Big Investment
Mobile marketing tech firm Ogury picks up $21m investment
Company generated $100m in 2018
Rune-ing To The Bank
Summoners War exceeds 100 million global downloads
Five-years after launching
5g By 2020
Hatch partners with DOCOMO to bring cloud gaming to mobiles and TVs in Japan
UNESCO agrees deal to publish games for Hatch Kids
Like A Boss
Redbox Mobile appoints new CEO and opens London office
James Salins will oversee the EMEA
Financials
Dragon Ball Legends drives a strong Q3 2019 performance for publisher Bandai Namco
Mobile brawler success sees expectations raised for the publisher’s end-of-year results
Crime
NBCUniversal gangs up with Starbreeze on a Payday mobile game
Payday: Crime War will be a mobile spin-off of the PC and console FPS
Stream Or Summon
Iron Man and Spider-Man writers join Summoners War TV series
Robert Kirkman helming the project
Comeback Kings
“Zynga’s turnaround is now complete” as publisher posts record mobile earnings
Mobile revenue hits $816m in 2018
Go Go Go
Registrations for developer conference Develop: Brighton 2019 are now live
Featuring new awards event Develop: Star
Jobs
WIGJ announces a new executive board for day-to-day operation
Four-person board is seeking two more members to complete its ranks in marketing and events
Launch
Real-money competition platform Flashbreak launches with $2 million in seed funding
The app will act as both a publishing platform and a real-money competition hub
Change Of Name
Microsoft Studios renames to Xbox Game Studios
"2019 is going to be a great year for Xbox gamers everywhere"
Clash Of The Titans
Apex Legends battle royale could get mobile cross-play
One million players in eight hours
Forging Ahead
InnoGames revenue at all-time high as mobile sales grow 37% in 2018
Mobile takes 50 per cent revenue share in key US market
On The Up
Design Home generates $158 million in 2018 as Glu Mobile closes in on profitability
Big year ahead for the publisher's steady comeback
Ea Financials
EA Mobile downbeat on year-end earnings in face of “increasingly challenging” market
But China success for Command & Conquer offers hope
Twitch Stats
Viewers watched more than 9.36 billion hours of Twitch in 2018
Twitch's viewership has grown year on year
Licence Focus
Disney CEO Bob Iger: Licensing is the best model for Disney in games
Boss calls out its partners in the space, including EA, but fails to mention Star Wars Battlefront II launch PR disaster
Subscribe For More
Pocket.watch launches new games division and aims to partner with famous YouTubers
Tag With Ryan available now
Financial Report
Animoca Brands ends a record year with Q4 revenue of $4.6 million
Continued blockchain partnerships and investments secure a strong year for the Chinese publisher
Doctor Doctor
Disney Tsum-Tsum’s $1.5 billion success story bodes well for Dr. Mario World
Plush puzzler has grossed at least $10 million monthly since March 2014
Learn
Indian learning platform Byju’s buys out US games firm Osmo for $120 million
Osmo will help the online education firm craft learning content for younger students
Puppy Love
Charity fundraiser Dog Jam aims to raise money for homeless dogs by making games
Funds will go to Animal Front, which is struggling to look after over 800 dogs
China Vs South Korea
South Korea’s Kakao considers $9bn Nexon bid
Potentially one of the companies biggest acquisitions
Cross-platform Xbox
Microsoft readying SDK for Xbox Live cross-play on mobile and Nintendo Switch
In part thanks to the Big M's acquisition of PlayFab in January 2018
Rip Machinima
Machinima closes and axes over 80 jobs in the process
The company has been merged with Fullscreen
Fortnite Party
DJ Marshmello's Fortnite concert makes history with 10 million concurrent players
Bigger than Guinness World Record holder Rod Stewart for biggest concert ever
Toasty
Dragon Ball Legends surpasses $140m in revenue
Over $100m made in the US and Japan alone
Big Deal
Israel’s Taptica acquired US digital ads firm RhythmOne for $176 million
Deal expected to close in April, taking RhythmOne off the London Stock Exchange
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Western developers find premium success in China
Charts from January 21st to 27th
Invested
Bristol dev Auroch Digital raises investment from Miniclip and Bristol Private Equity Club
Equity firm fronts over $200,000 for Auroch’s new projects and local dev scene work
Sports Stars
Sports games score big sales for Konami as revenue tops $1.76 billion for last nine months
Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links set to launch in China on mobile
Jobs News
Ex-Flaregames head of PR Jon Howard lands at Rovio
He'll head up communications and PR at the Angry Birds developer
Nintendo Tokyo
Nintendo set to open its first official store in Japan
Set to open its doors in autumn 2019
Partner Up
Nintendo partners with Line and NHN for Dr. Mario World mobile game this summer
Will launch across 60 countries including the US and Japan
Consolidation
UK's Sumo Digital acquires Red Kite Games
Follows purchases of CCP Newcastle and The Chinese Room in 2018
Financials
Keywords anticipates revenue to grow to $287m in 2018
Unaudited financials claim strong growth following aggressive M&A strategy
Nex-marble
Netmarble forming consortium to acquire Nexon
Serious contender for $9bn-valued publisher
Switched On
Nintendo posts strong quarter despite lowering Switch sales estimates to 17m for the year
Mobile spurs on approximately $300m in sales
Blame The Blue Shell?
Mario Kart Tour for mobile delayed until summer 2019
Was expected to launch by end of March
Ofcom
Ofcom reckons almost 90 per cent of gamers aged between 12 and 15 are playing online
UK report finds young gamers are increasingly online and social
Location, Location
Israeli publisher Playtika has opened new R&D office in Bucharest
Qualitest partners with the Israeli developer to launch the new testing and QA location
Touchdown
EA Sports mobile games score $1 billion in revenue
Madden franchise has generated sales of $490 million
Financials
iPhone revenue drops 15% year-on-year as Apple looks to services
But iPad revenue is up
Demonic
DENA and Platinum's World of Demons possibly canned after App Store removal
The hack and slash game had initially soft-launched in Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia in June of last year
Analytics
FanAI acquires esports analytics and middleware firm Waypoint Media
FanAI gains access to Waypoint Media’s range of trackers, data and APIs
Deal
Unity acquires games chat platform Vivox
Text and audio comms tool has been used in Fortnite, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, and League of Legends
$$$$$
Report: Global games company investment more than doubled to $5.7bn in 2018
More than double the year prior
Deal
Codemasters and NetEase are making a mobile game together
UK firm to make $8m in revenue over the next three years
Unity
Unity Playground aims to open game development up to kids
Scriptless asset suite seeks to provide a stepping stone for young users looking to get into the engine