New Company
Bandai Namco opens new mobile games-focused branch in Barcelona
The new company will open its doors in 2020
Event
Tamatem, Zynga, Triple Dragon and iDreamSky feature in first wave of speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan
Speaker lineup for the two day B2B games industry conference begins to take shape
Acquisition
Ubisoft acquires majority stakes in Green Panda Games
70 per cent stake in hyper-casual mobile specialist
Partnership
My.Games partners with iDreamSky for mutual global expansion
“For us, this deal represents a valuable opportunity to engage with players in the Asian market”
European Expansion
Interview: Hyper-casual specialist Voodoo opens new Istanbul studio
“The move to Istanbul follows recent studio openings and that growth really demonstrates our drive to develop the sector and expand the hyper-casual market”
Sensor Tower
India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2 2019 with 5.4 billion
13 per cent increase from Q1 2019
Job News
Xbox co-creator Nat Brown joins Apple
“I’m looking forward to continuing to work on my obsessions by focusing on all applications of graphics”
Mobile Here
EA confirms Apex Legends is on track for mobile
Battle royale on course to arrive in China too
Financial Results
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes nears 80 million players but EA’s mobile revenue drops by 16%
The company earned net revenue of $1.21 billion for this fiscal year
Relocation Relocation
Red Kite Games relocates to Leeds
“We’re really excited to take Red Kite to the next level in a city full of talent”
Licence Royale
7% of Games Workshop royalty income comes from mobile
Total War: Warhammer 2 and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 cited for their strong performances in boosting royalty revenue
Frenemies
Epic Games “one of our best partners” says PUBG Corp
“We talk all the time”
Deuces Wild
KamaGames expands portfolio with new social casino title Video Poker
“A core focus for us in 2019 was to create a diverse portfolio of standalone apps that would complement our already existing titles”
Cloud Partnership
Cloud partnership is driven by Sony according to Microsoft CEO
Historically Sony and Microsoft are rivals in the games industry
Bytephone
TikTok owner Bytedance confirms plans to develop a smartphone
Rumours about a Bytedance phone circulated back in May
$$$
Sega Sammy Holdings sees a 246.6 per cent increase in operating income this quarter
Games, animation and arcade continue to be the company’s biggest earner
New Tech
Appier launches new marketing solution to re-engage mobile gamers
“Aictivate is powered by Appier’s tried and tested AI, helping gaming companies recoup lost revenue”
Augmented Reality
PuzzlAR: World Tour is the first game released from Magic Leap’s independent creator programme
More apps and games are set for release in the coming weeks
Event
Top 10 things to do in Jordan while at Pocket Gamer Connects
Why not make November’s two-day mobile games industry conference a working holiday?
Mobile Up
Nintendo Switch sales continue to be strong as hardware reaches 36.87 million
Software builds to 210.13 million with Mario Maker 2 selling 2.42 in three days
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs as firm is struck with class action lawsuit
“We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly”
Be Connected Be Discovered
Facebook tops mobile app publishers worldwide for Q2 2019
Google dominates the App Store however
Event
We're heading to Cologne during Gamescom week with four events
Mini-Summit, Games Mixer and Big Indie Pitches all in the same action packed week next month
New Deal
Intel sells its smartphone modem business to Apple
Around 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple
Dragalia Found
Dragalia Lost becomes Nintendo’s second most successful mobile title grossing $100 million worldwide
Fire Emblem has grossed $591 million worldwide
Tax Credits
Rockstar North hasn’t paid corporation tax in the UK for 10 years
Grand Theft Auto V earned $800 million in its first 24 hours of release
Event
Cheer on your champions in next month’s Big Indie Pitch
Watch the indie showcase competition in person at a venue near Gamescom
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Game for Peace reclaims top spot from Honor of Kings in China
Rankings from July 15th to 21st
Winner Winner
Fortnite World Cup drops $30 million in prize money
A teenager won the solo competition taking home $3 million
East Meets West
East Meets West: Supercell pulls out of Vietnam, Pokemon partners with Tencent and Animoca Brands is making an Addams Family game
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger, Zynga taps classic major IP and whatever happened to Wizards Unite?
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Seed Funding
Strafe gets $3 million in seed funding for esports companion app
The app currently covers eight games
Magic Number
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite generates $12 million in revenue in its first month
Pokemon Go was downloaded 182m times in its launch month
New Investments
Unity Technologies makes a tender offer of up to $525m to shareholders
The company recently signed agreement investments
I'll Be Back
Three month Facebook Instant Games review pause coming to an end
Social network giant implements new application process
Chat App Gaming Blow
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger
Move comes as the company claims it wants to make the chat app "faster, lighter and simpler"
To Boldly Go
Scopely’s Star Trek Fleet Command beams up $100m in eight months
Publisher's fastest-growing game to date
Event
G-STAR Games Mixer presented by Pocket Gamer returns to Gamescom in 2019
Join us in Cologne next month for another brilliant mobile, PC and blockchain mixer
Meow
Tilting Point invests $30m in UA for Cat Game
The title has launched globally following successful Canada and New Zealand soft launch
Toys Means Toys
Bandai Namco’s new Tori platform merges physical toys with mobile gaming
Use of physical objects will control the virtual world
Event
Last chance to save up to $450 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Super Early Bird ticket prices end midnight tonight for October’s two-day B2B games industry conference
Licensing Deal
Animoca Brands’ Pixowl is making an Addams Family mobile game
Mystery Mansion will be based on the upcoming animated film
Financials
Mobile powers My.Games sales to $117m in Q2 2019
Smart devices accounted for 60 per cent of total revenue during the quarter
Girl Power
Girls’ Game Lab wants to encourage more women to get into games
The first workshop takes place at Forza Horizon maker Playground Studios on August 3rd in Leamington Spa
Blending In
Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund as corporate gold member
French publishing giant will assign developers to contribute to the foundations open source projects
Flying High
Thatgamecompany’s Sky soars past one million downloads
Title estimated to have generated $175,000
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects London returns in January 2020!
Dates and venue revealed for Europe’s biggest mobile B2B games industry conference.
Switch China
Tencent and Nintendo to host joint Switch press conference in China
Press event will take place in Shanghai on August 2nd
Alexa, Raise Money
Doppio Games raises $1.1 million for voice-controlled games
"It's certainly the most creative work I've done in the last 10 years," says CEO
Hyper-casual In China
Google, Voodoo, JoyPac and more to speak at hyper-casual games summit in Shanghai on August 1st
Google, Voodoo, JoyPac, App Annie and Tenjin to speak at seminar