...what?
Atari pens deal to launch branded hotels across the US
First hotel breaking ground in Phoenix, AZ this year
Stateside Return
Find out what awaits you at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Two-day games industry conference makes its return Stateside - read on to see what it has to offer!
Rolling Out
Huawei approved for 5G across the UK in restricted capacity
"Reassured by the UK government's confirmation"
Partnership
Square Enix and Suntory partner for Dragon Quest Walk missions via Japanese vending machines
14,000 can be found across the country
Job News
Miniclip appoints Tencent's Jurgen Post as new CEO
Former CEO Rob Small moves to board president
Ukie Report
UK game companies employ over 16,000 people and contribute $1.75 billion to the local economy
Data collated from 2,100 games businesses in 2016
Sales Spike
Plague Inc. developer Ndemic Creations warns players to look elsewhere for coronavirus information
"Not a scientific model"
Indie Investor Pitch
Sign ups for Interactive Futures' Indie Investor Pitch closing soon
Get 20 minutes of undivided attention on your game
New Deal
US and China proposed console tariffs postponed indefinitely
"There's a lot of work to do ahead"
Niche Success
KamaGames' Video Poker game boasts 49% Day-1 retention
US is the key market
Blizzard In The Cloud
Activision Blizzard and Google sign up for strategic "multi-year" streaming partnership
YouTube becomes exclusive streaming partner outside of China
Kwalee Pr Hires
Hypercasual studio Kwalee shakes up PR team with two new hires
Richard Paul and Matt Suckley join the team
Amplified River
Leo's Fortune creator opens new studio River End Games with Amplifier Game Invest
Anders Hejdenberg heads up the new developer with Karl Broström
Fogbank Closure
Report: Disney to shutter FoxNext-owned Fogbank Entertainment following Scopely acquisition
60 jobs reportedly affected by studio closure
Most Read
Hot Five: Clash of Clans has its best month ever, Bernard Kim becomes a Mobile Legend, and what we learned at PGC London 2020
The hottest stories of last week
Usa Bound
Pocket Gamer Connects returns to Seattle in 2020!
The two-day mobile games B2B conference makes Seattle its Stateside home once more
Happy New Year
Happy Lunar New Year to our readers in China
The Year of the Rat begins
Mobile Legend
Zynga president Bernard Kim honoured as a Mobile Legend at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2020
From Disney to EA to Zynga, Kim's impact on the mobile space is impossible to ignore
Split Up
Daybreak Games breaks off into three studios
Two based in San Diego and one in Austin
On The Move
Most of Nutaku's player base is now on mobile
Adult platform now boasts 45 million registered players
Case Closed?
Nintendo defeats Germany and Norway in court case over eShop pre-orders
The decision has been appealed
Event
Biggest Pocket Gamer Connects ever welcomed c.2,500 attendees to London this month
Representatives from almost 1,300 companies witnessed 310 speakers and held 9,300 organised meetings!
Gotta Catch Em All
Pokemon Go live events generated $249 million in tourism revenues in 2019
Further events have been added in 2020
Playful Layoffs
Playful Studios "significantly" reduces full-time staff as part of studio restructuring
Pivoting to "a more streamlined production model"
Keep Clashing
Clash of Clans had its best month for revenue ever in December 2019
Generates $158.2 million in revenues for the month
Seeing Stars
Stardew Valley clears 10 million sales in just under four years
Not bad for a mostly solo-developed indie game
Winner Dinner
Sky: Children of the Light and Call of Duty: Mobile crowned 'Games of the Year' at the PG Mobile Games Awards 2020
The good and the great from every facet of the mobile games industry celebrated at exclusive Cafe de Paris evening gala event
Topping Out
Update: EA to shutter its mobile Tetris games as N3twork takes over license
New N3twork developed Tetris game lands on iOS and Google Play
Join The Fun
Project xCloud makes its way to Canada as part of preview rollout
Invited Canadians will have access from January 29th
User Acquisition
Consumer Acquisition snaps up former Zynga head of user acquisition
John Choi has 12 years experience in the industry
Expanding To Asia
Double Eleven to open new studio in Malaysia
Recruitment begins February
New Record
SpecialEffect's One Special Day fundraises nearly $600,000
"Life-changing difference"
Financials
MAG Interactive sees 17% revenue jump but a 40% drop in active users
Interim report detailed September to November 2019
Staffing Up
Report: TikTok's ByteDance is looking to make a major push with mobile games in 2020
Two games expected by Spring
Marvel-ous
Scopely acquires Marvel Strike Force developer FoxNext Games
Deal includes Cold Iron Studios
Loot Boxes
NHS mental health director urges game developers to ban loot boxes
“Frankly no company should be setting kids up for addiction"
Jagex Hiring Spree
Jagex bolsters team with six new hires for 2020
All come from a strong industry background
Stillfront Buys Storm8
Stillfront Group acquires casual developer Storm8 in deal worth up to $400 million
$300 million upfront, with $100 million if financial targets are met
Acquisition
Tencent makes initial offer to fully acquire Funcom
All shareholders have the option to accept or reject the offer
Job News
Sumo Digital hires Dr Jake Habgood and Jenny Muhlwa
They will be focused on training and education
Flying Higher
AppsFlyer raises $210 million in Series D funding round
It's been three years since the last investment round
Pgc London 2020
Snap Finger's Joanna Haslam on the positives of game design documents
Design director shared her tips and tricks in London
Environmentally Friendly
What game developers can do to help the environment
Sam Barratt, chief of education and youth at UN Environment, explains how we can help
Games For Good
How developers can start making games that make a positive impact on society
Elite Founders CEO Joakim Achren leads the panel
Pgc London 2020
Mag Interactive head of ideation shares the when, why, and how of prototyping
Matthew Buxton's top tips for developers
Hypercasual Art
How to make the right art for your hypercasual game
Rollic creative director Inci Alper gives a crash course in hypercasual art
Unique Identities
Riot Forge on how to find your own unique identity as a studio
Head of studio Leanne Loombe talks finding your own path in the development world
What Is Hypercasual?
Kwalee on what exactly makes a hypercasual game
Head of publishing Simon Prytherch on building a game for the fastest-growing genre
Pgc London
Good Job Games has the highest amount of video ad share on the App Store
Mobile Action's Aykut Karaalioglu shared details during PGC London
Pgc London 2020
Mobile makes up 40% of all games revenue in Brazil
Industry is worth $2.24 billion