Hot Five
Playrix soft-launches Wildscapes, Nutaku opens Android store, and the who's who of the Google Stadia team
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Investment
Investor Connector at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle - applications close next week!
Last chance to get one-on-one time with investors at next month’s two-day games industry conference
18-plus
Nutaku opens new Android adult gaming store
Beta launches with 30 games, with 30 more planned this year
Mad
Trademark for Slightly Mad's Mad Box console runs into trouble after opposition from casual games company
Studio withdraws application following opposition from a similarly-named French games firm
Uk Funding
UK government puts together $5.2 million funding for mixed reality games based on iconic British IP
British authorities are looking to push new VR and AR experiences for established properties like Wallace and Gromit
Dual Listing
Atari starts trading on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm
Longstanding games company was already listed on the Euronext Paris, will maintain trading on both exchanges
Consult
DeltaDNA is launching a new 'Investment Readiness' consultancy service
Analysis firm wants to make it easier to make informed investments in mobile games
Art Of The Deal
Financing your indie games development studio - part three: Structuring an investment deal
Game Dragons director and industry veteran Philip Oliver gives you the lowdown on that big deal
Rolling Out
Snapchat launches SDK allowing developers access to in-game Bitmoji avatars
Kenny Mitchell also appointed new chief marketing officer
Awards
Brawl Stars is the big winner of this year’s Finnish Game Awards
Supercell's latest takes home two accolades at this week's ceremony in Helsinki
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: APPatheia CEO Kelly Maguire to discuss marketing and business on a budget for indies
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: TriangleSquare on its award-winning roguelite RTS Spirit Oath
We chat all tings indie development with the runners-up of The Big Indie Pitch at White Nights Berlin 19
Accessibility
AbleGamers is embedding Accessible Play Experience Practitioners into triple-A studios
CEO Mark Barlet: “We want to create champions within the studios”
Applications Open
Magic Leap providing 500 devices as part of Epic MegaGrants initiative
Unveiled at Epic’s Unreal Engine Build: Detroit ‘19 event
Nintendo Cashes In
Nintendo mobile division sales up 17% to $412m in FY2019
Total sales for the fiscal year rose to $10.7 billion
Event
Full conference schedule revealed for Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
More than 100 world-class expert speakers covering the hottest topics across mobile, PC and blockchain gaming
On Your Marks
Mario Kart Tour beta signups have begun
Nintendo’s financials re-asserted that the mobile racer is still due in 2019
Restructure
Sega restructures its mobile Hardlight studio to integrate directly within Sega Europe
Former development director Neall Jones takes on a new role as Hardlight’s studio director
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Seattle Speaker Spotlight: 12traits CEO Joe Schaeppi to discuss how psychometrics can power up retention and monetisation
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2019 will take place on May 13th to 14th
Dream Start
Angry Birds 2 and Dream Blast drive up Rovio games revenue to $74m in Q1
Angry Birds Dream Blast is already the games division's second-biggest revenue driver
$$$
Xbox Live monthly active users dropped to 63m in last financial quarter
Revenue up five per cent for Microsoft's games business
Overtime
Fortnite devs speak out about constant crunch
"The company gives us unlimited time off, but it’s almost impossible to take the time. If I take time off, the workload falls on other people, and no one wants to be that guy"
Temporary Freeze
Facebook halts reviews of new Instant Games
Temporary freeze as Facebook looks to fix the issue
Network Effects
How hyper-casual games use network effects to supercharge growth
Tenjin CEO Christopher Farm discusses the attention economy and how publishers attract returning users
Indie Spotlight
Frogmind on going from a team of two working on premium games to the new F2P Rumble Stars
"There have always been thousands of games competing for attention but it has increasingly become harder as every day there are more"
Event
Meet the great and the good of the games industry next month at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
EA, Tencent, NetEase, Unity, Epic Games and more join us for the two-day B2B conference
Revenue
King of Avalon and Guns of Glory rake in over $1.3 billion in revenue for Funplus
Funplus wants both games to rake in a combined $1.5 billion by the year's end
Revenue
Star Trek Fleet Command is making a stellar $13.7 million in monthly revenue
Licensed stargazer has hit lifetime revenue of $40 million and four million installations.
Crunch
Chinese activists 996.ICU blast Tencent and NetEase for intense overtime policies
But some leaders have fired back, claiming workers who don't put in their 12-hours-a-day are unambitious
Digital World
Tencent’s Perfect World was the top grossing mobile game globally in March 2019
Honor of Kings follows in second place
Project Imagination
Qualcomm partners with Tencent and Vivo to create new AI game experiences on mobile
Optimise experience in games including Honour of Kings
Moderating Partner
European Esports Federation set to be formed with 12 countries
Representatives from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and the UK
Company Map
Here is who is working on Google's Stadia games streaming platform
PCGamesInsider.biz has dug through LinkedIn to find the people behind the search giant's big games play
Real-money Competition
Indian esports platform Mobile Premier League raises $35.5 million
Series A to fuel product and user growth
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Voodoo’s Wesley Clarke on how to get a job as a technical lead
"Finishing projects should be your goal"
Court Order
Nepal Supreme Court suspends PUBG ban
Ruling intervened with Article 17’s freedom of expression
Super Safe
Supercell partners with Internet Matters to help improve online safety
Two to provide families with advice and resources for keeping children safe online
Apple Arcade
Apple’s transformation into an entertainment streaming service: Is a virtual Blockbusters for mobile games really the future?
App Annie MD EMEA Paul Barnes offers his opinion on Apple Arcade
Interview
V&A curators weigh in on getting gaming on the museum floor
We speak accessible development and bringing games to the masses at the Design/Play/Disrupt exhibition's Dundee opening
First Wave Of Speakers
Tencent, NetEase, Giant Interactive and Super Evil Megacorp head first wave of speakers at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong 2019
Expect 120 speakers sharing 55 hours worth of cutting edge content on July 17th to 18th
Korea
South Korean FTC will carry out an “extensive review” of consumer regulations
The antitrust body wants to combat games taking advantage of children spending money they don't have
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Let’s Hunt Monsters storms China’s free downloads rankings
Charts from April 8th to 14th
China Regulations
China’s games regulator resumes new submission approvals as it continues through backlog
The State Administration of Press and Publication details the new regulatory landscape for games developers and publishers
Soft Launch
Playrix soft-launches new match-three puzzler Wildscapes
Available in Australia, Canada and New Zealand
Cash Royale
Mobile picks up $65m of PUBG Corp's $920m sales in 2018
Mobile likely low due to Chinese approval freeze
Going Public
China's biggest live-streaming platform Douyu files for $500 million IPO in the US
The company is backed by Tencent and is considered China's answer to Twitch
China
Tencent extends its digital lock age cap to 16 in China
Under-16s will now require parental consent and be limited to two hours play a day
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Why Dodge Roll has parted ways with Enter the Gungeon, and Tencent does its own blockchain-based Pokemon Go
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Acquisition News
Keywords snaps up work-for-hire mobile development studio Wizcorp for $1m
Service provider expands footprint in Japan
East Meets West
East Meets West: Tencent could be launch a gaming phone, and how China and South Korea are driving Eve online into the future
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market