Market Data
Analytics firm Appfigures unveils new mobile market intelligence platform
Explorer offers insights into app performance
Business Shuffle
Tencent restructures business for first time in six years as games regulations bite
Publishing giant setting itself up for future challenges
Nostalgic Deal
Liquid Media snaps up 65 retro game IPs from Throwback for $1 million
Titles include All Star Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club, NHL Breakaway and College Slam
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Snake Vs Colors cracks top spot on US App Store while China's top grossing gets a shakeup
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 17th to 23rd
Funding Round
Blockchain outfit ClanPlay secures $2 million for its gamer rewards platform
Company aims to build “the world’s first marketplace for in-game actions"
Blockchain Assemble
Fig, Ubisoft, Alto and more form Blockchain Game Alliance
“Blockchain has all the potential to change the gaming ecosystem, creating one that everyone can benefit from”
Revenue Estimates
The Sims Mobile takes home $20 million
Title said to have made $3.17 million in August alone
Tapped Up
Ad tech outfit Tappx names Fernando Saiz as chief marketing officer
Promoted from head of growth
Revenue
Lords Mobile plunders over $825 million in revenue worldwide
IGG's massively-multiplayer strategy game raked in $7 million in one week alone earlier this month
Acquisition News
Chinese tutoring services provider snaps up chidren's apps developer Dr. Panda
Companies to work on "new models for future education"
Charity
Words With Friends 2 launches tile styles alongside breast cancer charity event
Zynga will donate up to $100,000 to Susan G Komen as part of breast cancer awareness month
Vr Versus Switch
Carmack on the Oculus Quest: "Realistically, we're going to end up competing with the Nintendo Switch"
The veteran engineer sees the standalone VR headset as a secondary device for console or PC owners
Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost hits top download spots in four countries and is a top 30 grosser in the US
Those countries being Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
Draw
Flaregames resurrects Games Workshop’s Citadel Combat Cards with Well Played Games
The 1990s Warhammer 40,000 card came to be brought to mobile on November 22nd
Sold
Vivendi aims to sell all shares in Ubisoft by March 2019
Fears of a hostile takeover come to an end as Vivendi pulls out of Ubisoft entirely
Closure
Disney Canada layoffs as Club Penguin Island closes
The web version of the social game had shut down the year prior
Call For Speakers
You could speak at the biggest Pocket Gamer Connects London ever
Open call for speakers from the mobile games industry, as well as PC, blockchain and VR/AR for January event
Revenue
Toy Blast collects over $440 million in worldwide revenue
With Toon Blast making rapid gains, Peak Games’ previous outing continues to find success
Trivial
Etermax reveals Trivia Crack 2 launch date as original quiz app passes 500 million downloads
Trivia Crack 2 will launch on iOS and Android devices on October 25th
Data
Tencent maintains a firm grasp on SuperData’s top 10 grossing mobile games chart in August
Publisher dominates a chart virtually unchanged over the last two months
Soft Launch Saga
Candy Crush Friends Saga takes one of mobile gaming's hottest IPs 3D in October
Fourth addition to the franchise launches on October
Remote Discovery
Oculus mobile app adds Rift Support so users can find and install VR games remotely
App also lets users find events and connect with friends
Console Switch
Nintendo Switch Online companion app hits five million downloads
The total is 25 per cent of the console’s install base
Lost And Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost launches after racking up over one million pre-registrations
Players will get 2,500 for hitting the milestone should they log into Dragaila Lost
Standalone
Oculus Quest offers all-in-one wireless virtual reality headset for $399
No PC or smartphone required
Potter
Jam City launches Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery in South Korea
Move could prove a lucrative venture in the RPG-friendly market
Sales Of Glory
FunPlus' Guns of Glory shoots past $215 million in first year
Adds to strong showing from publisher's other title King of Avalon
Drop In
PUBG Mobile’s first Star Challenge Champions series launches with a $600,000 prize pool
Mobile esports series kicks off with a focus on putting big names centre-stage
Big Indie Pitch
The Big Indie Pitch finishes 2018 with visits to Poland, Sweden, Jordan and South Korea
The Big Indie Pitch reveals its plans for the remainder of 2018
Saved
Nintendo Switch Online cloud saves will remain 180 days after subscription ends
Fan fears that saves may vanish immediately on a subscription ending are unfounded
Legal
Former employee hits Telltale Games with a class action lawsuit
Redundancies made “without cause” may have broken state and federal labour laws
Cross-platform Royale
Sony relents to enable PS4 cross-play with rival platforms
Starting with an open beta for Fortnite players
More Tales To Tell
AMC and Smilegate backed out of Telltale financing talks day before closure
Source says management painted AMC deal as done
Fine Catch
Pokemon Go captures over $2bn through player spending
The location-based AR game hit the milestone after 811 days following hitting 1 billion in 302 days
Cut
Big Fish Games cut 15% of workforce eight months after $1 billion takeover
Company out to restructure around social casino and casual games as executive roles also cut
Infectious
The Walking Dead: Our World consumes $8 million in revenue over 55 days
Augmented reality survival shooter has been installed almost 1.7 million times
Pow
Dragon Ball Legends strikes up $65 million in revenue worldwide
Mobile brawler saw 1.9 million new players join the fight last month
Telltale Signs
Failure to finalise new funding round the catalyst for mass Telltale Games layoffs
Sources claim Lionsgate stopped funding Telltale to refocus on its own business
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Voodoo and Lion Studios battle it out for top spots
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 10th to 16th
India
India will be home to 310 million gamers by 2021, report claims
Research suggests that by 2021, half of India will have played at least one mobile game
Cliffhanger
Telltale moves to quell fan fears over The Walking Dead amid pressure to offer ex-employees severance
The developer offered the update on Twitter
Awarding Success
Lobbying opens for the Mobile Games Awards ahead of its return at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
Award ceremony celebrating the best in the industry takes place on Tuesday, January 22nd
Tales To Tell
Netflix evaluates options for Stranger Things game while Minecraft: Story Mode moves forward amid Telltale closure
The streaming service confirmed the news in a written statement
Dare
Thunder Lime wins this year’s Dare Academy design competition
2018’s winners of the annual Abertay University student event announced at EGX last Friday
Road To Investments
Scopely swoops for Glu’s Rob Ricca to lead M&A activity
Rob Ricca previously led M&A at Glu Mobile, during which time it purchased Crowdstaf and Plain Vanilla
Opening
Shop Heroes developer Cloudcade opens 50-person studio in Pakistan
Cloudcade hopes the new South Asia location will help the studio develop 4 games simultaneously
Cancelled
Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us unlikely to see completion, claims voice actress
Clementine voice actress Melissa Hutchinson took to Twitter to share the news
Jobs
Games industry opens its doors to laid off Telltale employees with #telltalejobs
Online support and a California-based Meet the Dev event hope to transition stranded developers into new roles
Studio Closure
“I'm mostly saddened for the people who are losing their jobs”: Ousted Telltale CEO speaks out on studio closure
Kevin Bruner was originally ousted from the company last year by investors
Lay-off Woes
Game Workers Unite issues scathing response to Telltale Games layoffs
“The system for creating games is broken, and it will result in the collapse of many other beloved studios”