Funding
Mobile tools provider Game of Whales raises $2 million
The esports and gaming firm has made the investment as part of a $2 million funding
Mutiny
HQ Trivia host Scott Rogowsky leaves show amid trouble at studio
Host departs amid a failed mutiny that saw over half of the firm’s staff try to oust CEO Rus Yusupov
Event
Last chance to save on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
Mid-term offer ends midnight this Thursday. Grab your tickets now!
Not Fortnite
NetEase renames FortCraft to BuildTopia as it bags one million pre-registrations
Battle royale copycat edges closer to launch
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Clash of Clans the US top grosser thanks to new Gold Pass
Charts from April 1st to 7th
Apple Arcade
Apple investing $500 million in Apple Arcade games
Tech giant pulls out the cheque book for its new subscription service
East Meets West
Kabam partners with NetEase for Marvel Contest of Champions China launch, and Black Desert picks up $1 billion
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Inside Kolibri's strategy for success, Zynga soft-launches Game of Thrones Slots Casino, and Clash of Clans gets Gold Pass
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Event
How to get into Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle - free!
Four ways students, indies and the media can attend the leading B2B event for the mobile, PC and blockchain games industry this May without spending a buck
Two Bans Two Months
PUBG banned in Nepal over addiction concerns in young children
“We have ordered the ban on PUBG because it is addictive to children and teenagers”
Reach For The Sky
Animoca Brands picks up majority stake in CCG developer Skytree for $606k
Developer could work on F1, MLB, Bundesliga or Bayern Munich IPs
One Billion Dollars
Mobile accounts for nearly a third of Black Desert franchise's $1 billion sales
Series began in 2015
Stadia Versus Xbox
Microsoft: Google has technology and community, but Stadia needs content to succeed
Xbox marketing boss Nichols is first Big M exec to weigh in on the platform
Why Was Six Scared?
Bandai Namco dreams up Very Little Nightmares for iOS
Players can pre-register for the game now
Blood And Truth
Google Play home to numerous inappropriate games aimed at kids
36 games submitted to Google for violent or inappropriate content
Event
Top 20 reasons why you need to be at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle this May
From 13 conference tracks by 125 expert speakers to networking, pitching and the Global Connects Party. You can’t afford to miss this one!
Ads Partnership
Gameloft partners with PubMatic for in-game ads
French publisher has an audience of 114 million monthly users across its portfolio
Crime Does Pay
Games2win partners with Sony Pictures to launch mobile games based off iconic Indian show CID
“It’s an all-time epic”
Sign Up
The Elder Scrolls: Blades made available to anyone with a Bethesda account
Fantasy action RPG has already amassed one million downloads
Live Ops
Disruptor Beam unveils live ops platform for mobile games developers
New chief product officer and first chief financial officer appointed
Redundancies
13 jobs lost at NantG Mobile as Z1 Battle Royale development returns to Daybreak
Unclear if NantG-developed mobile editions are still in the works
Choose Your Own Adventure
YouTube invests in Bandersnatch-like choose your own adventure games
Joins Netflix in the interactive entertainment space
For The North
Zynga soft-launches Game of Thrones Slots Casino on iOS
What do we say to the God of death?
Rapid Growth
IronSource claims $900m run-rate for 2019 as it eyes up acquisitions and IPO
Big year ahead for the ad tech firm
Job News
Sumo Digital hires former Sega Hardlight operations director Harinder Sangha to new mobile studio
“I’m thrilled to be joining Sumo and to be working with such a dynamic team”
Cash Of Clans
New Clash of Clans Gold Pass leads to $27m in revenue in one week
New Pass gives better rewards for completing season challenges
Events
Zynga, Outfit7, Remote Control Productions and Reigns: Her Majesty narrative designer to speak at Reboot Develop Blue
Show kicks off Thursday, April 11th and runs through to Saturday, April 13th
Job News
Jagex looks to expand studio headcount by more than 25 per cent come the end of 2019
RuneScape maker hoping to bring "almost 100" new faces to the Cambridge-based company, reveals two new senior hires
Gamewisp
Lightstream acquires technology behind retired streamer subscription platform Gamewisp
The tech will go into expanding Lightstream Studio, as well as additional products set for release in 2019
Big Milestone
Voodoo racks up two billion mobile game downloads
Hyper-casual specialist continues to grow
New Milestone
Sniper Strike: Special Ops shoots past 20 million worldwide downloads
“We have an ambitious roadmap of unique, exciting features and game modes”
Roll On 100
Roblox surpasses 90 million monthly active users
Firm also adds USK managing director Elisabeth Secker to its Trust and Safety Advisory Board.
Job News
Sumo Digital co-founder Porter becomes board COO of parent company
Gary Dunn replaces him as MD
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent continues its dominance as China’s top grosser but Perfect World drops to second
Charts from March 25th to March 31st
Up Year-on-year
Stillfront Group’s MAU increased by 20 per cent for Q1 2019
Daily active users also saw a rise of 26 per cent
Job News
Jen MacLean leaves IGDA executive director role
Just over one year after permanently taking the job
Bring Me Thanos
Kabam and NetEase partner for Chinese Android launch of Marvel Contest of Champions
Perfectly balanced as all things should be
Exclusive
Dodreams launches limited time Drive Ahead event featuring Masters of the Universe's Skeletor
By the power of Grayskull
Marketing Design
How marketing can be baked into game design
"You can't spell marketing without design," says Those Awesome Guys founder
Data
UK games industry gender pay gap widens
Median hourly wage for women drops 4.78 per cent, mean figure down four per cent
Terms And Conditions
UK's Competition and Markets Authority investigating Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft over game subscriptions
“We are fully prepared to take action”
Crowdfunding Stats
$989 million pledged to games on Kickstarter
3.2 million people have donated to games across tabletop and video gaming categories
Influencer Marketing
43% of influencers paid to do a sponsored video for a game will do it again for free
Nevaly MD looks into the benefits of sponsored videos
Live Streaming
The cost of running an influencer marketing campaign on streaming channels
A 24-hour campaign over 100 channels could cost around $60,000
The Debate Continues
FTC to hold loot box workshop in August
Due to be held at the Constitution Center in Washington, DC on August 7th, 2019
Job News
Animoca Brands hires former Sony managing director Michael Ephraim as head of partnerships
Will oversee Australia and New Zealand region
East Meets West
East Meets West: Game of Thrones joins latest China game approvals, and Hatch partners with Samsung on 5G
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis 2019 games conference kicks off in Berlin
PocketGamer.biz senior editor Craig Chapple will compere Mobile Game Development Summit on day two
Hot Five
20 $1bn mobile games, Brawl Stars South Korea success, and the top April Fool’s Day gags
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Going Public
Scientific Games subsidiary SciPlay files for IPO
Readies itself for potential acquisition spee; has entered into $150 million revolving credit facility