Huge Growth
Global mobile user spending to reach $156 billion by 2023
Latin America and Africa were both noted as most likely to see the biggest increase in growth revenue
Wahooo
Mario Odyssey and Zelda: Breath of the Wild VR support coming to Nintendo Labo
Experience Breath of the Wild in full through virtual reality
New Ad Network
Snapchat to launch the Snap Audience Network for third-party apps
Set to launch in the coming months
Hatch A Plan
Hatch partners with Samsung to bring 5G games service to South Korea
Hatch Premium will be included with any purchase of Samsung’s Galaxy S10 5G in the country
Glitz And Glamour
Florence, Fortnite and RuneScape win big at BAFTA Game Awards 2019
Nintendo Labo picks up a couple of awards too
Busy Bees
Animoca raises $3.3 million and acquires German developer Stryking
Picks up studio initial $1.1m deal that could rise to $3.3m
Predicting Trends
SuperData launching digital game forecasting tool
The Forecaster can predict metrics such as MAUs, revenue and in-game spending
Acquisition News
Jam City acquires Berlin studio 231 Play
Opens new Berlin studio where the team will operate from
Snap Games
Snap Games is a new real-time multiplayer games platform for Snapchat
Zynga, ZeptoLab, Spry Fox, Game Closure and PikPok the first development partners
Superstar Sessions
11 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London's Superstar Sessions
All the biggest talks
Chicago To Asia
Niantic details worldwide summer events for Pokemon Go in 2019
I will travel across the land, searching far and wide
3g 4g 5g More
SK Telecom introduces new 5G data plan that includes exclusive games and promotions
Firm states that new 5G network will utilise its 34,000 5G base stations across the country
Wild
Gamigo acquires casual games developer WildTangent
WildTanget’s portfolio features over 4,000 games including the Fate series
Critical Moment
How Critical Force's new CEO is fending off the battle royale threat
“After the dust had settled we managed to maintain a stable player base and eventually recovered to our normal DAU numbers"
You Have My Sword
The Elder Scrolls: Blades reaches one million downloads in first week of early access
$500,000 already generated in revenue
Born Again
Rising from the ashes: Former Flaregames CEO Klaas Kersting on why he’s founding Phoenix Games
“There’s a cyclical pattern of consolidation with every new platform, and we’re at the stage now with mobile where it’s more competitive and expensive than ever"
More Than Surviving
This War of Mine has raised $500k for charity after selling 4.5 million units
Developer and publisher 11 bit Studios has a new game in the works with $5.2m budget and a further two projects in preliminary development after that
Emergency Maintenance
Nippon Ichi Software stock nosedives after Disgaea RPG suffers maintenance woes after launch
Game taken offline after March 19th launch and was due to come back online at end of March, but has since suffered further delays
Competition
Win Indie Showcase space at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Demo your game to the global games industry FREE this May, worth $650
Movers And Shakers
Ex-Konami head of emerging markets named Marvelous Europe GM as Harry Holmwood exits
Holmwood leaving to focus on "other business interests"
Rethinking Paid
Monetizer Mavens on what Apple Arcade needs to do to be successful
A new way to play and pay
Software
Epic Games unveils simultaneous multi-user editing for Unreal Engine 4.22
Google Stadia support out now
$4 Million A Day
Pokemon Go surpasses $2.5 billion in worldwide player spending
Augmented reality title yet to reach third anniversary
Pubg Prime
PUBG Mobile introduces in-app subscriptions for sixth season
Gross revenue grew 83 per cent in March 2019 overtaking Fortnite for the month
New Studio
Former Flaregames boss Klaas Kersting sets up Phoenix Games group
"Phoenix Games moves beyond what's possible with single-game publishing deals, promoting a more long-term, strategic approach"
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Nitrome’s Matthew Annal on coming back from the brink
"Survival is success”
New Job
StreamElements names former Twitch veteran Chase as head of communications
Chase will be heading up the communications division at StreamElements
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Ludia studio art manager Serge Mongeau on how to get a job creating art for games
"Your portfolio is your window to the world. You need to let the world know how you think"
Funding
MLB Champions developer Lucid Sight raises $6 million
Investment takes the company’s funding total to $11 million
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: PUBG Mobile hits top spot in the US Google Play grossing charts
Charts from March 18th to March 24th
Ads
Mobvista revenue from programmatic advertising grew 99 per cent in the wake of its IPO
Ad tech platform reports a 38.9 per cent annual increase in total revenue, hitting $435 million
Open-source
The Jolly Rogers - An open-source Unity game
Heroic Labs open-sources a demo game on GitHub
Job News
Former Exient, Chimera and ZenGuard staff join Idle Miner Tycoon dev Kolibri Games
Former Chimera Entertainment lead game designer Boris Conrad Heisserer takes the role
Foreign Games Too
China’s games regulator approves nearly 100 new games including Game of Thrones and Angry Birds
Bringing the total for new games in 2019 up to 987
Funding
Cloud tech startup Polystream secures $12 million to develop 3D streaming services
Wargaming's investment suggests Polystream is getting into games
Report
Mobile accounted for 29 per cent of all software sales in a record-breaking year for UK games
2018 saw a 10 per cent year-over-year gain in consumer spending in the country
Growth
Live game management platform ChillConnect raises $450,000 in funding
“We can now market the platform to an even larger range of potential customers”
Focus On Ip
Konami rebrands New York office to Konami Cross Media
Yuta Kose has been named president for the renamed studio
Virtual Apple
Apple patent filing suggests work on VR/MR headset
The document focuses on range finding and accessory tracking for VR/MR head-mounted display system
Eastern Stars
Is Brawl Stars set to knock it out the park in China as Supercell’s latest billion-dollar success?
An analysis of the online multiplayer shooter's Western and Eastern performance
Mediate
Lab Cave’s birthday present to its customers is a new Advertising Mediation for Apps tool
Firm claims to offer unbiased, impartial way to mediate ads for mobile apps
Ban Lifted
India police lift PUBG Mobile ban in Ahmedabad
With exam season over, officials see no reason to renew the Battlegrounds ban
Charity
Gameloft partners with humanitarian charity CARE for “Stronger Together” Dragon Mania Legends event
Dragon Mania Legends developer vows a minimum donation of $50,000
April Fool's Day
April Fool's Day 2019 roundup: The funniest gags from games and tech
Rounding up the best pranks of the day
Studio Profile
FlowPlay on building community-based virtual worlds for social casino and blockchain's integral role in gaming's future
A peek inside the Seattle studio
Jobs Losses
More than 1,500 people have lost their jobs in the games industry in three months
Estimates suggest total already exceeds 2018
Roundup
Games industry roundup: EU votes to pass Article 13, what art assets to use in marketing, and Blockchain Gamer Connects heads to Hong Kong
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Pgc Videos
7 videos from Pocket Gamer Connects London's Game Changers: Hyper-casual and Instant Messenger track
Track sponsored by Facebook Gaming
Better Together
Why NetEase is shooting up battle royale with stylish, team-based title Disorder
Another twist
Switch Prime
Twitch Prime members can grab up to a year's worth of Nintendo Switch Online
A free year of Nintendo Switch online will now be added to Twitch Prime