Falling Sales
Ubisoft cites lack of new releases for 24% mobile revenue decline in Q1
Mobile made up seven per cent of total net bookings
Auto Success?
Why Dragonest partnered up with Tencent to publish Drodo Auto Chess in China
"A good product needs to be known by as many people as possible"
New Horizons
Horizon Blockchain Games raises $3.75 million seed investment
Horizon is currently working on its debut release, an Ethereum-based trading-card game called SkyWeaver
Studio Closure
Terraforming Mars developer LuckyHammers closes down
70 staff lose their jobs
Event
Small Giant Games, Square Enix Montreal, Riot Games and ZeptoLab join the star-studded lineup of speakers at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Two-day B2B games industry conference looks set to make an incredible return to Finland in October.
Switching Up
Nintendo unveils new Switch model with longer battery life
Offers up to nine hours of portable play
$$$
Detective Pikachu becomes highest grossing video game film
Warcraft drops from top spot after the Pokemon movie generates $436m at the box office
New York New York
New York’s biggest two-day game convention Play NYC returns for third annual event
Play NYC will take place between August 10th to August 11th, 2019
Stepping Down
Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin steps down amidst sexual harassment allegations
Another creator from the network was dropped last month
Site Opening
Pole To Win opens Montreal office
New location will offer QA, customer service, engineering and translation services
Funding News
Esports outfit 100 Thieves raises $35m
Organisation plans to develop a new 15,000 square ft HQ in LA
Decade Of Publishing
Merge Games opens $4 million indie games fund
“It has always been fresh ideas that have made the business thrive”
Join Us
Come and meet China's top publishing companies at our free mini-summit in Cologne
Get important insights from the people on the ground at our event on Tuesday, August 20th
Esports Funding
Pixion Games raises $2 million to fund mobile esports development
“We are seeing a re-segmentation of casual players looking for a more core experience on mobile”
Business Deal
Private equity firm Blackstone to acquire Vungle
Deal reported to be worth $750 million-plus
Mobile Gaming
18.6 million people in Germany play games on their smartphones
Mobile games and in app purchases earn €1.5 billion
Top Sellers
The top 20 best selling games on Nintendo Switch in Spain
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the top seller
Ongoing Partnership
Snap and Baidu renew sales partnership to continue reach in Asia
“Our partnership with Snap Inc. provides Chinese companies new avenues to expand their businesses through Snapchat advertising”
Investment Round
Indian ed-tech firm Byju's raises $150m
Funding is said to value the company at around $5.5 billion
Job News
PlayStation vet John Drake heads to Disney to lead games biz dev and licensing
Follows five years at Sony
Fighting Poverty
China looks to mobile game in bid to eradicate poverty
Title lets users sell in-game goods to earn discount credits on real food
Sick Acquisition
My.Games acquires Love Sick studio Swag Masha
Companies had already worked together to launch the developer's flagship title
Linked In
Tencent launches Steam Link-like mobile streaming app for WeGame
Users can stream PC games to their smartphones over Wi-Fi
Global Advertising
The top global game advertisers in the US, Japan and South Korea for June 2019
SocialPeta data shows which games are generating the highest number of ad impressions
Strategic Investment
NetEase acquires minority stake Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour
Influence of Chinese companies increases at Canadian firm following last year's deal with GAEA
App Shutdown
Niantic is shutting down its first app Field Trip
Field Trip has already been removed from app stores
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Honor of Kings is only the third top grosser in China as it faces a new challenger
Rankings from July 1st to July 7th
Dev Fund
ROKiT launches $50 million development fund for indie games
Developers are being encouraged to contact ROKiT games for a chance to secure upto $500,000 for their game.
Medical Bills
Dr. Mario World prescribes two million downloads in 72 hours
Game generates a disappointing $100,000 in revenue from player spending
Event
Special thank you to the sponsors for this week’s Blockchain Gamer and Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong
The companies supporting the B2B games industry event’s first outing to the East
Reality And Streaming
Finnish start-up Surrogate.tv raises $2 million
“We want to rethink this process by bringing in unique benefits that the real world has to offer”
Roundup
Games industry roundup: EA and Riot vets set up Vela Games, Gods Unchained open beta, and how the top 5,000 dominate Twitch
15 articles from PocketGamer.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockchainGamer.biz
East Meets West
East Meets West: Nexon no longer for sale, Tencent negotiates better revenue share, and Chinese companies eye new age-rating system
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Azerion acquires Woozworld, Million Victories raises $1.4m, and Clash of Clans has its best month in two years
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Harry Potter remains stationary as Pokemon Go makes a comeback
Rankings from June 24th to June 30th
Osaki
Monolith Soft opens second studio in Japan
New location is a result of increased profits from the previous year
Hyper-casual Rise
11.2 billion mobile games were downloaded in Q2 2019 reports App Annie
PUBG Mobile claims highest average MAU
Season Pass
Clash of Clans had its best revenue month for two years in June
Player spending up 26 per cent as a result of season pass subscription
Pgc Hong Kong
Editor's Picks: 5 top sessions at Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong on July 17th and 18th
Gain key insights into the Asia markets at our first-ever Hong Kong conference
Develop: Brighton
Weather Factory, Sumo Digital and Jagex pick up the accolades at Develop: Star Awards
Overcooked 2 takes game of the year
For Sale?
China's Shanghai Fukong hasn't sold Jagex just yet
Reported sale was just one option that was being explored by the Chinese entertainment giant
Welcome To Jurassic Pop
Universal Games taps Funko brand for new mobile puzzler
Back to the Future, Jurassic World, Shrek, and more
Dead Serious
Motion Twin, Playdigious and Bilibili team for Dead Cells mobile port in China
Game is due for release on Western mobile devices in August
Growth
Hi-Rez Studios expands UK presence with Red Beard Games
"Our intent with Red Beard Games is to ensure it can function independently, creatively and with all the agility of a small studio"
The Doctor Is In
Dr. Mario World tops iOS charts quicker than Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
BTS World beats both however
No Go On Pro
Nintendo’s Doug Bowser says Switch Lite won’t kill off 3DS support
No Switch Pro will be released this year too
Rip 3ds
Nintendo Switch Lite launches this September
Pricing, release date and specs revealed
Develop: Brighton 2019
More than 4,000 developers have applied to be part of Google's Stadia Partners programme
According to technical account manager Sam Corcoran
New Studio
Former Panic Button director unveils new studio Enduring Games
“We're making good games with good people”
Expansion
Zordix launches new indie-focused publishing division
“Zordix Publishing will be a key strategic move for us, and we look forward with great excitement”