Hypercasual Heights
Pangle and Newzoo’s hypercasual report explores the eastern and western market divide
Audience variation between US, UK, Japan and South Korea highlighted
600 Million Reasons
Andreessen Horowitz launches $600 million games VC fund
GAMES FUND ONE established to invest in games infrastructure and technologies as “key building blocks” of the metaverse
Taking The Subway To The Factory
Former Kiloo director joins Funday Factory
Jeppe Kønig, former Subway Surfer director of publishing, joins Danish multiplayer studio
Time To Save
Five reasons why booking your ticket to PG Connects Toronto today will be the best decision you make
There’s only hours left to save up to $475 on your ticket to our Toronto show this July – act now before time runs out!
Mamma Mia
Saudi Arabia’s PIF acquires 5% stake in Nintendo
Third major investment in Japanese games companies made for “investment purposes”
Network Test
N3TWORK Studios secures $46 million for Web3 games
Independent company formed following Forte’s acquisition of N3TWORK technology platform
Alternative App Store Agreement
Flexion to publish FunPlus’ King of Avalon on alternative app stores
Releasing on Huawei App Gallery and Samsung Galaxy App Store Q2 2022
Gameloft Grows
Gameloft’s newest studio opens near headquarters in Paris
Developing free-to-play elements in console and PC games
Coasts And Climates
Unity founder David Helgason launches climate initiative Transition Labs
Partnering with oceans solution platform Running Tide
Apex Predator
Apex Legends Mobile is the most downloaded iPhone game in 60 countries
Entered the top 10 most downloaded in 89 countries
Hacked Off
US sanctions Blender.io and identifies North Korean Lazarus Group for Axie Infinity hack
The US is sanctioning cryptocurrency mixing platform Blender.io and North Korea's Lazarus Group for their role in the theft of $625 million from Axie Infinity
Party Like It’s 2009-2011
Minecraft is Angry Bird’s latest official collaboration
DLC created by Oreville Studios
Acquisition
Dead by Daylight developer acquires Midwinter Entertainment
Midwinter founded by Halo and Farmville veterans
Spanish Studio
Product Madness opening a new studio in Spain
Its fifth international studio after expansion in UK, Ukraine, Israel and Poland
Meeting Milestones
57% of PUBG Mobile player spend comes from China
Worldwide revenue reaches beyond $8 billion
China's Climb
Chinese mobile games revenue surpassed $9 billion during Q1 2022
Revenue up 2.72% year-over-year
Take-20
Take-Two to release 20 mobile games separately from Zynga
Mobile release of GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition seemingly delayed, scheduled within fiscal 2023
£10 Million Fund
Eric Seufert launches $10 million investment fund supported by Supercell, Huuuge Games
Heracles Capital fund partners include Supercell, Gamejam CEO Christian Calderon, and Huuuge Games CEO Anton Gauffin
Foreshadowing Fableborne
Pixion Games announces "Lunchtime Esports" game Fableborne
Featuring "play-to-own" NFTs
Blkchn
Former King team raises $3 million to bring Bitcoin to mobile gaming
Casual mobile studio pnkfrg studios aims to merge video UGC with Bitcoin and the Lightning network into mobile gaming experiences
Ip Integration
Curve Games acquires Hue developer Fiddlesticks Games
Acquiring all IP and assets relating to the Hue franchise
Fertile Battlegrounds
Krafton: PUBG Mobile accounted for 75% revenue in Q1 2022
Of record-high $405.7 million revenue for the period, mobile title recorded $307.1 million alone
Crypto Curves
Axie Infinity’s utility currency devalued to $0.004
Value has fluctuated since reaching $0.004 on May 12
Very Big Indie Pitch
Shift Shaft awarded first place at The Big Indie Pitch after offering a new spin on a classic genre
Winners breakdown
Growing In Germany
exmox acquires Testerheld to develop new portfolio features and content
Developing platforms and generating new features
King Moves
King’s Diversity Space Tool to be utilised across Activision Blizzard by Q3 2022
Tool to prevent unconscious bias in game character roster will now be used in Call of Duty and Overwatch 2 teams
Rolling In Revenue
Apple made more games revenue than Google in 2020 and 2021, Newzoo finds
Top 10 companies saw conbined revenue totalling $126 billion last year
Football And Fighting
Nexon predicts doubling of mobile revenue following Q1 2022 financials
Record year for FIFA ONLINE 4 M and launch of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile bolster Nexon's mobile confidence
Infinite Appointments
Infinite Arcade appoints former Visa exec Andrew Dubatowka
Dubatowka held senior positions in Intel, Google, Visa, and AdColony among others
Prepare For Launch
Jeremy Bondy named new CEO of Liftoff
Bondy will succeed founder Mark Ellis, who will remain as senior advisor
Frvr Pitch
FRVR acquires F2P first-person shooter Krunker.io
Title acquired for an undisclosed amount
Rocky Roblox Report
Roblox sees 54.1 million DAUs, despite sharp declines in engagement
Per daily average user, average bookings were at $11.67 in Q1
Gimme That
Despite record Q1 2022 for declared M&A, value of closed deals decreased
23 per cent decrease in closed deals over 2021, although significant spike throughout rest of 2022 anticipated should MS/Acti, Take-Two/Zynga, and Sony/Bungie deals complete
Revenue Report
Mobile game revenue decreased for first time ever in Q1 2022
Sensor Tower's State of Mobile Gaming 2022 report shows revenue and install variation by country
Ubisoft Alone
Ubisoft to bet on mobile, F2P as annual sales fall
CEO Yves Guillemot moves to quash acquisition rumours in investors call
Join Us In Toronto
Meet leading games industry companies and get business done at Pocket Gamer Connects Toronto, July 6-7
New city, new opportunities, same high-value conference. Save up to $475 with our Super Early Bird discount!
Take Me On A Journey
Rovio targeting one major, Angry Birds Journey-scale, release annually
Alex Pelletier-Normand and René Lindell, CEO and CFO of Rovio respectively, open the Rovio capital markets day 2022 with a profile of Rovio’s growth opportunities
Supporting Indigenous Storytelling
East Side Games joins programme for Canadian Indigenous games scholarship
Blackbird Interactive, East Side Games, and Timbre Games Studio will partner with the Vancouver Film School on bringing Indigenous voices to the games industry
Thank You For Attending
PG Connects Seattle was our biggest North American show yet – here’s what you missed!
Our first hybrid U.S. show welcomed 950 delegates from over 50 countries with 70% of attendees representing the U.S. and Canada
Likely More Than 5v5 Lawyers
Riot Games sues Moonton over sustained Wift Rift copyright infringement
Riot Games is again suing Shanghai Moonton Technology Company (Moonton), but this time is alleging infringement on its mobile MOBA, Wild Rift
Fi-fuh?
Electronic Arts sees 82% increase in mobile revenue in fiscal year 2022
FIFA Mobile sees 80% growth in new players, as EA ends partnership with the football association
Where Is The Money
Call of Duty Mobile’s $1 billion consumer spend attributed to China despite highest spend in US
Activision Blizzard states 650 million downloads for mobile title now rivals console/PC player bases
Running Up That Hill
Fingersoft brings Hill Climb Racing 2 to cloud gaming
Sequel to Finnish studio’s most popular title now playable on Facebook Gaming
Meta Collections
Facebook and Instagram to start NFT integration
Meta and Etherium, Solana, Polygon, and Flow networks partner to build NFT platform
Revenue Results
Higher revenue and lower costs for Zynga in Q1 2022
$691 million revenue marks a 2% increase over Q1 2021
Joining And Growing
Blackstone hires former Zynga COO Matthew Bromberg
Focusing on Blackstone Growth
One Game To Rule Them All
EA partners with Middle-earth Enterprises on new Lord of the Rings mobile game
Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is latest title in EA’s push to expand mobile portfolio
Tools And Tokens
Has Ready Games done the impossible: brought NFT gaming to iOS and Android?
Developer tools to convert mobile Web 2.0 games into Web3 games and meet the store rules of Google and Apple
Liverpool Launch
Tencent Games’ new UK studio is based in Liverpool
Supporting development of titles for partner studios
Download Deluge
Voodoo becomes the third-largest global company in app installs
The sole European member of the top six