Mobile Milestone
Delta Force hits $300m on mobile after record daily revenue
Daily player spending hit $9.3m on September 19th, up 333% over one week
Creator Chief
Roblox appoints ex-Zynga and Airbnb veteran Vlad Loktev as chief creator ecosystem officer
He will start the new role on September 29th, 2025, set to lead developer relations and platform events
Game Jam
Saudi Arabia launches the second edition of the Saudi Game Champions Program
Each startup will receive $53,000, mentorship from global experts, and training support
Online Safety
Kuwait temporarily blocks Roblox over child safety concerns
The country joins Turkey, Oman, China, and Qatar in restricting the platform
New Partnerships
Savvy Games Group signs MoU with Alinma Bank to deliver tailored banking solutions for Saudi gamers
The partnership aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Gaming and Esports Strategy
Pgc Helsinki
Therapy? drummer Neil Cooper and other stellar speakers joining Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
New cutting-edge content announced for Helsinki, October 7th to 8th
Clampdown
Trump imposes a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick claims big companies are on board with the plan despite millions of dollars in extra costs
Online Safety
US Congress calls on Twitch, Steam, Reddit, and Discord CEOs to testify on online radicalisation
The hearing is scheduled for October 8th 2025
Expansions
Supercell plots new office in Helsinki’s Maria area to support expansion
CEO Ilkka Paananen says the new space will help Supercell attract talent and sustain global growth
Adaptations
MrBeast joins the cast of Angry Birds 3
The film will hit cinemas a month earlier on December 23rd, 2026
Job News
Supercell taps King's Sabrina Carmona as new Clash of Clans GM
She will work alongside a team to spearhead the future of the title
Growth
Playstack revenue surged 52% in H1 2025 to £30.7m
Balatro and Abiotic Factor sold over 3m units in the first half of the year
Scholarships
BAFTA awards over £277,000 in grants through its 2025 scholarship programmes
The fund provides up to $2,700 each for training, equipment, and other essential costs
Legal Proceedings
Tencent rejects Sony’s claim that Light of Motiram is a “slavish clone” of Horizon
The Level Infinite parent company argues Sony is trying to monopolise common genre elements
Global Launch
Pocketpair confirms Palworld will exit Early Access in 2026 with a major 1.0 update
The studio says that the cleanup work in 2025 will prepare the game for a stronger full release
New Offerings
Fortnite creators will be able to sell in-game items directly from their islands starting in December
Epic says creators will earn 50% of V-Bucks value from sales, rising to 100% through late 2026
Market Growth
Cross-industry game engine adoption surges, led by Unreal, Unity and Godot
Unreal Engine remains dominant at 65% adoption, with Unity growing to 53% as the second most popular engine
New Partnerships
Flexion partners with Microfun to bring Seaside Escape to alternative app stores
Seaside Escape earned $6m net revenue in August
Acquisition
Verve acquires Captify in $30.3m deal to boost data and sales reach
Captify CEO Mike Welch to step down moving into a strategic advisor role
Milestone
Metacore celebrates fifth anniversary alongside Merge Mansion’s five-year milestone
The mobile title has surpassed 60m downloads and $700m in lifetime revenue
Podcast
From offerwall to always-on: Xsolla’s take on player engagement
The PocketGamer.biz podcast team and guests give you the state of play, here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode
New Offerings
Epic Games launches new open content marketplace Fab
Developers can now access Fab’s full asset library and manage acquisitions
Industry Partnership
Pocket Gamer Connects partners with Global Game Jam
New collaboration aiming to elevate game creativity and games industry networking
Trade Body
Ukie launches Interactive Entertainment Scotland to champion games sector
IES will represent Scottish studios in government and policy discussions to support industry growth
Industry Outlook
UK games industry generates £12bn annually and supports 73,000 jobs
Despite this growth, TIGA warns the UK lags behind global rivals with its 20.4% tax relief
Monster Milestone
Monster Hunter Now celebrates second anniversary and $271m in lifetime player spending
Originally a Niantic game, Now was purchased by Scopely as part of a larger $3.5bn deal this May
Investment News
Lingokids raises $120m to invest in AI and scale learning content
The funding will also help expand partnerships with popular IPs
Pgc Helsinki
"Why your players hate your web store"
Appcharge’s Miikka Luotio discusses the four steps of a web store and which element might be "broken"
Milestone
Fable Town celebrates first anniversary after generating $9m in lifetime revenue since launch
A special three-week Anniversary of Magic event runs until October 2nd to mark the milestone
Ai Ebook
Free AI Gamechangers ebook: Key insights into how developers are harnessing AI
Download our 37-page collection of interviews with CEOs and experts sharing real-world insights on making AI work for your business
Mid-term Prices End
Final days to save €230 on Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2025
Europe’s biggest B2B games event in the Nordics returns October 7th and 8th with final ticket discounts ending this week
Key Hires
DTC platform Stash names ex-Homa president Henry Lowenfels as CEO
Company makes wave of senior hires as it plots mission to democratise direct-to-consumer for all studios
New Offerings
Apple debuts dedicated Games app in iOS 26
Apple Games app now serves as a central hub for App Store titles
Tiktok Sale
US and China reach framework agreement for TikTok sale
Follows years of political disputes over ByteDance’s ownership
Delayed Release
LocalThunk delays Balatro update to avoid crunch and burnout
Despite the delay, Balatro 1.1 will still release as a free update across all platforms when it’s ready
Job News
Roblox recruits Unity's Mike Schoelch as new head of agency partnerships
Schoelch will lead agency development within the company's global brand partnerships and advertising division
Epic Grant
Cascadeur receives $50,000 Epic MegaGrant to develop dedicated Unreal Engine Live Link plugin
Over 40% of Cascadeur users rely on Unreal Engine
Esports Tournament
NetEase Games launches Dunk City Dynasty Global Championship 2025
Teams from seven regions will compete for the $100,000 prize pool in the offline finals
Game Republic
Maisie Adam to bring Big Kick Energy to final session at Game Republic New Horizons
The final headliner guest has been announced for Game Republic New Horizons, taking place on October 16th.
Careers
Looking for work in the games industry? Get into the Careers Zone at PGC Helsinki
A hub of innovation, networking and talent acquisition powered by Games Factory Talent this October 7th to 8th
Funding For Games
AppQuantum launches $10m strategic fund to back mobile game studios
The fund targets pre-seed and seed rounds with investments ranging from $250,000 to $1.5m
Soft Cancel
EA Sports FC Empires canned
EA Sports FC Tactical looks like it could be next up after it was last updated in April
New Offerings
Hungry Studio partners with Govee to bring Block Blast designs into home spaces
Since its 2021 launch, the game has reached over 200m players worldwide
Super Mario Movie
Nintendo releases first trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The sequel is set to release on April 3rd, 2026
New Offerings
Roblox launches The Takeover event to showcase genre diversity
The Takeover spans 48 games, from survival titles like Pressure to roleplay experiences such as Dress to Impress
Investment News
Square Enix invests in Brazil's Nuuvem to build web-based games platform
The platform soft-launched with 12 titles and plans to onboard over 100 games by year’s end
Funding News
LocusX raises $2.1m for AI-powered bug-fixing tools
“We built LocusX to solve debugging, one of the most frustrating and expensive parts of the process,” said LocusX CEO Francois Pelland
Pgc Helsinki
More top industry pioneers and experts revealed for PGC Helsinki
Meet the speakers joining Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 7th and 8th
Closure
Toca Boca Days shuts down after 16 months in soft launch
Servers taken offline on August 25th, 2025 as developer looks to focus on other projects
Bouncing In
Angry Birds Rush mobile game soft-launches in the US
Title blends classic slingshot mechanics with runner-like gameplay