhanen adds base updates and Hunter's Lodge
Instant Demos
Synative Playable Studio now lets devs create Google Play ‘Try Now’ demos for free
, Google Play’s instant games are designed to be available instantly, without the need for a download
Lot Of Bottle Caps
Fallout Shelter accumulates $100 million in player spending on mobile
63 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play
Tagged In
How Tag Games balances work-for-hire development and live ops
CEO Marc Williamson reflects on the company's history and his year in charge
Acquisition
Niantic acquires tabletop games creator Sensible Object
The office will become part of Niantic London alongside AI technology firm Matrix Mill
The Doctor Is In
Dr. Mario World drops worldwide in July
Game will be available on both iOS and Android from launch
Growth Track
User acquisition, marketing and app store optimisation: Inside The Growth Track at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Outplay Entertainment’s Riccardo Tramma on how to get a job as an engineer
"The advances in technology and the quality of the games have contributed to creating completely new professional fields of expertise"
Event
Come and see Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki’s 12 conference tracks!
Check out the two-day B2B expo tracklist here
Job News
Nintendo promotes Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma
Splatoon producer Hisashi Nogami and Animal Crossing’s Aya Kyogoku see job boosts too
Gotta Hack ’em All
Niantic looking to catch Pokemon Go “hackers” with lawsuit
Firm seeking an injunction to prevent PokeGo++ and other apps from being distributed
Live Ops Landscape
Engagement, retention and player feedback: Inside Live Ops Landscape at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong will run from July 17th to 18th
Job Losses
Dozens struck by layoffs at Amazon Game Studios
Development teams have release one title since 2015
Weekly Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Dragon Ball Legends enters top 10 grossing rankings in the US and UK
Rankings from June 3rd to June 9th
Roundup
Games industry roundup: The big trends at E3 2019, Dr Disrespect banned from Twitch, and blockchain's increased E3 presence
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Event
Jam City, Ogury, Super Evil Megacorp and East Side Games feature in the first wave of speakers at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Two-day games industry conference shaping up to make an incredible return this October
East Meets West
East Meets West: China region focus, Nintendo's mobile business analysed, and some Switch production leaves China
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Nintendo's Doug Bowser talks crunch, E3 2019 mobile roundup, and Call of Duty: Mobile soft-launched
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Big Indie Pitch
The bumper Very Big Indie Pitch heads to Hong Kong
The Big Indie Pitch follows the success of Seattle with a trip to the bustling metropolis that is the Pearl of the Orient
E3 2019
E3 2019: Mobile gets a fair shake as the lines between platforms blur
From mobile to cross-platform streaming, all kinds of games were welcome on the big stage
Communication
E3 2019: EA held an event about tackling harassment and bullying in games
Research from anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label, 57 per cent of users have been bullied in an online title
The Legend Of Arthur Morgan
E3 2019: Breath of the Wild sequel influenced by Red Dead Redemption 2
Skyrim inspired original outing
Let’s A Stream
E3 2019: Nintendo looking into game streaming technologies
“We’re looking at those technologies and understanding their capabilities”
E3 Mobile
E3 2019: All the mobile game news in one place
The top stories coming out of one of the year's biggest shows in gaming
Stats Royale
PUBG Mobile racks up 50 million daily active users outside of China
Surpasses 400m downloads
£££
Jagex subscription sales up 22.9 per cent in 2018
Offsets declines in microtransaction and advertising revenue
Lineage Royale
Netmarble gives MMORPG Lineage 2 Revolution the battle royale treatment
Up to 25 players can compete to be the last person standing
Fallout Expands
E3 2019: Fallout Shelter coming to Tesla cars; sequel heading for China
Fallout Shelter Online to feature new PvP elements, guilds and character customisation
We Go Again
E3 attendance declines for 2019
E3 2020 will take place between June 9th to 11th, 2020
Knockout
Brawl Stars strikes 100 million downloads worldwide in six months
$275 million accumulated in player spending
Half Measures
E3 2019: After mobile's no-show for Nintendo, is it really all-in on the platform?
If Microsoft, Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix all found time to talk up their mobile plans - why didn’t Nintendo?