Open Sesame
Fortnite Android beta now open
Title has already grossed more than $60 million, according to Sensor Tower estimates
On Cloud 9
Esports outfit Cloud9 scoops up $50m Series B funding round
Valor Equity Partners leads investment
Breach
Facebook confirms 30 million users had their login details stolen last month
The company is working alongside the FBI to find the attacker
New Shelter
Bethesda opens Moscow sales and marketing branch
Firm announces opening of a studio it didn't already own
Cash Royale
Clash Royale took $46 million in September
Lifetime revenue stands at $2.3 billion worldwide
Business News
Webzen launches casual games publishing brand Appmigos
But stays clear of hyper-casual
Awarding Success
Just one week left to lobby for the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019
Nominations close on October 22nd
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: South Korea's Line Puzzle tops downloads as Clash Royale makes a comeback
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of October 1st to 7th
Special Focus
Don't miss our South Korea Special covering the country's games industry this week
Interviews, analysis, studio profiles and region focus all dedicated to this exciting market
Seasoned Veteran
Former EA Mobile senior VP Mike Verdu joins advisory board at Boss Fight Entertainment
Developer aims to up its publishing game
Fine Art
Stugan founder to auction off Simon Stålenhag’s Forest Iron Painting to benefit games accelerator
The painting will be auctioned off at Bukowski's auction house on October 23
Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost finds $16m in revenue after two weeks
$13.5m of which, comes from the US and Japan
Building Blox
Roblox acquires app performance start-up PacketZoom to boost output on mobile
PacketZoom Co-founder and CTO Chetan Ahuja will join Roblox at part of the deal
Perfecto
Perforce snaps up Cloud-based software developer Perfecto Mobile
The acquisition is expected to close this year
Insert Details Here
Skybound keeps details on The Walking Dead: The Final Season's future vague
“We are doing our best to take care of the people. Our intent is to work with the original team but there are a lot of moving parts"
Jobs News
Blizzard vet Heinecke is Square Enix's new chief marketing officer
Has worked on IP including Overwatch, Hearthstone, StarCraft 2 as well as World of Warcraft
Puzzled
GungHo to shut down Puzzle & Dragons in Europe
Service is set to conclude December 10th
Monetised
Rovio and Hatch join Finnish seminar to discuss how to monetise effectively and ethically
Event taking place in Finland and will be streamed online
Sweet
King’s Candy Crush Friends Saga lands on App Store and Google Play after global launch
A 3D-focused event to be hosted in New York to celebrate the launch
Catching Season
Niantic’s Pokemon Go catches $84.8m in revenue for September
The location-based AR game also added 8.86m new trainers to its ranks
Acquisitions With Friends?
Report: Zynga attracts takeover interest
Developer has received preliminary approaches but no formal talks have taken place, sources claim
Big Indie Pitch
Enter the Big Indie Pitch at next month’s Jordan Gaming Summit
Indie developer contest lands in Amman for November
Deal
Advance snaps up majority stake in games analytics firm Newzoo
The media company will make a significant capital investment in Newzoo as part of the deal
Hay Maker
Indie darling Stardew Valley launching on App Store later this month
Eric Barone’s tranquil farming RPG hybrid will drop first on the iOS, Android release TBC
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects London to feature an amazing 21 conference tracks
Covering everything from the basics to the future across mobile, PC and blockchain gaming
Clans
Supercell’s Clash of Clans brings in $41m in revenue for September
Supercell’s hit game was also downloaded by over 5.4 million players for the month
Sweet Business
King’s Candy Crush Saga hits $3.91 billion in lifetime revenues
All-time downloads sit at 823 million
Event
What's on at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019?
Two-day event features 21-track conference schedule, Big Indie Pitches, investor panels, networking and more across mobile, PC, VR/AR and blockchain
Fore
Playdemic’s Golf Clash gets new clans feature
The new feature allows groups of up to 50 golf clash players to chat, share replays and work together to earn in-game rewards
On The Tube
Subway Surfers developer SYBO set to tap into video streaming with new platform
SYBO TV is expected to land in the fourth quarter of 2018
Ar
Truly Social Games acquires Vancouver AR studio Cooper’s New Reality Garage
Augmented reality specialist will rebrand as Truly Social Games Vancouver
New Digs
Cloud games firm Improbable set for London HQ
Soon to be based in Spitalfields
Data Klaxon
UK economy made $3.8bn from video games industry in 2016
And it provides 50,000 jobs
Audio
Gismart’s Piano Crush becomes No.1 music App on the US App Store
Virtual keyboard beat out Spotify to top charts in multiple regions worldwide
Blast Off
Rovio soft-launches Angry Birds Dream Blast in Finland and the UK
The bubble popper is available on iOS and Android
Offline
Marmalade SDK shuts down citing increased pressure from Unity and Unreal
Unpredictable iOS changes are also stated as causing Marmalade’s developers to close up shop
Busted
Four Thirty Three’s Ghostbusters World lands in Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand
The location-based augmented reality game is expected to release October 22nd
Service
Epic Games acquires security and service provider Kamu
Kamu brings its speciality in game security and community building to Fortnite and Unreal developers
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Supercell's Clash of Clans shuffles up the top grossing rankings
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 24th to 30th
New-school
Subscribers can now access the RuneScape Mobile Beta
Mobile beta headlines a string of announcements made during this weekend’s Runefest event
Support A Creator
Fortnite's 'support-a-creator' initiative lets players back their favourite influencers
The event allows players to support their favourite creators when making in-game purchases
Big Deal
Advantage Solutions acquires HyprMX owner Jun Group in deal that brings brands and mobile games closer together
HyprMX general manager and senior vice president Dan Laughlin tells us what the deal means for the company and the mobile games industry at large
Jobs News
ESA president Mike Gallagher steps down
SVP and general counsel Stanley Pierre-Louis will fill this spot until a successor is found
Monster Adaptation
Production begins on live-action Monster Hunter movie
Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson will write, direct and produce the adaptation
Cash Royale
Fortnite iOS revenue catapults to $300 million faster than Clash Royale
But slower than Niantic’s Pokemon Go, which only took 113 days
Living On?
Skybound to finish The Walking Dead: The Final Season following Telltale closure
Original team members may join development team
Dead On
The Walking Dead: Our World will feature time-limited in-game events during season nine of the AMC series
New challenges will drop every Monday with each new episode
Zombie
FTX Games to publish new The Walking Dead match-three and social casino mobile games
Publisher seals deal with AMC to create multiple flesh-eating licensed titles
Dirt
Pokemon Go celebrates the 50th anniversary of the US’s National Rivers & Trails systems
Pokemon Go studio wants to get players out and about across America’s National Parks
Undead
The Walking Dead co-creator Robert Kirkman wants to make sure Telltale Games' Clementine story is told
But right now there are no plans to bring her into the ongoing comic book series