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
Trolls
“Patent trolls” threaten Clicker Heroes dev with legal action over virtual currency
PlaySaurus asked to pay $35 million licensing fee for violating a patent concerning the sale of virtual currency
Trends Survey
Win a free ticket to Pocket Gamer Connects by taking part in our developer survey
You could win a free ticket to an upcoming PGC event
Lifes A Pitch
80% of games journalists receive up to 10 review pitches per day
Big Games Machine surveyed over 200 games reviewers in it's first report
All The Marbles
Netmarble’s Lineage 2: Revolution generated $924 million in first 11 months
Seoul-based games publisher also looking to continue big Western push with more titles set for 2018
Getting The Message
How to approach game design for Facebook Instant Games
Chatterbox Games CPO Adam Telfer breaks down how to make games for chat apps like Messenger
Jurassic Lark
Ludia gives new location-based AR game Jurassic World Alive the Pokemon Go treatment
New AR title expected to release ahead of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Showcasing Diversity
Google highlights games made by women as part of Change the Game initiative
Apps highlighted include 80 Days, Zen Koi 2, Race for the Galaxy and Kami 2
Building Blox
How one student's The Sims-like Roblox game racked up 160 million play sessions
Coeptus on the success of Welcome to Bloxburg
Scapegoat Confirmed
Trump's meeting to scapegoat the games industry for US gun violence is on
ESA confirms actual invite after confusion around who would attend
Quite Honorable
Tencent dangles extra Honor of Kings game time carrot to kids who get good grades
New in-game contracts will let children negotiate play time with their parents
Less And Less
Report: Gameloft to close down Madrid studio
40 employees set to be dismissed
Top Of The Leader Board
Next Games ranks as the best games studio to work at in Finland
Next Games comes out well in Great place to Work's annual survey in Finland
Set To Crush It?
Livestreaming service Mobcrush wants to democratise streaming with Go Live, Get Paid ads platform
CEO Mike Wann discusses the company's new strategy for paying content creators
Good Game
Amazon officially acquires cloud development platform GameSparks
Despite being reported back in July 2017 the deal is now official
Indie Mavens
Is there any room for indie games developers to get in on the battle royale trend?
Our mobile mavens weigh in
Jobs News
Dots developer hires ex-King head of game franchises as new president
Nir Efrat to lead business operations and expansion plans
World Of Pr
Wargaming UK PR manager Frazer Nash leaves to start up own company
Sets up independent PR and communications business
Recruitment Drive
Top Eleven dev Nordeus makes string of key hires from EA, Goodgame, Radiant Worlds and more
Belgrade studio ramps up work on new projects
Special Offers
6 ways to get into Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco for free
Head to the show without spending a dime