Best Year Yet
App Store developers earned $260 billion since launch
Up $60 billion from start of 2021
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Environmental Expansion
Netmarble launches ESG Management Council, plans to reduce CO2 emissions
Aims to reduce annual Co2 output by 5,300 tons
Itchy Twitter Fingers
Japan’s mobile games community dominated Twitter in 2021
Genshin Impact leads the conversations
Merging Media
Dodreams invests $1.4 million to merge games with online videos
Aiming to create grassroots marketers from its playerbase
Wow
Take-Two acquires Zynga at $12.7 billion valuation
Second largest games industry acquisition
Gamer's Guerdon
StageZero raises $1.8 million to reward mobile gamers for training AI
Will include labelling tasks which can help train virtual assistants
Strategic Signing
Azerion extends partnership to exclusively publish Ubisoft Nano titles
Will manage distribution and monetisation of titles
Competition Collaborators
Hashcube partners with wagering platform Pllay to integrate esports competitions
Provides access to over 20 million casual mobile gamers
Last Chance
Indie developers: pitch your games to industry experts this January
Get your games the exposure and expert feedback it deserves at this month’s digital Big Indie Pitch
Roblox Retracted
Roblox removes Chinese app LuoBuLesi to rebuild
Removed from mainland app stores in December
Cheaters Come A Cropper
PUBG Mobile hackers to pay $10 million to Tencent and Krafton
Will be used to fund anti-cheat tech
Making New Frens
OP Games launches indie publishing arm GM Frens
Aims to bring indie developers onto the blockchain
Spearheading Subscriptions
Team17 acquires What the Golf? publisher The Label for up to $40 million
Foothold in mobile games subscriptions market
Mobile Moves Ahead
UK mobile games spending increased by 8.1% in 2021
21.9 percent above pre-pandemic spending
Green Footprint
Kolibri Games partners with Planetly to attain carbon neutrality
Makes contribution for past two years of business operations
In-app Ads Widen
In-game ads expected to generate $14 billion by 2028
Key players include IronSource, EA, Anzu, and more
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European Spending
Europeans spent $11.2 billion on mobile games in 2021
PUBG Mobile, Coin Master, and Roblox lead the way
Indian Innovation
Zupee partners with Jio Platforms, raises $102 million
Now with the largest reach of any India-based games company
Electric Hypercar
Krafton partners with Bugatti Rimac to bring Rimac Nevera to New State
First big collaboration for Krafton's latest entry
Diversification
Nexon branches out with $400 million investment into Russo Brother’s AGBO
A further $100 million set aside
Mega City Metaverse
The Sandbox partners with Hong Kong companies to create Mega City metaverse
Including Adrian Cheng, PwC Hong Kong, and Times Capital
Renewed
Pearl Abyss and Amazon extend Black Desert Mobile partnership
Will run for next six months
Divestment
Tencent raises $3 billion from sale of Sea Group shares
Remains majority shareholder
No New Games
Freeze on games sees around 14,000 studios close in China in 2021
New games freeze expected to extend further into 2022
Dice Roll Debut
Former EA, Zynga execs to launch debut mobile title RPG Dice: Heroes of Whitestone on January 18
Inspired by dice-roll tabletop games
Tax Loophole
Roblox founder David Baszucki alleged to have exploited tax break loophole
Accused of exploiting loophole 'at least 12 times'
Trillion Triumph
Apple becomes first company to reach $3 trillion market value
Share price reached a high of $182.88
Applovin Acquisition Approved
AppLovin finalises $1 billion acquisition of MoPub from Twitter
Acquired for $1 billion cash
Exmox Executive
Exmox appoints Caglar Eger as CEO
Will be responsible for the expansion of the company
Rebranded Concotion
Mana Play rebrands as Potion on Google Play
Comes with app redesign and melding reward systems
Left Perchance
Nexon launches real-time probability monitoring system
Nexon Now to be implemented in all upcoming games
Power Restored
Tencent has app capabilities reinstated following ban
App updates spotted on App Store
Charitable Collaboration
Playtika partners with Make-A-Wish for holiday event in Bingo Blitz
Will donate $100,000 if goal is reached
Iron Acquisition
Stillfront acquires Netmarble’s Iron Throne: The Firstborn
Still subsidiary studio Kixeye will take charge
Indie Opportunities
Eight reasons why PG Connects London 2022 is the place to be for indie developers
Indie developers, showcase your creations to the world at PG Connects London 2022!
The Next Step
Jam City jumps into blockchain and NFTs
Will launch first blockchain game Champions: Ascension
Sizeable Spending
Mobile games account for over 50% of games industry spending in 2021
Consumer spending expected to reach over $180 billion
Powered By Speech
Sayollo partners with Speechly for voice control support in GComm
Will integrate voice recognition and navigation features in GComm
Appgallery Awards
Huawei reveals its best games of 2021
European MAUs surged 35% through the year
Shooting A Shot(2048)
Sonic the Hedgehog creator releases first hypercasual mobile game
Yuji Naka talks developing a hypercasual game
Million Makers
Over 900 apps and games generated first $1 million in 2021
Games publishers make up the lion's share
Holiday Goodies
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Voluminous Valuation
Rec Room raises $145 million at $3.5 billion valuation
Mobile users increase tenfold
A Whale Load
Whaleapp surpasses 40 million mobile game downloads
158% growth in the past 3 months
Winter Games
Voodoo announces new winter game competition with coaching and resources on offer
Studios around the world can enter and access top coaching and resources from Voodoo, alongside exclusive up-to-date product knowledge
Sign Up Today
Huawei launches winter developer giveaway and accelerator programmes
Huawei launches two new programmes to support developers, inspire creativity, and help game creators grow in 2022.
Blockchainville
Zynga partners with Forte to develop blockchain games
Will leverage existing Zynga IP
Uptodown-loads
Uptodown: Battle Royale reigns supreme for 2021 downloads
PUBG Mobile tops charts