Financials
Mobile fuels games growth at MTG in Q2 2019
Mobile games now represent more than half of all gaming revenue
New Studio
NetEase opens Montreal studio
CEO says city offers “clear advantages and favourable conditions” for international games companies
Back Of The Net
Football Manager 19 shifts record two million copies
First release to do so, sales across all platforms
Pocket Gamer Connects
First Pocket Gamer and Blockchain Gamer Connects Hong Kong wows the crowds of more than 750 delegates from 45 countries
390 companies joined the event in total
Subscription Service
Tencent invests in retro games streaming platform Antstream Arcade
Terms of Series A funding round were undisclosed
I Choose You
The Pokemon Company partners with Tencent on new games
PUBG: Full Ahead studio Timi will develop a new title
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle strikes up US top grossing spot
Rankings from July 8th to 14th
Jobs News
Rogue Games swoops for trio of marketing, UA and design hires
Publisher appoints new UA marketing manager, game designer and marketing art manager
Deja Moo
Zynga taps classic major IP for newly soft-launched FarmVille 3 - Animals
Farming simulator has made its way to Android in the Philippines and Thailand
Regulatory Brawl
Supercell pulls games out of Vietnam in face of regulations
Likes of Clash of Clans, Clash Royale and Brawl Stars no longer playable in the country
Job News
Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stepping down
"Words cannot express the gratitude I feel to have been involved with Blizzard, our games, our employees, and most importantly our community"
Job News
Ex-Visceral GM Steve Papoutsis headlines new recruits at PUBG Corp's Striking Distance studio
Former Sledgehammer, Visceral and Crystal Dynamics vets join the new developer
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Id Software vet Tim Willits to depart, Google Stadia's Reddit AMA, and Facebook slapped with $5bn fine
The hottest stories of the last week from the PC, mobile and blockchain spaces
East Meets West
East Meets West: WeGame mobile streaming, NetEase acquires minority stake in Behaviour, and why Tencent is helping publish Drodo Auto Chess
Keeping up with the news from the world's most influential games market
Hot Five
One dev's journey from police constable to level designer, PlayStation vet heads to Disney, and the Yogscast CEO steps down
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki heads to a brand new venue for 2019!
Two day B2B games industry conference lands at The Cable Factory on October 1st and 2nd.
Education Training And Success
IGDA Helsinki Hub gathers games developers this September
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki follows from October 1st to October 2nd, 2019
All Time High
Increase in subscription revenue offsets Fortnite decline for Microsoft as Xbox Live hits 65 million MAUs
Games cash drops 10 per cent year-on-year
Streaming Service
Ubisoft: Cost of porting games to Stadia not that high
Uplay+ subscription service will launch on Stadia in 2020
Event
Experts from Rovio, Supercell, Housemarque and more to speak at Helsinki’s Game Executive bootcamp in October
Discount available for attendees of PGConnects
Just Like Magic
Niantic and EE partner to bring Wizards Unite bonuses to the UK
Inclusive data, sponsored Inns and licensed merchandise
Stadia Hurdles
Google Stadia mobile support “a hard technical challenge”
"I really want to have Stadia gameplay on every mobile device, across Android and iOS at some point"
Up In The Clouds
Mobile will play “important role” in Ubisoft’s grand plan to reach 5bn players
CEO Yves Guillemot discusses the blurring lines between platforms and regions
Npd Numbers
Nintendo Switch US sales top PlayStation and Xbox in June
“Nintendo Switch is the only platform showing year-on-year growth”
Medically Sound
Dr. Mario World encapsulates five million downloads in first week
Half a million dollars generated from player spending
Event
Just one week left to save up to $450 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019
Super Early Bird ticket prices end next week for October’s two-day B2B games industry conference
Business Deal
Kongregate acquires mobile and web RPG Bit Heroes
Juppiomenz-developed title has made generated $10 million in net revenue on mobile
New Competition
Skillz reveals $25,000 Global Game Development Challenge
First competition was won by the CodeCube Brothers
Moving Location
Zynga India moves to new studio in Bangalore
Developer currently hiring for multiple roles
Douyu Ipo
Chinese live-streaming platform DouYu launches $775 million IPO
The IPO was announced back in April but was halted a week later
Best Canaries
Seriously partners with Norwich City football club for Best Fiends sleeve sponsorship
“The first character ever to feature permanently on a Premier League shirt”
Kyoto Drift
Nintendo Switch owners are suffering Joy-Con drift issues
This follows Joy-Con desyncing fault near consoles launch
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”