Strategic Growth
Games for Change welcomes five new board members
New and existing board members will guide the organisation's next phase of growth
Job News
Roblox names Naveen Chopra as new chief financial officer
Chopra is succeeding Michael Guthrie, who will be stepping down as CFO to pursue personal interests
Apple Games
New Apple Games app offers recommendations, challenges, and leaderboards
Apple also showcases some Apple Intelligence features as it ignores previous delays
New Ai Studio
Homa co-founder opens new AI-first studio Everyday
Olivier Le Bas wants to "rethink" how mobile games are built
Download Deluge
Fortnite lands 2.8m new installs on App Store in US
Epic Games’ flagship remains the country’s most-downloaded mobile game for 19 days running, but has been beaten by ChatGPT for most-downloaded app
Lawsuit Triumph
Tencent wins IP case against Peacekeeper Elite content leaker
The ruling comes over three years since the case first began in January 2022
Shutting Down
Games livestreaming platform Noice closes
Company had raised $26 million in funding before new investment dried up
Mobile Games Awards
Nominations are live for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025
The submission phase for this year's categories is now open and closes on June 27th
Squad Slump
Squad Busters makes $472,000 on Chinese App Store as version 2.0 is slow to ignite global fortunes
The global version has generated $1.8m in almost a month since the major overhaul
New Offerings
FunPlus launches new cross-platform publishing label Kingsglory with debut game Aniimo
The title is set to launch in 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, PC and mobile
Accelerator Program
Turkish game startups join UK-focused accelerator ahead of London Tech Week
Startups include PaxAnimi Games, Game Actor, and Yamy Studio
Milestone
Moonton Games' Magic Chess: Go Go has surpassed 30m downloads
MCGG garnered more than 20m pre-registrations before launching globally on May 28th
New Offerings
Google brings Play Points to Roblox with launch of Diamond District experience
The search giant said the experience will be live until July 2nd, 2025
Stream Wwdc
Watch Apple’s WWDC keynote right here
Tune in at 6pm BST (10am PDT) for the big announcements
Xbox Handheld
Microsoft unveils ROG Xbox Ally handhelds
New consoles will launch in winter later this year
Event Report
Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona arrived like a rocket ship with a truly unforgettable debut
Europe’s hottest new games industry event provided an unmissable gateway to one of the fastest growing and vibrant hubs
Marvellous Mena
Abu Dhabi University launches region’s first BA in Game Design
The program will offer a wide range of courses including genre-specific studies such as first-person shooters and mobile games
Floodgates Open
Wuthering Waves celebrates first anniversary with $317.3m on mobile and Los Angeles celebration
Kuro Games’ gacha RPG quickly sailed to its first $100m and has found a second wind since Version 2.0’s release
Funding News
Kohort closes fundraising round to fuel expansion beyond mobile
The funds will go towards platform development
Funding For Games
Yarnhub Animation raises $2.1m to develop WWII title
The team also plans to develop games using Unreal Engine 5, the same technology behind its animated films
Layoff News
Jagex cuts operational staff to refocus on player experience
Project Zanaris is also delayed
Switch 2 Release
Nintendo Switch 2 is out now: Hardware specs, launch games and an $8bn industry opportunity
The Nintendo Switch 2 is finally here, with a bigger screen, 120fps and GameChat functionality
Stay Denied
US court rejects Apple’s request to delay ruling that broke open the US App Store
“May next week’s WWDC be the Apple-led celebration of freedom that developers and users have long deserved," says Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney
Job Losses
Playtika layoffs hit Best Fiends and Redecor teams
Redundancies come shortly after Wooga saw around 50 job cuts
Winners Revealed
Apple reveals 2025 Design Awards winners
Balatro clinched best game in delight and fun category
Summer Special
Albums, battle passes and milestones: Mobile’s top event types to introduce this summer
AppMagic analyses the three summer event formats that can fit "seamlessly" into almost any live ops schedule
New Partnerships
RevenueCat and Paddle partner to simplify web and mobile subscriptions
“Our goal at RevenueCat has always been simple: help developers make more money," said RevenueCat CEO and co-founder Jacob Eiting
Partnerships
Moloco and Xiaomi partner to expand global ad reach with machine learning
Brazil, India, Turkey, and Germany account for most of Xiaomi’s ad exposure
Esports World Cup
Esports World Cup Foundation partners with Amazon in three-year deal
“With Amazon, we are bringing esports into everyday digital lives for millions of people around the world,” said Esports World Cup Foundation COO Mike McCabe.
Funding For Games
Games Scale Up Fund awards £850,000 to six Welsh studios
Applications for Games Development Fund between £10,000 and £50,000 is ongoing until June 5th, 2025
Store Strategy
Epic Games Store hits 40m mobile installs and eyes 70 by the end of the year
Epic web shops are planned to launch in July
Lauding Legislation
Tim Sweeney: "Revenue is shifting away from useless gatekeepers and middlemen"
Epic Games’ CEO celebrates legislative changes at State of Unreal 2025 and promises to "keep fighting" for developers worldwide
Studio Closure
Zynga to shut down Torchlight 3 developer Echtra Games after four years
Echtra Games is listed as having 61 employees on its LinkedIn page
Market Report
Asia and MENA games markets hit $86.6 billion in 2024
Revenue is projected to reach $96bn by 2029
Surfing In The Sun
Subway Surfers heads to Barcelona in new World Tour event
The in-game setting has been chosen for the 201st World Tour, and happens to coincide with PGC Barcelona 2025
Mergers & Acquisitions
Siyata eyes $126bn mobile games market with Core Gaming merger
Core Gaming CEO Aitan Zacharin will lead the combined entity
New Partnerships
Khalifa Fund and Inovartic partner to support UAE games startups
Support will come in form of incubation, specialised training, and financial aid
Web3 Way
Quranium secures Animoca Brands investment with focus on web3, AI, metaverse and games
Mobile games will be a key focus, as will security against present and future threats
Ready To Launch
How to get your game published in China in 2025
MyGamez CRO Thorbjorn Warin discusses the rules and challenges of releasing a game in the country
Pgc Barcelona
Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona kicks off today
Two days of insightful sessions and networking opportunities takes place on June 3rd and 4th
Ceo Change
Turborilla hires ex-Kwalee John Wright as new CEO effective immediately as Tobias Andersson steps back
Andersson has stepped back into a board member role as the company enters its "next chapter"
Growing Gamers
Roblox game Grow a Garden beats Steam with record concurrent user high of 8.9m
Steam’s highest concurrent users in a single game was achieved in 2018, with 3.2m players in PUBG: Battlegrounds
New Offerings
Roblox unveils License Manager to let developers build with popular IPs
The tool is set to launch in Q3
Done Deal
Pokémon Go under new ownership as Scopely closes $3.5bn Niantic deal
Pokémon Go, Monster Hunter Now, Pikmin Bloom and their associated development teams have officially been acquired
Pgc Helsinki
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki returns in 2025 with expanded format and future focused agenda
One Ticket. Three Events. Unlimited opportunities this October 7th and 8th, 2025
New Partnerships
Appcharge partners with AppsFlyer to bridge mobile and web store analytics
The strategic partnership aims to fill a gap in measuring lifetime value (LTV) and campaign optimisation
New Offerings
ZiMAD launches World Hunger Day campaign in Magic Jigsaw Puzzles and Domino
50% of proceeds will be donated to The Hunger Project
Women In Games
Women in Games advocates for stronger inclusion following UK supreme court ruling
The organisation said it will work with policymakers, studios, schools, and grassroots groups to make the games industry truly inclusive
New Offerings
Stash launches in-game popups on iOS to boost off-platform conversions
“With the changes to Apple’s US guidelines, developers finally have more freedom to guide players toward better value,” said Stash co-founder Justin Kan.
Podcast | Episode 55
Apple faces further EU fines and Trump tariffs chaos continues | 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 what's inside this week's episode 55...