Online Safety
Meta and Roblox agree to strengthen child safety measures in the Philippines
Roblox is aiming to establish a Philippine office as early as October
Job News
Nicholas Le named PeopleFun CEO as Tamara Feiman takes over Lion Studios
Le will remain involved with Lion Studios as studio chair
Marvelous Mena
Dubai brings biggest-ever pavilion to Gamescom 2026 with top 10 gaming hub ambition
The emirate projects around 30,000 gaming jobs and close to $1bn in annual revenue by 2033
New Offerings
Tencent Games showcases AI tools for game development at gamescom
GIGA is developing autonomous AI agents for games and virtual worlds
Pgc Summit Montreal
Cutting edge content in Canada with PGC Summit Montréal
Unmissable seminar schedule and a Big Indie Pitch this November 10th
Milestone
CookieRun: Crumble surpasses $14.3m revenue ahead of first major update
40% of Crumble’s revenue has come from outside Korea, with the US its top-grossing international market
Soft Launch
Overwatch Rush to soft launch in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines
The mobile game will introduce Brigitte as its latest Vanguard hero
Strategic Move
Naphora Games enters soft launch with three mobile titles
A fourth title is planned for soft launch in late September, with two more coming in Q4 2026
Mobile Games Awards 2026
Ustwo Games CEO María Sayans wins Mobile Legend at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026
She became CEO of Ustwo Games in 2019, leading the studio behind Monument Valley
Launch Date
Ananta sets January 2027 launch date as pre-registration passes 17m
The NetEase and Naked Rain-developed open-world RPG will launch on mobile, PC and PS5
New Offerings
Thatgamecompany launches new publishing label
The label will consider games at any stage and from teams of any size
Appstore Changes
Google Play reveals new performance requirements for apps and games
Non-compliant apps may face reduced visibility and publishing capabilities
Albion Online Integrates Ace
Sandbox Interactive Working with Tencent Cloud and Tencent ACE to strengthen Android security for Albion Online
Sandbox Interactive's Albion Online will integrate the ACE Anti-Cheat Standard solution for Android to create a fairer and more secure competitive environment for players
Pgc Nordics
The very finest curated networking at PG Connects Nordics
Fabulous fringe events in Helsinki this October 20th and 21st
Mobile Games Awards 2026
Loom Games CEO Kübra Gündoğan wins Rising Star at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026
Six years on from her computer engineering degree, Kübra Gündoğan has helped build Türkiye's fastest unicorn
Mobile Games Awards
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026 winners revealed
Every winner and honourable mention across all 23 categories, straight from the Cologne stage
Expansions
Roblox to establish MENA headquarters in Riyadh
The move supports Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 digital economy objectives
Mobile Games Awards 2026
Scopely wins Best Publisher at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026
Monopoly Go, Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom and more make for one strong portfolio
Mobile Games Awards 2026
Pixel Flow wins Game of the Year at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026
Pixel Flow’s installs and earnings have snowballed since its launch in August 2025, now well into the millions
New Offerings
Ludo.ai adds keyframe animation and 3D tools for game developers
Developers can define up to three keyframes and let Ludo generate the in-between frames
Mobile Games Awards 2026
Loom Games wins Best Developer at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026
From founding to a $1 billion valuation in a single year, Loom Games has shown how fast a lean team can move
Child Safety
Roblox restricts reward-driven media feeds in Kids and Select
Games combining continuous media feeds with rewards for ongoing viewing will be removed unless redesigned
Job News
EGDF re-elects Hendrik Lesser as president
“Let's do our work and push European game development and publishing forward,” said Lesser
Pre-registration
HoYoverse’s Petit Planet launches in winter 2026 with pre-registration open now
Players who pre-register will receive exclusive rewards
Market Report
Only 2,500 of 190,000 mobile games released in 2025 surpassed 500,000 downloads
New Moloco report found that average time to reach $20m in IAP and subscription revenue fell 21% between 2022 and 2025
New Offerings
Discord brings Social Layer to mobile after seeing 31% retention increase on PC
The move comes after Social Layer integration increased player retention on PC
Funding News
W4 Games raises $18m to expand Godot enterprise push
The funding brings W4 Games’ total investment raised to $33m
Web Store Sales
Sensor Tower reveals the hidden impact of D2C revenue in mobile games
SVP for gaming and entertainment Chirag Ambwani offers insights into genre sales, top D2C marketing channels and Monopoly GO web store sales
Financing
AppsFlyer secures $400m credit line from Bank Leumi
The credit line allows AppsFlyer to fund operations without additional equity financing
Funding News
Surge Games raises $3m pre-seed to build AI-native mobile games
The company plans to use the funding to grow its team and scale user acquisition
Pubg Pre Registration
PUBG Mobile Light is now available for pre-registration
The game is scheduled to launch in November
Testing Tools
Roblox launches new analytics and experimentation tools
Creators can now use automated warnings to see if experimental changes are impacting key metrics
Industry Report
Africa and Middle East games market forecast to reach $8.5bn as African gamer base hits 406m
Mobile is forecast to generate 81.8% of Africa’s games revenue in 2026
Brazil Games
Brazil Games to showcase 35 indie titles at Gamescom 2026
The move marks Brazil Games’ first dedicated B2C showcase at Gamescom
India On The Rise
GDAI reveals first cohort of 15 game studios for Supernova
The studios were chosen from more than 260 applications
Slice 2026
SLICE 2026 to expand game demo area and feature Pocket Gamer’s Big Indie Pitch
SLICE 2026: Seattle Loves Indie Creators Expo takes place on September 2nd, 2026
Dream Data
Hololive Dreams dances up the charts with $57.2m in first month
Players can spend on gacha banners and on VTuber-themed memberships
Funding News
Entity raises $5.8m to bring console-quality games to the ‘new web’
The Irish startup is building a browser-based platform for console-quality games
Pgc Nordics
Introducing the Nordic Business Zone at PG Connects Nordics this October
Showcase your company at the heart of the Nordic games industry
Acquisition
Softgames acquires Funday Games’ 19-title instant games portfolio
The company now operates more than 500 instant games globally
New Offerings
Rocket Fuel Games and ZeptoLab bring Cut the Rope to Roblox
Cut the Rope Tower Defense will use physics-based combat instead of traditional stat-based towers
Rising Revenue
Loom Games’ Pixel Flow makes almost $200m in player spending during first year
Türkiye’s hybridcasual hit has helped Loom Games land award nominations and a majority acquisition by Scopely
Sonic Shutdown
Sonic Blitz gets cancelled as servers go offline today
Sega and Rovio’s card-based Sonic the Hedgehog game has been in soft launch for more than a year
New Offerings
Roblox open-sources three safety models through ROOST
The company’s PII Classifier now supports 189 languages, up from 17
Esports World Cup
EWC Paris 2026 draws 2m visits as AG.AL claims Club Championship
The tournament reached 850m viewers and generated 440m hours watched
New Partnerships
Diva Agency and Fourth Floor launch tech-enabled games agency partnership
The agencies plan to build a wider global network of independent specialist partners
Pg Connects
Become a PG Connects speaker and get free VIP access
Share your knowledge with the world
Podcast | Episode 102
Did Apple really resolve its EU dispute? | 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 102...
Investment News
Makers Fund closes $250m Fund IV to back next generation of interactive entertainment
Fund IV will back founders building the next generation of games and interactive entertainment
Pgc London
PG Connects London 2027: Super Early Bird tickets now on sale!
Book your January 18–19, 2027 conference pass at the most affordable rate!