Monetised
Looking inside the Monetiser track at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland from September 11th to 12th
Paladin
Speaker Spotlight: Paladin Studios CEO Derk de Geus
Derk de Geus will be talking about agile live ops at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
China
China’s gaming crackdown pushes Tencent towards further age restrictions in Honor of Kings
As part of a government campaign to prevent myopia amongst children and reduce gameplay time
R&d
Scotland set for $11.6m games research and development centre
Students also stand to benefit with work experience through InGame partnership
Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp reaches $50 million in worldwide revenue
But the mobile life-sim is still the slowest-growing of Nintendo’s three mobile titles
Agile
Speaker Spotlight: King's Sabrina Carmona on Fortnite's impact on the mobile games industry
Sabrina Carmona will be discussing how companies can create agile teams and foster a culture of excellence while developing games at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Good Cause
Gameloft, Wargaming, Bandai Namco and more support War Child's Armistice 2018 charity fundraising campaign
Money to go toward supporting children affected by war
Acquisition News
UK publisher PlayStack acquires Finnish developer Hisome
Studio renamed PlayStack Oy and will be responsible for development and finding new partners
Come Together
NantWorks invests in H1Z1 developer Daybreak and forms new publishing division
Mobile versions of H1Z1 coming
To Absent Friends
Square Enix COO Mike Sherlock passes away
"Mike was a principled and charismatic leader who led by example. He was extremely proud of the progress and success we have shared over the years"
Thank You!
Celebrating the sponsors for next week’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
All the companies who help make Europe’s biggest mobile B2B games industry event possible
Ban
France bans mobile phones during school
Phones, tablets and smart-watches banned during school hours for under-15 students
Publishing Deal
Mobile internet giant Cheetah Mobile secures publishing rights for Ministry of Games' Trade Town
Cheetah Mobile beat multiple publishers to win the deal
Top Celler
Dead Cells is selling four Nintendo Switch copies for every one sold on PS4
Roguelike slasher manages to outsell on Switch despite console’s smaller install base
Knight
Hollow Knight topped Nintendo Switch eShop charts in Europe last month
25 per cent cut and fourth free content release help propel Hollow Knight to No.1
Bought
AppLovin acquires in-app header bidding company MAX Inc
Discoverability platform expands services to include the new header bidding solution
Indie Mavens
Why is the Nintendo Switch so popular among indie mobile devs?
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
Kitted Out
Looking into the Developer Toolkit track at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland on September 11th to 12th
Super
$1.5m daily August revenue pushes Supercell’s Clash Royale to $2.2 billion in lifetime earnings
The daily intake was up from the $1.2 million per day average in July
Earthquake
Nintendo Direct delayed following earthquake in Japan
The games showcase will be rescheduled soon
Contact!
The A-Z (and a bit!) of who’ll be at next month’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki (UPDATE)
Who would you like to meet at Europe’s biggest B2B mobile games industry conference and expo?
East Meets West
South Korean publisher Pearl Abyss acquires Eve Online studio CCP for $425 million
Icelandic studio claims it will maintain independence while supporting Pearl Abyss' current and future projects
Super Purchase
Nielsen snaps up market research outfit SuperData
No figure put on the deal
Investment Round
Roblox picks up $150 million investment to fuel global expansion
New translations and support for currencies expected as company continues to grow
Amazon
Amazon quickly follows in Apple's footsteps and hits $1 trillion valuation
The online store joins Apple as the second public US firm to pass the threshold
Lay Of The Land
Looking across the Live Ops Landscape at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland on September 11th to 12th
Switch
Nintendo Switch closes on five million sales in Japan
Handheld hybrid has sold almost five million units in its home market
Listed
Chinese mobile games publisher CMGE looking to raise $500 million through Hong Kong IPO
The company originally delisted from Nasdaq in 2015 in the US
Sponsor Profile
Inside the Asian games scene with G-STAR and Pocket Gamer Connects
Meet our partners from South Korea and discover essential insight to a huge new market
Dead Cells
Speaker Spotlight: Motion Twin games developer Sebastien Bernard
Sebastien Bernard will be talking at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki about the making of Dead Cells
One Hundred Million Dollars
Streaming platform Caffeine nets $100m investment from 21st Century Fox
Two companies form new joint venture called Caffeine Studios
Charity
Angry Birds Match and Imagine Dragons team up to take down paediatric cancer
Rovio collaborates with the band for a special event during childhood cancer awareness month
Unleash
Speaker Spotlight: Bango VP of product marketing Guy Singh discusses Far East and Latin American markets
Guy Singh will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki titled Unleash The Power Of Operator Data To Convert 9X More Paying Users
Olympic Values
Esports 'too violent' for Olympics
Popular titles focused on combat “cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values"
Machine Learning
4 ways games companies can leverage machine learning
How games makers could be more effectively leveraging the petabytes of big data they’re accruing
Suspended
Tencent suspends Arena of Valor global CM following sexual harassment accusations
Nick Zasowski to undergo full investigation following claims of inappropriate messages being sent to women
Keys
Speaker spotlight: Quicksave Interactive CEO Elina Arponen on the past and future of chat games
Elina Arponen will be part of a panel discussing the Keys for Success in Hypercasual and Messenger Games at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Straight Fire
Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes brings in over $417m in revenue
The tactical RPG has made up 78 per cent of Nintendo’s mobile revenue since launch in February 2017
Infoblast!
Everything you need to know about Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki (UPDATE)
We’ve rounded up all the essential info ahead of next week’s two-day conference and expo
Rollback
Speaker Spotlight: Exit Games senior engineer Erick Passos
Erick Passos will be giving a talk titled How Rollback Networking will Revolutionize Game Development at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Parrot
Speaker Spotlight: Nitro Games head of community Ida-Emilia Kaukonen on keeping with mobile games trends
Ida-Emilia Kaukonen will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Shit on the Floor: Parrot Cage of Game Community
Crypto
Reality Clash developer opens the doors on a temporary crypto-only London store
Soho store set up to educate the public on cryptocurrency will hand out free virtual coins
Switch
Sony’s Hiroyuki Oda believes the Nintendo Switch has had “positive influence” on the industry
But kind words won't change the company line on collaboration in the gaming sector.
On Cloud Nine
All things cloud gaming at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki touches down in Finland on September 11th to 12th
Indie
Dead Cells developer Motion Twin "took a big risk" leaving the mobile market behind
“We traded that relative security for the ability to develop a game that we wanted to play”
Fiend
Speaker spotlight: Seriously VP of games design Reko Ukko
Reko Ukko will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki titled Telling Your Brand's Narrative Across Mediums: A Case Study on Seriously's Best Fiends
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: From RAF pilot to indie games with Powerless developer Lauren Carter
How the Narratio founder got into the industry and developed new interactive fiction title Powerless
Structure
Speaker Spotlight: Oktagon Games lead game designer Pedro Rauiz Estigarribia Gestal
Pedro Rauiz Estigarribia Gestal will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Discipline-based team structures vs. Lifecycle-based team structures
Sharp
Razer is taking a second shot at developing a gaming phone
Earnings report confirms the development of a second-generation Razer Phone is underway
Summoned
Summoners War draws in revenues of over $1.3 billion
The turn-based strategy MMO title initially launched back in June 2014