Cool
Atari focusing on casual and sim games following Rollercoaster Tycoon success
"We’re clearly doing well with simulation games like Rollercoaster Tycoon," says CEO Chesnais
Caught
Nintendo catches $250m from the US between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday
Total US hardware sales for the period jumped up 45 per cent over the same period in 2017
Hammered
Games Workshop taps up Tilting Point and Hunted Cow for Warhammer: Chaos and Conquest
The fantasy strategy game is currently in Beta in the Philippines and could be globally launched next year
Funding Round
New US publisher Nifty Games raises $3m for mobile-first sports games
Early investors include aXiomatic Gaming and venture capital firms March Capital Partners and Defy.VC
Crash Course
Google Play removes 13 phoney apps from a single developer for installing malware
But not before the racing games accumulated over half a million downloads
Jobs
IGDA names new chairman and vice chair as David Seltzer steps back from leadership role
Vesa Raudasoja succeeds Seltzer as chairman while Emily Greer takes on the vice chair position
Brexit
Leading UK Games industry figures and companies reject Brexit deal
The Games4EU-published letter was signed by over 125 companies and 1300 industry members
Event
King, Moonfrog Labs, Resolution Games and GameAnalytics join the amazing speaker roster at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
Industry trends, hypercasual games, VR, AR, consoles and the future - it’s all at the January event.
Paradise Palms
Fortnite now has 200 million players
Rise of 60 per cent in the last five months
Deal Space
World of Tanks dev Wargaming snaps up UK's Fractured Space studio Edge Case Games
32-person team working on an unannounced new MMO IP
Oh I Wish It Could Be...
Ogury, Tripledot, Lockwood, Jagex and Gram Games on the panel at the PG Christmas Mixer
Join us for an evening of talks, networking and drinks in London next week
On Tap
Tapjoy on Tapdaq acquisition: “We hadn't found the right combination of great team and differentiated tech until now”
Tapjoy SVP of strategy, corporate and business development fills us in on the decision to acquire mediation platform Tapdaq
One Hundred Million Dollars
Sniper Elite dev Rebellion doubles down on film and TV with $100m space in Oxford
500 new jobs to be created
Legal Battle
Apple heads to Supreme Court over App Store 'monopoly'
Is Apple's dominance over its closed-off iOS ecosystem inflating prices?
Out
Goodgame founders relinquish leadership positions following Stillfront deal
Doctors Kai and Christian Wawrzinek to focus on new roles as Stillfront shareholders
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects London Early Bird prices end this week
Save up to $400 if you book your tickets by Thursday, November 29th
On The Move
Marvel: Contest of Champions dev Kabam secures office move in Vancouver
Studio has signed a lease for 105,000 square feet of office space
Start-up
Seven games start-ups kickstart new Northern Irish co-working and business support space The Pixel Mill
Belfast hot-housing location will also provide funding and business support for game developers
Growth
The UK's creative sector contributes nearly $118 billion to the nation’s economy
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport reports above-average growth in these industries
Mobile Stars
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019 finalists revealed
Ceremony takes place on the evening of Tuesday, January 22nd at the prestigious BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, London
Crashed
Nintendo investigates conduct of its Russia GM following Mario Kart live stream outburst
Russian Nintendo fans subsequently circulated a petition asking for his dismissal
Black Friday
From Unity assets to Udemy courses: some of the best Black Friday deals for games developers
Deals also involve discounts on GameMaker Studio 2 and RPG Maker MV
Special Offer
Pocket Gamer Connects London Black Friday offer - 23% off!
One-day only discount doubles down with Early Bird prices for up to 43% saving
Big Indie Pitch
Brawl Quest becomes the final Big Indie Pitch champion of 2018
We check out the top 3 prize winners at this years Big Indie Pitch at G-STAR 18
Game On
Discord experiments with games detection on Android
The feature shows others what a user is playing or listening to on Spotify
All Go
Blizzard reportedly working on a Pokemon Go-styled World of Warcraft spin-off for mobile
The game reportedly has single-player mechanics
Gone
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee shifts three million copies on Nintendo Switch in first week
The haul is the highest first-week sales figure for a Switch title
Twitchcon Europe
TwitchCon heading to Berlin in 2019
The new TwitchCon instalment will take place in Berlin
Vroom
NaturalMotion’s CSR Racing 2 speeds past 73 million installs
The drag racing title has also hit the top spot for grossing in over 120 countries
Eastern Promise
Blizzard devs claim Diablo Immortal designed with China in mind
But Blizzard denies this
Chill
$1 million is on the line in Fortnite’s Winter Royale Online Tournament
Star players will be chosen to take part in the Fortnite World Cup in 2019
Job Klaxon
Animoca Brands brings in former Mozilla exec to head up strategic partnerships
As part of his role Gen Kanai will help to advance the company’s blockchain strategy
A Magneton Of Bad Reviews
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee struck by review-bombing for deviating from main-series formula
Amazon Japan appears to have purged its review section in response
Event
Tencent, Unity, Jumpship, NetEase, FunPlus and Makers Fund to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
It’s business first with these speakers covering investment, strategy and the global market
Charted
Weekly global mobile game charts: Pokemon Go enjoys grossing spike in the West following Pokemon Let's Go launch
The charts from November 5th to 11th
Point
King and Facebook veterans raise $8 million to kickstart London and Minsk-based dev Tripledot Studios
Mobile startup wants to put together the “Apollo program” of mobile games
Funding
Super.com will support Unreal Engine projects with a new $50 million investment fund
Funding site is looking for independent Unreal developers of all levels of expertise
Ocean
Sea Entertainment seals a five-year deal to publish Tencent games in Southeast Asia
Games will be published by Sea's entertainment division, Garena
Sweet
Candy Crush games have made King a sweet $1.3 billion in 2018 so far
$128m of that came in October
Tap Tap
Tapjoy acquires ad mediation and app monetisation platform Tapdaq
Tapdaq by Tapjoy will team up with its new owner’s London office to work on its Maximum Impact Platform
Resurrected
Development on Telltale’s The Walking Dead starts up again
Former developers to return to complete the project
Acquisition Reality
Admix buys media site VRFocus and aims to rehire staff
Publication looked set to close earlier this month when all employees were laid off
Kingly
Game of Thrones: Conquest grosses $125 million in just over a year
Fantasy strategy saw a 500 per cent year-over-year increase in growth this October
Clash
Clash Royale players to fight over esports gig in the first EE Mobile Series
Fnatic is offering a place on its professional Clash Royale team to the overall winner
Uk Special
PocketGamer.biz kicks off UK special to shine a light on the country's vibrant games industry
We'll be analysing the trends that are affecting this market at this point in time, such as jobs, education, tax relief and - of course - Brexit
Funding News
Activision Blizzard vets raise $16m for item-based blockchain gaming platform
Mythical Games aims to deploy platform using the EOS blockchain
Job Losses
Tekken Mobile developer Bandai Namco Vancouver closes
Senior vice president claims all but a "small skeleton crew" have been laid off at the Canada office
Leap
Magic Leap offering indie AR developers up to $500,000 through new Independent Creator Program
Augmented reality firm hopes to kickstart its marketplace offerings by supporting independent creators
Not Quite Noble
Tencent’s Arena of Valor takes $5m from the US as year anniversary approaches
The Chinese version, Honor of Kings, has made $3.7 billion in comparison since late-2015
Falling Into Place
Changyou snags licence to bring Tetris mobile games to China
Its first effort, Tetris Journey, is set to land next year on Android and iOS