International News
Russian tech group VK sells off gaming division
Late last month, the company announced their MY.GAMES brand would be sold off for a reported $642m USD.
Women In Games
Toya and Dove partner to educate young girls on body image, self-esteem and social media literacy
Launching a Roblox experience designed for girls aged 9-16
Future Acquisitions
Tencent changing strategy to acquire more majority deals
The tech company is hoping to secure future growth by expanding its gaming assets
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival Submissions for 2023 are open
The event will see eight awards handed out in various categories
News
Ankhara-based Panteon celebrates 10m Airport Master downloads
The company, based in Türkiye, has seen an impressive number of downloads for its airport manager sim.
Helsinki Highlights
Building a company with vision
Jussi Tähtinen on how crystallising the company you want to be can help you succeed
Trouble For Tencent
Tencent loses status as China’s biggest company
The company’s stock price has fallen $623 billion from its peak
Get Ready For Liftoff
CPI for casual games has fallen, while ROAS has increased
Mobile gaming is now three times the size of its closest competitor
Mobile Streaming
Vodafone Idea partners with CareGame for India’s first cloud gaming service
The service will be previewed at India Mobile Congress 2022
Children's Code
One year on - how is the gaming industry dealing with the Children's code?
Companies are uncertain about age verification standards
Industry Analysis
The mobile games industry in Lithuania
Whilst we may often give consideration to the ‘big’ markets like China, America and Europe, too often we neglect to talk about the relatively smaller but still potent areas of the industry.
New Hire
NetEase hires Jonathan Morin as creative director
Morin will be joining the Montréal office and focusing on creating new IP
Very Big Indie Pitch
Latchback Games draws a winning hand as Break the Beyond wins The Very Big Indie Pitch
Winners breakdown
Global Pitch
Global Games Pitch - Mobile Games takes place on November 2nd to 3rd
The online pitching event will give the spotlight to participants to shout their projects to the world
Blog Posts
Mindworks break down playable ads in case-study
Playable ads are a way of showcasing gameplay within an advertisement to engage and attract players. So how do they work and how effective are they?
Game News
IWM partners with Historical Games Network for ‘War Game’ exhibit
The Imperial War Museum’s latest exhibition doesn’t concentrate on objects from a real-world conflict, but instead on video games that recreate war and its effects.
Four Day Work Week
Anna Yukhtenko: "Some tasks that I thought would take me a long time, actually require much less time if approached tactically"
Hutch is one of the many companies for whom the four day work week trial is still ongoing.
New Hire
FunPlus hires Jacob Krüger as the new user acquisition director
Krüger will be joining the Barcelona office to help lead the companies user acquisition strategy
Journey To Jordan
Celebrating the MENA region in 2022
Learn more about the MENA region ahead of our upcoming events in the area this Q4!
Market Impact
Genshin Impacts celebrates its second birthday in style
The game was the third most profitable title of the past two years
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia eyes up acquisition of major publisher
The acquisition is part of a $38.7 billion games strategy
Service News
Google Stadia set to shutter in 2023
Google’s foray into game streaming never took off as they had hoped, judging by the imminent closure of the service. Was it simply too early to work?
Streaming News
Netflix rolls out gamertag quality-of-life feature
The first of what looks to be a series of gamer-focused features in their gaming section may be a small addition, but it could herald bigger things.
Download Or Delete?
Free-to-play games are downloading podcast episodes to phones without consent
Publishers are boosting their download rates for monetary purposes using this method
User Acquisition Advice
Matej Lancaric offers tips to improve ad campaigns and find more users
His blog suggests the ideal length of a creative is 20 to 25 seconds
Cooking Up Success
Netflix and Tilting Point team up on three new titles
SpongeBob and Narcos get new games, with an unnamed title also in the works.
Hypercasual Report
Tenjin has released its hypercasual games benchmark report
The report covers Q3 of 2022 and shows Android is at an all time high for share of ad spend
Bringing The Blockchain
Sega’s first blockchain game is coming from partnership with double jump.tokyo
A blockchain game using the Sangokushi Taisen IP is on the horizon
Mobile Device News
Razer resurrect ‘Edge’ branding with new 5G gaming device
Verizon, Qualcomm and Razer will produce what they call the world’s first 5g mobile device specifically for gaming, with a sneak peek in a teaser video.
Revenue Results
Nexters makes a comeback from net loss in H1 2021 to record-high net income for H1 2022
$56 million in H1 and $33 from Q2
Partnership
XPLA announce partnership with Xterio
XPLA are hoping to be the leading blockchain for gamers and this partnership is the next step toward that goal
Bigger And Better Than Ever
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2022 was our biggest show in the region yet – catch up on what you missed
1550+ attendees, 700+ leading companies, 56 countries represented and more publishers and developers present than ever before
Blockchain Metaverse Game
The creator of PUBG has announced a new blockchain metaverse game
Brendan Greene is creating a new game named Artemis which will feature NFTs
Layoffs Likely
Mighty Kingdom announces cost reduction plans including staff layoffs
Strategy would reduce FTE within developer and administration teams
Dragalia Descending
Dragalia Lost celebrates fourth anniversary two months before servers shut down
Celebrations include in-game bonuses, artwork on Twitter and more
News
Indie Arena Booth boasts 1 million views in hybrid Gamescom experience
The indie games showcase reported at least a million viewers as part of its hybrid online and physical booth at Gamescom 2022.
Helsinki Highlights
Burnout Survival Toolkit
Egor Piskunov talks about recognising the signs of burnout, and what can be done to treat and prevent it.
Newzoo Report
50% of Gen Z and Gen Alpha make in-game purchases
Mobile is the top platform in both demographics
Helsinki Highlights
Creating balanced gameplay through inclusivity
Tülay McNally took to the stage at Pocket Gamer Connects in Helsinki to talk about her role at EA and bringing diversity to games
Ad Fraud
iPhone recorded more ad-related fraud than Android in Q2
The higher LTV of iPhone users makes them a prime target for fraud
Milestone
Pokémon Go reaches $4.5 billion in lifetime revenue
The popular Pokémon Go title reaches milestones in revenue and downloads
News
ASA cracks down on three separate sexist mobile ads
All three ads ruled on by the Advertising Standards Authority dealt with elements deemed to be suggestive or otherwise inappropriate.
News
Additional $40 million of funding raised by Well-Link, the graphics as a service provider
Mihoyo, Developers of Genshin Impact, were part of the second round of investment conducted by the GaaS provider.
Helsinki Highlights
What does it take to self-publish your game?
Another talk from PGC Helsinki discusses the pros and cons of self-publishing your game, on mobile or otherwise.
News
Desta launches alongside charity initiative for youth organisations
Netflix Games’ new title launched today, and developer ustwo promises a 3% profit donation to charity.
Rebranding
Coda is now known as Coda Labs
The rebranding will see a shift in focus toward web3 gaming
Play 2 Plant
Sybo continues to fight climate change with Play2Plant event
SYBO launches first-ever Times Square billboard and Subway Surfers goes truly evergreen as gamers plant 500K trees with Ecologi
News
Technicolor's VFX and Game Studio become independent entity
The studio’s gaming branch is, as of reporting, independently trading under the name “Technicolor Creative Studios”.
Helsinki Highlights
Exploring live ops in the metaverse
John Goodale spoke about the metaverse at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Helsinki Highlights
Understanding the Complexity of Today’s Player
Louise Shorthouse helps us understand how the multi-platform gamer is now the dominant type of player for mobile games, and what can be done with this info.