Given The Boot
Vivendi pulls out of Ubisoft as Tencent becomes shareholder in the French publisher
Conglomerate sells its 27.3 per cent stake in the firm
Get Published
New mobile publisher Habby on the hunt for indie games
Profiling Habby - the hot new games publisher from Asia
Phwoar
PlayFusion to give Warhammer the Pokemon Go treatment with new AR trading card game
The mobile games developer will also create additional content as a part of an IP partnership with Games Workshop
Moving Day
Avakin life developer Lockwood Publishing opens first international office in Lithuania
New Vinius office to comprise of up to 15 backend developers
Like Nite And Day
Invitation-only Fornite Mobile nets more than $1 million in-game on iOS within three days
Epic Games’ battle royale is currently top of the iOS charts in over 40 different countries
Chickens On The Menu
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile launches in America and Canada on iOS and Android
Further release dates for other regions to be revealed soon
Will I’ll Be
The Sims creator Will Wright working on new mobile game Proxi
Competition to join project as 3D artist announced at GDC
Nested Prefabs
Unity's big roadmap for 2018 includes machine learning, IAP Promo and a new rendering pipeline
Technology firms shows signs of a busy year ahead
Game Dev Challenge
$250,000 Unity and Universal contest gives game devs access to IP such as Battlestar Galactica and Back to the Future
Other famous franchises to play with include Turok, Voltron and Jaws
All On Board
Armello launches on iOS and Android
Free-to-play digital board game offers players in-app-purchases and subscription options
Get The Message
Chat app gaming: The massive opportunity in mobile no one’s talking about
Facebook Instant Games presents an exciting future for mobile
Instant Gaming
Android Instant lets players quickly trial games like Clash Royale with tiny downloads
Service currently in closed beta
Job News
QA and localisation firm Testronic journeys east to set up first office in Asia with new Bangkok set up
Lily Gavin-Allen to take charge of business development in the region
Job News
AR company appoints mobile and blockchain entrepreneur to advisory board
Richard Skaife joins Krytonite1 CEO George McDonaugh and Snatch CEO Jamal Hirani at Reality Clash
Playable Ads
How Synative’s streaming tech aims to fix mobile’s UA challenges through playables
How short game trials can grab new users
Friendly Competition
Amazon reveals cross-platform competitive gaming service GameOn that delivers real-world prizes
Developers can use it to implement leaderboards, leagues and multi-round competitions
High Tide
Subway Surfers becomes first game to hit 1 billion downloads on Google Play
The endless runner launched in 2012 and was downloaded 400 million times last year
Good Gamee
Gamee teams up with Viber to bring social gaming to 1 billion users
The new partnership will see over 70 of Gamee’s titles brought to Viber’s 1 billion users
Service Provider
Meet games services company MoGi Group at GDC 2018 in San Francisco
The team will be at booth 2103 in the South Hall of the Moscone Convention Centre
Next Stage
Drive Ahead! developer Dodreams snags former Rovio SVP Sami Lahtinen as head of studio
Lahtinen will be involved with Drive Ahead!, audience engagement and recruitment
Mobile Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved set to touch down on mobile as a free-to-play title this spring
Closed beta to also launching today
Chart Topper
Invite-only Fornite Mobile hits the top of iOS games chart in first 24 hours
More invites set to be sent out over the coming months
Touched Down
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile journeys West with Canada soft launch
Available for download from the Google Play store
New Studio
Avakin life developer Lockwood Publishing opens new studio in Newcastle
The new office will be headed up by Ubisoft alumni Joe Stevens
Events
Blockchain Gamer Connects: The new conference for games and the blockchain heads to San Francisco May 14th to 15th
Two-day event revealed for May 14th and 15th
Reaching Out
Google Play reveals a slew of new mobile game advertising features
Rewarded video, playables and open bidding heading to Google Play and the company's services
Glorious
Super Evil Megacorp partners with Alibaba to bring Vainglory to World Electronic Sports Games
MOBA joins the likes of Blizzard’s Hearthstone and Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Cheers Guys
YoYo Games to hand out free licences for GameMaker Studio 2 during GDC
Games developers can use the suite at Train Jam, The Heart Jam and the Not Going to GDC Game Jam
Looking East
Flaregames sets its sights on solving China's publishing problems with Yeahmobi partnership
German publisher rebrands as it continues to expand its operations
1v1me
Supercell kicks off Clash Royale League Challenge to give hopeful pros a chance at the big time
Players have until March 19 to reach 20 wins to progress to the next round
Moving Day
Outsourcing specialist Virtuos eyes acquisitions after raising $15 million
The development studio also hopes to double in size over the next three years
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