New-school
Subscribers can now access the RuneScape Mobile Beta
Mobile beta headlines a string of announcements made during this weekend’s Runefest event
Support A Creator
Fortnite's 'support-a-creator' initiative lets players back their favourite influencers
The event allows players to support their favourite creators when making in-game purchases
Region Spotlight
Jordan: A pioneering history and promising future in mobile games
Shining the spotlight on Jordan's games industry
Big Deal
Advantage Solutions acquires HyprMX owner Jun Group in deal that brings brands and mobile games closer together
HyprMX general manager and senior vice president Dan Laughlin tells us what the deal means for the company and the mobile games industry at large
Jobs News
ESA president Mike Gallagher steps down
SVP and general counsel Stanley Pierre-Louis will fill this spot until a successor is found
Monster Adaptation
Production begins on live-action Monster Hunter movie
Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson will write, direct and produce the adaptation
Cash Royale
Fortnite iOS revenue catapults to $300 million faster than Clash Royale
But slower than Niantic’s Pokemon Go, which only took 113 days
Hot Five
Mario Kart tour firm crashes out, Rovio's Heini Kaihu on being a studio head, and Ketchapp taps Prince of Persia for mobile
The hottest mobile games industry stories from the last week
Living On?
Skybound to finish The Walking Dead: The Final Season following Telltale closure
Original team members may join development team
Dead On
The Walking Dead: Our World will feature time-limited in-game events during season nine of the AMC series
New challenges will drop every Monday with each new episode
Zombie
FTX Games to publish new The Walking Dead match-three and social casino mobile games
Publisher seals deal with AMC to create multiple flesh-eating licensed titles
Dirt
Pokemon Go celebrates the 50th anniversary of the US’s National Rivers & Trails systems
Pokemon Go studio wants to get players out and about across America’s National Parks
Undead
The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman wants to make sure Telltale Games' Clementine story is told
But right now there are no plans to bring her into the ongoing comic book series
Event
Judging starts for the Big Indie Awards at G-STAR
Which of the 400 entries will make it through to the live awards ceremony in Korea?
Homely
Playrix’s Homescapes builds up $420m in revenue for first year
The game took in $28.5 million in September
Crunched
IGDA responds to public outcry over working conditions within the gaming industry
Executive director Jen MacLean remarked that it was unfortunately common but IGDA is looking into it
Referred
Mobile gamers referred through organic social channels have up to 67% higher retention
They also have a 63 per cent higher lifetime session count versus non-referred players
Woah
In-app header bidding can increase ARPDAU by 30%, claims Appodeal
Participating app of the test also saw eCPM rise by 17 per cent
Laid Off
Report: Remaining Telltale Games staff get the boot
One of the staff affected took to Twitter to confirm the news
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: We talk Street Fighter meets Scrabble with Built Games
We talk to Built Games who took won our E3 Big Indie Pitch
Korea
Jagex joins the Big Indie Awards at G-STAR as sponsor
Runescape firm supports international celebration of independent game developers this November
Fishing
Digital marketing outfit Jellyfish knuckles down on app space with ASO Co purchase
Among ASO Co’s clientele are Spotify, eBay and Twitter
Funding Bytes
Chile dev TinyBytes Games picks up $1.4m investment
CEO Andres Constantinidis on why Initial Capital and London Venture Partners have made their first foray into Latin America games funding
Switch Up
New and improved Nintendo Switch in the works for 2019
The goal is to make the device brighter, thinner and more energy efficient
Invested
Tencent invests $318 million in Chinese video-sharing company Bilibili
Publisher acquires 12.3 per cent of shares in a company that dabbles in running League of Legends and Overwatch esports teams
Tale Continued?
Telltale wants another company to hire ex-staff and finish The Walking Dead: The Final Season
The third episode is reportedly nearly finished
Yo-yoing Between
Why GameMaker Studio's YoYo Games is getting into indie publishing
"This comes from something that is an extension of what GameMaker has been trying to do for years, which is making the next generation of games developers"
Jobs News
Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder Mike Morhaime steps down
World of Warcraft executive producer employee J. Allen Brack replaces him in top job
Get Up And Vote
Games publisher Jam City wants to get US voters mobilised for the midterm elections
Happy or unhappy with the state of the country? Then you need to vote
Event
PC Connects returns to London next year
Pocket Gamer Connects London brings its own backup as PC joins blockchain sister event at The Brewery
Growing Sales
Playrix’s hit mobile match-three Gardenscapes rakes in $880 million
Game picks up $35 million in September alone thanks to Annie Smith update
Royalties
Ketchapp brings Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia IP to mobile
Prince of Persia: Escape landed on iOS and Android September 27th
New Motto, New Tech
Applift rebrands to focus on UA and retargeting
Company launches new toolset Mobile Journey Advertising, along with new website, slogan and logo
User Ad Revenue
IronSource unveils new tool to measure ad revenue sources
User Ad Revenue tool tracks which marketing channel user came from to help developers identify the top performing networks
Event
The Jordan Gaming Summit is one month away
We’ll be there with another of our hotly contested Big Indie Pitch competitions
Returning
Garena Online publishes Contra: Return in Southeast Asia
The retro-classic is currently available in Philippines, Thailand, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Hong Kong
Enough Is Enough?
Studio employees campaign against poor working conditions with #AsAGamesWorker hashtag
Developers let out their frustrations over industry working conditions
Jobs News
Animoca Brands brings in Xbox co-founder Ed Fries as strategic advisor
Former Microsoft exec had been advising developer Pixowl before it was acquired by the Hong Kong publisher
Game Of The Year
Nominate your game for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019
Lobbying ends on October 22nd
Mobile Mavens
Is Telltale's closure part of a wider industry trend or a cautionary tale?
The mobile mavens offer their opinions
Heading East
Supercell takes Clash Royale League World Finals 2018 to Japan
Event leaves London behind in favour of Asia
Report
Facebook dominates AppsFlyer Performance Index rankings, but Google is catching up
Apple Search Ads establishes itself as a mainstream player
Craft
Fortnite isn't top dog yet - Minecraft is now pushing 90 million monthly active users
The second-highest selling game of all time found an extra 20 million monthly users in 2018
Event
G-STAR trade visitor pre-registration now open
Korean games industry event also puts business matching system live
Indie Spotlight
From virtual boots to managerial suits: Simon Read on the evolution of New Star Soccer
"I was determined to make the game as accessible as possible and bring a bit of light-hearted fun back to football management"
Sales Out
NetEase’s PUBG-like Rules of Survival bags $75 million
Another battle royale success for the publisher alongside Knives Out
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: Cameron Roberson talks about developing their idle RPG indie title Clicker Knight
We chat to the recipient of the 3rd place prize from The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Revenue Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost generates $3.5 million in five days
Picks up over 800,000 downloads
Acquisition News
Animoca Brands picks up majority stake in AI accelerator Zeroth for $1m
Publisher underwrites $2m worth of investment into Zeroth SPC
Big Brother
Tencent tests facial recognition to restrict gameplay time in Honor of Kings
Chinese publisher wants to check identity and age of players