Location Location Location
Now any developer can harness Google Maps for Pokemon Go-like real-world gaming
The next Pokemon Go could be just around the corner
An Instant Success?
Facebook Instant Games opens up to all developers
Platform rolls out with ads-based monetisation, ads optimisation and measurement tools and cross-promotion features
Top Dogs
Mobile games spending one-third higher than on PC/Mac, handheld and console combined in 2017
Mobile gaming continues to grow thanks by and large to growth in Asia-Pacific territories
Zombieland
Google Maps to power upcoming location-based augmented reality game The Walking Dead: Our World
Partnership will bring famous landmarks such the Statue of Liberty and the London Eye to the game
Ka-ching
Social casino dev KamaGames’ revenues hit $57.5 million in 2017
Earnings up by 63.4 per cent from 2016
Getting Social
Sega and GetSocial study shows that social media is the way to go to engage players
GetSocial's study looks at the 40,000 players brought into Sonic Forces: Speed Battle through non-paid social channels
Big Indie Pitch
The Big Indie Pitch heads to GameDevDays in Estonia
Pitching in the Estonian capital
Big Moves
Lords Mobile generating up to $50 million a month
I Got Games also managed to snag $603 million in revenue for 2017
Sweet Deal
Jam City acquires Colombian World War Doh developer Brainz
Publisher expanding into real-time strategy development
Automated Offers
New machine learning-powered app monetisation tool Game of Whales launches
Data from tests claims 25 per cent increase in daily revenues
Rewarded Video Ad Growth
Tapjoy ad platform reaches 620 million monthly active users
Rewarded video ad views grow 150 per cent year-over-year
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Alto’s Odyssey and the reinvention of the snowboarding genre
Team Alto’s executive producer Ryan Cash and producer Eli Cymet talk about growing as a studio, delays and capturing a feeling
Sweet Deal?
Why did Ubisoft acquire a developer of narrative-focused vampire romance games?
Charting 1492 Studio's Is It Love? series
Off The Chain
Get the latest news and analysis on the world of the blockchain at BlockchainGamer.biz
Online from today, BlockchainGamer.biz explores the blockchain technology phenomenon and demystifies its use in gaming.
Big Moves
Reboot Develop set to welcome speakers from NetEase, Ustwo, Nordeus and more in April
Over 100 talks set to be featured at Reboot Develop on April 19th to 21st in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Match-made
Matchmade wants to be the Google AdWords of influencer marketing as it surpasses a 200 million YouTube subscriber reach
Eeva Hattara joins as CFO while Heini Vesander is named CMO
Breaking Japan
“The Japanese games market has come out from its closed-off period”
Yengage chief operating officer on the opportunities that await developers in Japan, and how to break in
Iap Inspector
How does The Sims Mobile monetise?
IAPs from the players' perspective
Decked Out
Valve set to bring Source 2-powered card game Artifact to mobile in 2019
Title will be premium, not free-to-play
Competitive Gaming
Alibaba backs non-violent video games at the Olympics
“In our communication with the Olympics committee, we’ve come to have a better understanding of their values, which is to promote peace"
Redundancies
Report: Fruit Ninja developer Halfbrick lays off half its team
The number of employees laid off could push past 30 before the end of the week
Jobs News
Tag Games names new CEO as Paul Farley moves to head up live ops platform ChilliConnect
Farley wants to "democratise live ops and connected gaming"
Blast Off
Blast closes $5 million round to let gamers earn money while they play
Start-up wants to improve engagement and retention for developers while letting players make real money
Expert Insights
17 exclusive fireside chats from Pocket Gamer Connects London
HyprMX speaks to leading industry experts about their work in the mobile games industry
Money Stream
Tencent pumps $632 million into Chinese online games streaming platform Douyu
Follows $462 million funding in rival Huya
Big Deal
Chinese games livestreaming service Huya picks up $462 million funding from Tencent ahead of IPO
Tencent has rights to up stake to controlling 50.1 per cent of shares
Funding Round
Mobile developer Kixeye raises $20 million for machine learning platform
Tech to help studios optimise marketing, monetisation and retention
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Golf Clash swings back into the top 10 grossing spots
Rankings from February 26th to March 4th 2018
Copycraft
NetEase rushes to beat Epic’s Fortnite to the punch on mobile with FortCraft
This chicken dinner smells familiar
Most Read
Glu soft-launches new IP, student Roblox dev finds big success, and Mobile Legends faces off with Arena of Valor
The hottest articles of the last week
The Week In Jobs
Mobile game jobs weekly: Nordeus makes string of key hires, Gameloft to close Madrid studio, 80-plus EA Mobile vacancies
The movers, shakers and job opportunities in mobile gaming
Championing Diversity
Zynga partners with IGDA to kick off Women in Games Ambassador and Scholars initiatives at GDC
Zynga will provide mentoring from staff and access to the conference
Download Rush
Dutch publisher Spil Games racks up 300 million downloads on mobile
Operate Now: Hospital highlighted as most successful mobile title to date
Soft Launch
A guide to soft-launching your mobile game
Pixel Federation's Matej Lancaric offers advice from his personal experience.
Another Milestone
Summoners War surpasses 90 million downloads
Com2us expects to hit 100 million downloads in the near future
Small-screen Dinner
Epic’s Fortnite Battle Royale is coming to mobile with PC and PS4 cross-play
Developer claims title will have same gameplay, map, content and weekly updates
Jobs News
FarmVille co-creator Mark Skaggs departs Indian developer Moonfrog Labs
Designer to return to the US and spend more time with his family
Big Deal
Influencer-led DoubleJump Games acquires mobile developer TinyMob
Further acquisitions and publishing deals on the cards
Reality Check
Reality Clash pulls PlayStation veteran Anthony Bray to head up its operations
The hire comes as the company are heading into the launch of a new augmented reality game
Another Way
Alternative Android game store Flexion raises $10 million prior to 2018 IPO
Levelling up
Trends Survey
Last chance to fill in our developer survey ahead of GDC
Be in with a chance to win a free ticket
International Women's Day
QA outfit Testronic rolls out 50% Initiative to encourage more women in games
Designed to develop and further careers, too
Investment News
HQ Trivia dev scoops up $15 million funding round
Company valued at $100 million
New Studio
FoxNext opens new narrative-focused games studio in San Francisco
New branch to harness Fox and Disney IP for episodic title
Get In
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out reaps $24 million in February thanks to unexpected success in Japan
Japanese players contributed to 80 per cent of global sales outside of the Chinese Market
Simply Splendid
The Sims Mobile tops the App Store download charts as it breaks out of soft launch
EA's new Sims title was originally soft-launched last year
Tapped Out
Chinese online games portal TapTap shut down for three months as government cracks down on rule breakers
Tencent, 360, Xiaomi and more also slapped with fines
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Arcane Circus’s Molly Heady-Carroll on the accessibility of the mobile market and finding the balance in life
"Defining what you want and don’t want is vital to creating a clear plan for yourself to reaching your goals. This definition can be surprisingly different for each person"
Fight Fight Fight
Mobile Legends is quietly out-grossing Arena of Valor in many countries
Tencent's MOBA mega-hit isn't winning everywhere
Magic Money Tree
Mixed reality start-up Magic Leap scores another $461 million investment
Total investment to date reaches $2.3 billion