Peak Star
Peak Games explores match-3 genre with new title Star Match
Zynga-owned developer experiments further with match-3 mechanics
Making Of
Behind the scenes: The making of Zynga Socialpoint's Top Troops
Top Troops game lead Albert Fontova discusses the development of the game and its vital first few months post launch
Hot Five
Hot Five: Activision Blizzard’s app store alternative, Google Play’s download dominance and a 3D Candy Crush
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Week That Was
Week in Views - What caught our eyes in the last seven days
The Pocketgamer.biz team take their pick of this weeks big news, including a major milestone for hybridcasual, the Candy Crush crown and when digital giants have a change of heart…
Bad For Business
“This is a classic example of political point scoring taking precedence over business common sense”
CEO and founder of Matchingham Games Fatih Haltas shares his take on the controversial UK visa rules and how it’s expected to impact the gaming industry
Virtual Events
Building experiences in Roblox: Behind the scenes of virtual influencer Polar’s live event
Game developer Kokku discuss the tech and challenges they faced when delivering their latest Roblox experience event
Podcast
Kwalee’s John Wright On Attracting Valuable Users With A Loyalty-Driven Approach | Podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode…
Highest Earners
Chinese mobile publishers see an end of year revenue turnaround despite industry challenges
Tencent dominates, but other publishers are also finding success with Chinese companies holding 37 of the top 100 global revenue rankings for November
Dance The Blues
Crunch time for ByteDance's gaming ambitions
Big tech pulls back from gaming again
App Stores
Former DotEmu and Playdigious co-founder announces alternative app store finder StoreRider
Xavier Liard's latest aims to provide new ways for developers to distribute their apps outside traditional platforms
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from Sonic’s latest adventure to a gyroscopic rhythm game
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Big Indie Pitch Stories
Happy Volcano discusses Big Indie pitch success and their continued growth as an indie studio
Interview: We sit down with the Big Indie Pitch winner Happy Volcano
Emerging Markets
Africa’s gaming market: How to make a profit with F2P games
Carry1st Senior UA and admonetisation manager Claire Rozain discusses the African games market opportunity for F2P games
Schedule Reveal
Get a sneak peek at the schedule for PG Connects London
PG Connects London is bringing you two days packed full of exciting content - take a look at what's on right here
Winners
The Game Awards 2023 picks its mobile game of the year
And the winner is… n't much of a surprise as mobile once more gets short shrift at gaming's biggest (and lengthiest) livestreamed awards ceremony
Tales To Tell
"It was surreal to see our little brainchild win a Google Play Award and be nominated for a BAFTA!"
Other Tales Interactive founder Tanja Tankred tells us about the success of Tick Tock: A Tale for Two, being an inclusive studio and what's next
Ads Ahead
Google Ads overhaul: AdInMo and Usercentrics prepare for the big changes due January 2024
A case study with Black Smoke Studios shows that 83% of players are still willing to provide basic personal information
Audio Ads
Odeeo claims over 90% of audio ads are not skipped by gamers
Odeeo’s research provides tips on designing the ideal audio ads
Angry Nerds
Rovio close Studio Lumi in Montreal with the loss of 16 jobs
Rovio's second studio in Montreal, Studio Six remains unaffected, alongside roles held by key Rovio Montreal-based staff
Subs Only
3D Sonic adventure Sonic Dream Team launches as an Apple Arcade exclusive
This marks Hardlight’s second exclusive Sonic game on Apple Arcade
Jobs In Games
League Of Geeks halts Jumplight Odyssey, announces layoffs
“We are devastated to be in this position, and we have done everything in our power to avoid it,” said the co-founders
Dishing The Dirt
Codemasters suffer job losses in ongoing Electronic Arts takeover aftermath
After the acquisition of rivals, restructuring of teams and lacklustre sales, owners EA have stepped in to "align teams and resources to meet evolving business needs"
Gaming In Africa
The Africa Games Industry Report sheds light on the region's challenges and triumphs
Reflecting rich diversity and a youthful demographic, the Africa games market continues to witness steady rise in mobile game development as its primary platform
Ai Meets Ugc
AI advances: Kongregate’s new AI Adventure Creator platform is out now
Kongregate’s Bryan Salt gives us all the details on their new platform which allows users to create their own games by connecting them with the latest AI technology
Candy Crown
King soft launch Candy Crush 3D: Is their next crowning victory on its way?
King stealthily reveals Candy Crush 3D on the Google Play Store
Legislation
Ukie: Government immigration proposals "risk giving impression the UK is closed for business"
Following changes to the minimum salary for a skilled worker visa, the UK's games industry trade body speaks out against the new legislation
Hypercasual Hit
Behind the scenes: The developers of Going Balls on the success of their hypercausal hit
Developers Stefan Filote and Ionut Iftimia discuss the development journey of Going Balls touching on the hypercasual space and future goals
About Apple Ads
Apple Search Ads and SKAdNetwork make waves as marketing attributions rise 55% in two years
Kochava’s State of Mobile Measurement 2023 report reveals how the landscape has changed since ATT
Plenty To Predict
Candy Crush to lose its crown in 2024? But overall mobile game revenues will be up
As 2023 comes to a close, data.ai makes its predictions in mobile gaming, AI and more for the new year ahead
Twitch Pullback
Twitch is pulling out of Korea after "significant" losses with "no pathway forward"
Twitch’s costs in Korea are too high, so the platform is leaving the country next February
New Competition
Microsoft accelerates plans for Xbox mobile marketplace launch
“This move is part of a broader strategy to extend the joy and community of Xbox gaming beyond consoles, bringing it into the mobile world," claims Montgomery Singman
Heroes Heights
Nintendo pulls out the stops for Fire Emblem Heroes' billion-dollar future
Nintendo’s biggest mobile game gears up for its next major update and Book 8’s opening chapters
Christmas Shopping
AppsFlyer closes the year with second acquisition in less than a month
The company plans to harness the full capabilities of AI to optimise its growth and monetisation strategies
American Ascent
The US accounted for 53.5% of casual game installs in Q3, but what are the hottest genres globally?
Monopoly GO and Subway Surfers prove to be the quarter’s most downloaded games
A Winning Team
Korea shoots and scores with huge surge in soccer-themed mobile game sales
Despite the FIFA rebranding, EA FC Mobile continues to dominate the soccer-themed mobile games market
Make A Difference
Games For Change announce new 'Diverse Voices, New Stories Challenge'
Mobile game creators across the globe can submit their work and help players discover games that feature diverse characters, voices, and stories
Real Results
Mobile AR users are projected to reach 1.7 billion by 2024
The cross-platform development platform is providing users with tools and support to build, collaborate and publish WebAR content
Download Disparity
Q3's biggest genres saw 700% more downloads on Google Play than Apple App Store
A total of 12.36 billion downloads across top three Android genres VS 1.54 billion on iOS
Industry Stories
Jobs in games: Breaking into animation with Hutch’s Lucia Gentile
Gentile studied 2D and 3D animation and has since gone on to work at the likes of Whatwapp and Hutch
Platform Psychology
Former Activision Blizzard CEO supports GameTree's $1.7M seed round for AI app to unite gamers
The funding round saw support from Ukraine’s former president and a former Activision Blizzard CEO
Activision App Store
Activision Blizzard, Epic Games and Supercell considered forming a Google Play competitor
The Epic vs Google case reveals past plans for an app store alliance
Beastly Balancing
Monster Hunter Now enters new season with "major update" promised every quarter
New balancing, monsters and weapons are on their way to Niantic’s second-biggest game
Unity No More
"Unity - I'm done" Why Fundamentally Games’ CEO Oscar Clark is switching platforms
After backing the platform 100%, this former Unity evangelist has had enough. Here's why
A High Breed
Hybridcasual conquers the $2 billion mark in 2023
The hybridcasual genre is projected to reach $2.1 billion in annual revenue this year
Hot Five
Hot Five: Supercell’s path to fame, a Chinese gacha hit and 20M in Web3 funding
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Horizons
Babil Games co-founders AJ and MJ Fahmi depart for new ventures
After 11 years building the mobile company, the COO and CEO are now on a new path to find new opportunities and challenges
Week That Was
Week in Views - What caught our eyes in the last seven days
The Pocketgamer.biz team take their pick of this weeks big news, including games tech making movies, Microsoft's app store aspirations and procuring prize Pokémon…
Ad Mo Metrics
Ten reasons why eCPM is the most useless metric in ad monetization
GameBiz Consulting's Božo Janković goes in hard on one of ad mo's favourite, but most misunderstood metrics. Think you understand eCPM? Think again
Podcast
NSPCC’s Kevin Antao and Andy Sallnow on the challenges of safe gaming for children | Podcast
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and and what's inside this week's episode…
Five New Games
New release roundup: From the return of Dynasty Warriors to a 'brand new' retro-fuelled 16-bit kart racer
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business