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
Clash Of The Titans
Glu Mobile explores strategy genre with new soft-launched IP Titan World
Glu Mobile soft-launches new IP Titan World in the Philippines
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Alto's Odyssey a top 10 premium grosser on iPhone and iPad
Rankings from February 19th to 25th
Most Read
Zynga targets Indian mobile market, a fresh start for Glu, and big changes at Rovio
The hottest articles of the last week
Indie View
The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Tiny Corp talks being indie and coming second in the first ever BIP in Poland
We speak to Tiny Corp, runner-up of the first ever Big Indie Pitch at GIC in Poznan
The Week In Jobs
Mobile game jobs weekly: Rovio closes London studio, new PocketGamer.biz writers, and Niantic job openings
The movers, shakers and job opportunities in mobile gaming
Trends Survey
Win a free ticket to Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco by filling out our Spring Developer Survey!
First 50 people to complete the survey will also get a 20 per cent discount code to the event
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
The CEO of publishing giant Tencent is now the richest person in China
Tech mogul Ma Huateng also moved 23 places up the global rich list to 15th
Jobs News
Changes at Angry Birds developer as Rovio London closes and head of games Wilhelm Taht departs
Changes afoot at company following recent profit warning
Big Moves
Lineage 2 developer Netmarble names new CEO
South Korean-based developer Netmarble
Mobile Games Trends
Indonesia Snapshot: The largest mobile games market in Southeast Asia
Niko Partners Analyst Daniel Ahmad on what the charts tell us about the local games industry
Trumped Up Charges
Trump 'invites' games industry to meeting to scapegoat video games for US gun violence
Unclear what the point of this all is
Iap Inspector
How does What's Your Story monetise?
IAPs from the players' perspective
Going Ape
Space Ape teams up with London universities for Varsity: Masterclass programme in March
UK developer to host a series of seminars in March in association with Universtiy College London and the University of Greenwich
Building Blocks
Unity partners up with blockchain marketplace DMarket for in-game item trading
Unity and DMarket team up to build links between gaming and blockchain trading
Crushed It
Mobile streaming outfit Mobcrush recruits ex-Studio 71 COO Phil Ranta as head of creators
Phil Ranta joins up with Mobcrush to lead their creator community
Good Cause
Esports platform Skillz partners with breast cancer organisation for $100,000 charity tournament
"By supporting Susan G. Komen the Skillz platform will contribute to change"
You're A Wizard
Jam City opens Google Play pre-registrations for Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Mobile title set for spring 2018 release
Egged On
Kirby developer HAL Laboratory’s Part Time UFO touches down in the West
New mobile-focused studio HAL Egg's debut title is out now in the west
Level Up
Video games graduates have more than doubled in the UK over the past five years
Gamer grads in fine company after 116 per cent increase over the last five years
Gold Rush
What opportunities does India hold for social casino developers in 2018?
India is proving to be a promising new mobile market with its abundance of new phone owners and cheap data with this year set to be an especially eventful one for mobile devs in the region
Hot Story
Ubisoft acquires 1492 Studio to get in on mobile interactive fiction craze
Publisher brings in Is it love? series to its widening mobile portfolio
Celebrity Pay Off
A fresh start for Glu Mobile
End of a difficult era
Indie View
The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Zaibatsu Interactive talks saving zombies and indie pitching
We speak to Zaibatsu Interactive, who took away the third place prize at The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2017