Big Indie Awards 2018
The best of The Big Indie Pitch 2018 - Daft Jump
We take a look back at the winner of The Big Indie Pitch at the last Jordan Gaming Summit
Good Cause
Supercell, Rovio, Outfit7 and more back One Special Day charity fundraiser
Takes place on September 28th
Delicious Downloads
Nukebox’s Food Truck Chef serves up 16 million installs
Average monthly revenue said to have triple since $18 million Tilting Point partnership
Monetisation Blow
China's regulatory roadblocks stop most downloaded game PUBG Mobile from making money
Despite 100 million downloads and 50 million active users, there are no IAPs
Switch Up
Players will need to sign up to Nintendo Switch Online for cloud saves
Service will go live September 18th and will cost $3.99 a month, $7.99 for three months or $19.99 for 12
Jobs In Games
From the world's top Clash of Clans player to game dev: Space Ape's George Yao on getting a job as a product manager
"It all boils down to personal attitude and the desire to learn."
Pocketed
Miniclip pockets over $400 million from 8 Ball Pool on mobile
Lifetime installs more than 80 million
London Calling
Super Early Bird prices for Pocket Gamer Connects London end next week
Ticket prices now lowest they'll ever be for January event, to rise after next Friday
Hot Trends
China mobile game trends H1 2018: Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile top the grossing and download charts
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad delves into what the first six months of 2018 tell us about the Chinese mobile games market
Off The Blockchain
Cocos-BCX raises $40m in funding to accelerate development of blockchain games platform
Funding led by Binance Labs, NEO Global Capital, 500 Startups, among others
Co-op
Skybound teams up with Sky to create narrative focused mobile games
Skybound Stories will create games based on new and existing IPs
Scrollin
Bethesda's Todd Howard shows off Elder Scrolls: Blades gameplay at Apple’s iPhone event
Elder Scrolls game set for a fall release this year
All The Range
iPhone XS, XS Max and XR unveiled at Apple keynote event
Previous ranges also discounted or discontinued
Indie Spotlight
The story of Triple Topping Games’ Spitkiss puts polyamory front and centre
“We thought it was an interesting subject and also something you may have a lot of questions about”
Direct
Delayed Nintendo Direct set to go ahead September 13th at 11pm UK time
Last weeks direct was delayed due to natural disasters
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go saw a 35 per cent increase in activity over the last 4 months
Niantic also announced a scheme to tie Pokemon Go to civic engagement events
Super Cells
Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen explains why its cell structure puts developers before management
“The less the management had to do with their games, the better their chances of success”
Big Indie Pitch
Boom Slingers dazzles judges to clinch top spot at the Very Big Indie Pitch at PGC Helsinki 2018
Top five revealed
Super
The first mobile Spider-man game almost made its creator bankrupt on day one of development
Indiagames reflects on creating the web-slinging mobile title on a low budget with four developers
Bird Feed
Rovio teams up with Jazwares to create range of toys for Angry Birds
The range of toys will support Rovio’s upcoming entertainment ventures
Surf's Up
Subway Surfers hit monthly download record of 52.5m in June 2018
2.1 billion-plus downloads in total
Fated
Former Fate/Grand Order and Zero Escape devs launch new indie studio
Four titles are currently in the works, one anime and three games
Here Comes The Boom
Boom Beach blows past $820m in revenue for Supercell
The MMO real-time strategy released back in 2013
Exclusive
Vinnie Jones is the face of Stanga Games' Underworld Football Manager
The Snatch actor will be the face of the game for an undisclosed period of time
China
It could take another four-to-six months for China to start approving new games again
Governmental restructure may see the region’s normally-booming market frozen for another half year.
Pgc Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects day two begins with Blockchain, Indie and Growth tracks
A packed second day awaits
Switch
Nintendo cites cheaters for the decision to restrict cloud saves on Switch
Switch Online cloud saves won’t be enabled on a number of titles
Spend
Report: Industry less reliant on "whales" than it used to be
Less stigma on in-game spending is creating a market less reliant on big-spenders.
Social
Former Zynga director Kate Gorman's Fort Mason Games reveals first project
The women-led startup hopes to make a name in casino gaming through better representation of women
Rawr
Ludia’s Jurassic World Alive takes home over $25m in four months
The location-based title averaged $1.2 million per week in revenue for August
Ballin'
Outerminds taps up YouTubers Ethan and Hila Klein for mobile game
Ball Riders is available to grab on the Google Play store and Apple App Store
Open For Business
Unity and Google Cloud launch open-source matchmaking project
Open Source is games engine agnostic to allow game creators to reuse a common matchmaker framework
Game Changers
Facebook talks Instant Games on Messenger: “We’re investing a lot in making this a better experience”
Social network working to improve game discoverability
Pgc Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki kicks off with talks on hyper-casual and monetisation
Two days packed with talks covering all aspects of the games industry
X Marks The Spot
From Nintendo Switch to PC: Inside Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki’s Connect X track
Pocket Gamer Connect Helsinki lands in Finland September 11th to September to 12th
Fold
Tencent axes poker game as China tightens the leash on gaming
Servers for “Everyday Texas Hold’Em” will go offline on September 25th
Industry Lessons
Gamescom 2018: 3 things we learned about the mobile games industry
While much of the focus understandably fell on PC and console titles, there was also plenty to be learned about mobile gaming
Pubg
Tencent is holding its first PUBG Mobile tournament in India
PUBG Mobile Campus Championship 2018 will pit teams from 1000 colleges against each other
China
A third of the Chinese population is playing mobile games
China’s 459 million large mobile audience rivals the total population of Japan and the US combined
Jumping The Shark
How does Hungry Dragon engage, retain and monetise?
Analysing Ubisoft’s franchise spin-off
Critical
Speaker Spotlight: Critical Force CEO Veli-Pekka Piiranen delves into company growth and culture
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland September 11th to 12th
New Digs
Nexon swaps up US offices in California to reflect company culture
New Hawaii Street HQ is two floors and 49,307 square feet
Giant
Speaker Spotlight: Netmarble EMEA president Barış Özistek on the rise of artificial intelligence and accessibility
Barış Özistek will be giving a talk called Going Global - Bringing giant games from Korea to the west at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Not Too Shabby
Mobile Strike racks up over $1 billion in revenue for Machine Zone
Lion’s share of income hails from the US with 55 per cent
Badges And Beer
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Badge Pick Up Party kicks off tonight!
Skip the registration queues at the venue and head straight to the bar the night before
Traded
All things Trade Trends at Pocket Gamer Connect Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki will last from September 11th to 12th.
Eastern Delights
A peek into Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki's East meets West track before it happens
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki will last from September 11th to 12th
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: Zorka.Mobi's Dmitry Chudovsky on influencer marketing trends and tools
Will speak at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018, which takes place on September 11th to 12th
Evasyst
Speaker Spotlight: Evasyst CEO Evasyst Dr. Mark Ollila
Dr. Mark Ollila will be talking about Why gaming today is less about the game and more about social experiences at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Blast
Toon Blast revenue rockets to $200 million in its first year
Toy Blast follow-up reaches milestone thanks to a successful celebrity marketing campaign