Five New Games
New release roundup: Passpartout 2: The Lost Artist, Purple, All in Hole: Sinkhole Puzzle, and more
We highlight five new games that have broken cover this week
Party!
Join us at the Pocket Gamer Party Cologne 2024 during Gamescom - FREE!
If you're in town for Gamescom, come along to the Tivoli for networking after dark on Wednesday, August 21st
Finalists Revealed
Voting for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2024 is live
The finalists are announced and open to industry-wide voting until July 22nd
New Offerings
Crunchyroll expands Game Vault with 15 new titles
The company has also partnered with Mages to bring anime franchises to Game Vault
New Offerings
Netflix Games adds Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit, The Case of the Golden Idol and more in June
Cozy Grove is Spry Fox's first game since the studio joined the Netflix in 2022
Rising Revenue
In-game ads in hypercausal runners: Increasing revenue without sacrificing other metrics
Azur Games producer Milana Gelmanova shares how in-game ads helped to create a 5% to 20% revenue boost in a year
Job Losses
Gameloft Toronto lays off 49 staff
Publisher blames "ever-changing market conditions" for the redundancies
Women In Games
Navigating privacy and boosting one of mobile’s biggest hits: Miaomiao Li on her work at Rovio
As part of Liftoff's Women In Games Series, Pocketgamer.biz speaks to Miaomiao Li, Performance Marketing Manager at Rovio.
Acquisition Ahead
CyberAgent to acquire NitroPlus in $104 million deal
Digital advertising firm and games publisher will support new subsidiary's efforts for global IP expansion
New Partnerships
Nazara and nCore partner to publish FAU-G Domination
Pre-registrations will be available on Google Play and the App Store later this year
Growing Catalogue
"Games are a long-term bet for Netflix"
VP of External Games Leanne Loombe discusses the entertainment company's plans for its games division
Fintech Funds
LinQ raises $2.3 million in seed funding to publish real-money games
Drive by DraftKings, Sharp Alpha Advisors, MiddleGame Ventures, and a16z Speedrun participated in the funding
M&a
OV Entertainment Group acquires co-development studio Kokku and tech firm 3OGS
Kokku chief exec and founder Thiago de Freitas named CEO of OV Entertainment Group following the deals
4d Future
Roblox looks towards "4D generative AI" future
UGC platform creator opens up on its AI plans
Job Losses
Reports: One Punch Man: World developer Perfect World lays off as many as 1,000 staff
The Chinese media firm is is also said to have halted worked on One Punch Man: World and Perfect New World
Gambling Crackdown
Northern Ireland’s APG wants "stringent, legally mandated regulations" imposed on loot boxes
The group has called for gambling mechanics in games to be "severely limited" now that the results of a public health inquiry are in
China Regulations
China approves 104 new games including titles from Tencent and Alibaba
Industry giants including miHoYo and SenseTime have also established the Shanghai Yuanchuang Future Private Equity Fund
Mobile Games Awards
Gamelight named as headline sponsor for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2024
Event returns on August 20th to celebrate the industry's finest
Treasure Hunt
Bringing real life adventure to mobile with augmented reality game Swords
Future House Studios' Adam Sidwell shares development challenges and vision for the fantasy mobile title Swords, featuring real life treasure hunting and grand prizes
Funding For Games
Scaffold secures $1.5 million to support game startups in Canada's Alberta
The initiative is sponsored by the Alberta government
Safety Startup
Tencent, Google and Meta vets raise $45 million in Series A towards online safety startup k-ID
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners
Fragmentation
The great divides of the global games industry
Raptor’s Rana Rahman explores the increasing sense of fragmentation in the video games industry and what impact resisting that reality could have
Classic Celebration
Garena Free Fire celebrates seventh anniversary with $4 billion in lifetime revenue
The celebration includes "classic features" with a focus on nostalgia
Podcast
Metaplay’s Teemu Haila on scaling and saving smaller studios $1 million per year with one SDK | Podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode…
Mobile Manoeuvre
Pokémon developer Game Freak’s first mobile exclusive is new IP, Pand Land
Game Freak and WonderPlanet "sometimes clashed" during development but ultimately "achieved balance" with this seafaring RPG
Jobs In Games
Games veteran Mike Seavers joins Scopely as their new SVP of technology
The ex-Riot Games, Epic Games and Yuga Labs veteran is “excited about the many Scopely projects underway that I can’t yet share!”
China Cha-ching
Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s first month of iOS revenue was twice that of Honor of Kings
Nexon and Tencent's RPG generated $270 million on iOS in its first month, becoming China’s most-downloaded game
Legal Advice
Epic's Fortnite fine: The precedent and potential consequences of in-game purchases in the Netherlands
Epic Games were hit with a €1m+ bill for "deceiving children", but what can devs and publishers do to avoid being hit with similar legal action?
Pgc Helsinki
Fingersoft CEO Jaakko Kylmäoja on how "the best game required the best environment"
Speaking a Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2023, Kylmäoja highlighted Fingersoft’s office culture as one of its most important strengths
Ai Approach
Square Enix still sees "tremendous potential" in AI but is wary of the "many risks involved"
CEO Takashi Kiryu has spelled out a more risk-averse approach to AI in the latest shareholders' meeting
Industry Insight
How to start marketing games as a developer: choosing sources and budget
AppQuantum’s Artem Sprygin shares valuable marketing advice and how you can apply it to your own project
New Game
Clash Heroes lives!… As new Supercell game Project R.I.S.E
RISING from the ashes of Clash Heroes and borrowing its assets comes a new "multiplayer, action-focused, social, RPG roguelite”
To The Races
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby gets an English version - is a Western release imminent?
Cygames’ racer has seen huge success in Japan with over 21 million downloads and $2 billion in revenue
Promotional Power
Monster Hunter Now on mobile cross promotes spin-off on PC and console
A new story and limited-time quests in the mobile hit promote the Monster Hunter Stories re-release
Interview
UMX Studio CEO Ali Alharbi on their upcoming game, company expansion and MENA opportunities
"The quest for experts, the uncharted terrain of an emerging industry - these are riddles awaiting solutions"
Browser Breakthrough
"It's hard to distinguish from a native experience. And all at the click of a button"
Raf Mertens, CEO of CrazyGames on their new browser-based tech, offering multi-player experiences with zero installation required
Hybrid Hire
Cat Escape maker Sunday appoints ex-SYBO Christian Balazs in shift away from hypercasual
Sunday has made a "pivotal" hire in a move to broaden into hybridcasual games
Apple In The Dock
Game over for Apple as the European Commission wades in against their DMA dodge
It's official. The European Commission is going to take apart Apple's half-hearted adherence to the Digital Markets Act
Hot Five
Hot Five: Japan’s newest stars, Nordic numbers, and Tripledot Studios’ acquisition
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Podcast | Episode 17
The history and future of the mobile games industry | Week in Mobile Games podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode 17...
Week That Was
Week in Views - Olympic esports, Gameloft's cross-play move, and what mobile gaming's history tell us about its future
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Jobs News
Unity restructure continues as CMO set to exit firm
Carpenter joins IronSource co-founders and Marc Whitten out the door this year
New Offerings
Asphalt Legends: Unite takes the racing favourite cross platform for the first time
A new trailer showcases the game's cross-platform capabilities starring actor-turned-NASCAR driver Frankie Muniz
Pgc Helsinki
Who will YOU meet at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki?
Connect with investors, publishers, indies, platform holders and more this October 1st and 2nd
Clearing Up
Embracer Group pays up $300m to clear $1.5bn debts
Nearly $1bn of its debts will be moved to Asmodee Group when the company breaks up into three separate public entities
Gaming Trends
74% of midcore installs come from ads in casual games as iOS CPI continues to rise
Hypercasual games still contribute 29% of installs across all genres, while puzzle games also hold strong at 37%
Busting Out
Squad Busters generates $28 million in first three weeks
The latest numbers on Supercell's big new game launch
Investment News
Narwhal Accelerator injects six-figure funding into game dev tool Magify
Magify's Business Intelligence system platform aims to simplify the game creation process for mobile game developers
Podcast
Gazeus Games' Estela Rocha and Aarki's Aman Sareen on savvy strategies for leaner teams | Podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode…
The Next Level
Ironhide co-founder Pablo Realini talks Kingdom Rush 5 and premium's place in 2024
"When designing your monetization strategy you can’t be too greedy and compromise the game you have set out to create"