Nifty Hires
Nifty Games hires ex-Scopely executive producer William Schmitt as new general manager
Has also held roles at EA, Activision, and more
Unite Now
Unity unveils weekly online series Unite Now as it cancels all physical Unite events for 2020
Running through spring and summer
Overwatch Goes Googly
April Fool's Day 2020: From a Fire Emblem Heroes spinoff to Pokemon GO pranksters
A round-up of the game's industry's pranks for the day
Event
Learn from the best of the best - only at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
Our pick of the 125+ speakers at next week's online-only games industry conference
It's Magic
Jam City launches Disney Emoji Blitz in Japan after 30 million downloads worldwide
""The appealing art style, cute emojis, and blitz style gameplay make Disney Emoji Blitz the perfect game for the Japanese market"
Donations Double
Apple doubles its donations to China to aid in coronavirus relief efforts
The firm will give ¥50 million ($7 million)
Checkmate
Teamfight Tactics has been downloaded 4.5 million times since launch
3.6 million came in the first seven days
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital
Learn the Global Trends at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
It is one of seven tracks
European Surge
Houseparty App sees nearly 3000% increase in downloads following coronavirus lockdown
16 million downloads for the month of March
It's Happening
Devcom organisers insist the event will take place even if it's digital
Like Gamescom, trade show keeping an eye on the situation and make call in May
Hello Sales
Hello Neighbor series hits 30 million downloads
First game released in December 2017
Stay Indoors
Niantic makes its games easier to play indoors
In-game changes made to its AR titles
Back Again
HQ Trivia makes its return a month after cancellation
The private investor is unnamed
"no Evidence"
Epic offers $1 million bounty over "smear campaign" against Houseparty app
Follows circulation of rumours of Netflix and Spotify hacks
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital
Discover the Developer Toolkit at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
It is one of seven tracks
Helping Charity
Updated: Skillz raises $40,000 from charity tournaments to help the American Red Cross
Competitions will held between March 28th and 29th
Ar Acquisition
Niantic acquires 6D.ai to further its AR goals
No sum was disclosed
44 Per Cent Growth
AppsFlyer: Google becomes number one for mobile app advertising
Facebook dominates retargeting
Mario Party
Updated: Rumour: Nintendo to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary with multiple remasters on Switch
64, Sunshine, Galaxy, and 3D World all reported to be making a comeback
Helping Charity
CD Projekt Red makes $950,000 donation to help combat the coronavirus in Poland
The money is going to the charity Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy
Networking Heads
From Amazon to Zynga: your guide to who’ll be online for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
Connect digitally with the world’s top companies: an incredible line-up of the hottest companies logging on next week awaits you
A Good Deed
Google parent company Alphabet donates $800 million to combat the coronavirus
It will give ad grants to government agencies
Charitable Ads
Miniclip, MAG Interactive, Kwalee and more to donate a portion of their advertising inventory to charities
Free ad space for Make-A-Wish (UK), SpecialEffect, BuildAid and more
Mages;acquisition
Colopl acquires Steins;Gate creator Mages for $14.9 million
Bolstering the mobile publisher with a raft of niche IPs
The Growth Track
Learn more about growing your mobile games at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
One of seven tracks to feature at the event
Testing Ip Impact
Rovio soft-launches turn-based RPG Angry Birds Legends
Available on Android in the UK, Sweden and Finland
Event
How to add 100s of games industry contacts to your network without even leaving your desk
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1, THE online-only games industry conference, April 6-10
By 'eck
Assassin's Creed: Origins actor Abubakar Salim founds new UK studio Silver Rain Games
Now hiring for a "growing team of developers"
Play Apart Together
World Health Organisation teams up with games industry for #PlayApartTogether campaign
Zynga, Playtika, Kabam, Snap Games, Wooga, Glu, and more are on board
Keep Running
Update: Om Nom: Run sprints past five million downloads in a month
Launched on February 27th
Most Read
Hot Five: Coin Master's best monthly revenue ever, Brawl Stars grows amid coronavirus, and King offers unlimited lives across its games
The hottest articles of last week
Leadergamer Launch
Leadergamer launches international edition Leadergamer.net
Gamer Media pushes its brand outside of Turkey
Hypercasual Domination
Hypercasual titles accounted for 78 per cent of downloads in 2019
16 of the top 20 most-installed titles were hypercasual
Jumping Ship
TT Games welcomes new president and studio head
Micheal Denny was a senior vice president for Sony
Play Inside
Minecraft Earth receives gameplay tweaks to encourage indoor play
Adventures Crystals that can be played at home have been added, along with increased Tappables
"global Fight"
Enthusiast Gaming joins forces with Twitch to raise money against COVID-19
12-hour charity stream for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO
Schedule Revealed
Conference schedule revealed for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
Check out what’s happening at next month’s online-only games industry conference
Gameinfluencer Ceo
GameInfluencer appoints David An as new CEO
Former MD and VP of BD at Aeria Games
Another One?
Tencent and Huawei partner for cloud games platform
Service called GameMatric, powered by Kunpeng processor
Not So Dumb Now
Dumb Ways to Die surpasses 360 million downloads across its games catalogue
500,000 to 600,000 daily average users
Talking Heads
App Annie, Sony Pictures Entertainment, AppLovin, NCSOFT and Zynga to take part in Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
Speaker lineup for next month’s online-only conference continues to grow exponentially
Another Dive
Capcom's Shinsekai: Into the Depths is the latest Apple Arcade exclusive to jump to Switch
Adds new game modes to the original release and new port
Summer Madness
Angry Birds is coming to Netflix in 2021
40 episodes have been ordered
Esports Partnership
ESL partners up with PUBG Mobile to host competitions for the game
It is also a commercial partner
Esports Funding
Tribe Gaming raises $1 million in funding for mobile esports growth
Investors include an NBA player and WWE star
Cancelled Event
The Taipei Game Show 2020 cancelled due to the coronavirus
Some of it will be put online
Revenue Spike
Pokemon Go sees huge increase in revenue during coronavirus outbreak
An increase of 66.7 per cent week-on-week
A Legendary Deed
Riot Games gives $1.5 million to help coronavirus relief efforts
$400,000 will go to the Los Angeles food bank
Develop:brighton Delayed
Develop:Brighton delayed until November 2nd-4th as coronavirus uncertainty continues
Todd Howard still locked in as keynote speaker
Super Supercell
Supercell's Brawl Stars grows by 35% amid COVID-19 outbreak
Mobile games across the board have seen a jump of 25% too