Woop
Tru Luv’s #SelfCare whips up over half a million downloads in seven weeks
The companion app has also broken the Top 50 for games in 20 countries
Studio Woes
Telltale Games lays off majority of staff ahead of studio closure
A summary of last week's news: makers of episodic games trimmed to a skeleton staff
Big Indie Awards
Entries open for The Big Indie Awards 2018 in association with G-STAR
There's STILL time to enter this year's biggest competition for indie developers [update]
Banned
China bans games streaming platform Twitch
The ban comes after the site experienced a popularity spike
Job News Klaxon
Former Netflix publicity director joins Scopely as head of corporate communications
Geldmacher will be responsible for strategy and oversight of the company’s global brand and worldwide corporate narrative
Sunk
Asia fanfare helps Yostar’s Azur Lane sink over $170m in revenue
The chibi-styled strategy game launched in May of last year
M&a
Stillfront acquires Imperia Online in deal worth up to $32 million
Initial deal worth $11.7m but could rise based on performance
Special Offer
Up to $500 discount on Pocket Gamer Connects London ends today!
Save a monkey and book your tickets before Super Early Bird prices close at midnight
Epic
Fortnite lands on 78.3m player count for August
Epic also admitted that this player figure revealed weaknesses in performance and spectating
Canada Expansion
Improbable opens new Edmonton office helmed by BioWare veteran Aaryn Flynn
"SpatialOS is going to transform how people make and play games, and with this new office we want to help that to happen"
Shutting Down
Dead Rising and Puzzle Fighter studio Capcom Vancouver closes
Around 158 job losses as a result
Business News
Hong Kong’s Apptutti signs new partnership to help Korean devs access China games market
Support services localised for Korean speakers
Social Asset
GetSocial partners with Unity to bring sharing tools to Asset Store
Company offers social analytics and publishing tools
Angry Reality
Angry Birds comes to Magic Leap One with Rovio and Resolution Games partnership
Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot dives onto headset in autumn 2018
Engage
Tilting Point extends Disruptor Beam deal with fresh $29m investment in Star Trek Timelines marketing
The publisher will help fund a new project as part of the deal and will handle marketing on Star Trek Timelines
Cube
Tencent and LEGO unveil mobile open-sandbox game LEGO Cube for China
The open-sandbox game is set for release late 2018
Signed Up
Scottish developer Outplay snags Crackdown creator for VP of operations role
Phil Wilson will be tasked with evolving Outplay’s live ops production processes and technology
Fore
Playdemic's Golf Clash drives past $225m in revenue
The sports game landed $25m in revenue last month
Stuck The Landing
Tencent’s PUBG Mobile glides past the $75m mark in revenue despite China roadblocks
$25m of that has come in the last 31 days
Rip
YouTube Gaming is no more as company blames brand confusion for its demise
Gaming will still have a separate tab on the main YouTube site
Surprise!
Keywords acquires The Trailer Farm and Sound Lab
Firm made $128.6m for the six months ending June 30th
Company Expansion
Talking Tom developer Outfit7 to open new Barcelona studio
Team led by company's own senior director of design and animation Dani Bajc
Jobs News
Tencent's director if investments and biz dev in the West departs
Jonathan Lai’s new employer Coatue Management and is looking for new investments in games
Leadership Shuffle
HQ Trivia dev gets new CEO as it reveals latest game HQ Words
Colin Kroll takes the reins as Rus Yusupov named chief creative officer
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Lion Studios rules the roost in China, UK and US
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 3rd to 9th
Tmi
Twitter erupts over Stormy Daniels claims Trump has a “dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart”
Unfortunate details of alleged affair surface
Home Comforts
Tencent’s Honor of Kings rakes in over $3.5 billion in global revenue
China makes up 96 per cent of the total
Job News Klaxon
Nordisk Film Games eyes further investments as it snaps up new director of partnerships
Sofie Filt Læntver will enter the fray on October 1st
Record Breaker
Finland's hottest games conference Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018 smashes records with over 1,300 delegates
Over 1,300 delegates representing more than 620 companies attended show
Divorce Royale
Report: Fortnite to blame in over 200 UK divorces this year
"It is no surprise to us that more and more people are having relationship problems because of our digital addictions"
New Studio Alert
World of Tanks maker Wargaming opens UK games development studio
Free-to-play specialist rolls into Guildford
Not So Mini Milestone
8 Ball Pool developer Miniclip hits 1.5 billion mobile game downloads
"We are now reaching even greater levels of recognition within mobile games"
Retired
Disney to shut down Star Wars: Rivals mobile game
The cover-based shooter had been in soft launch since June of last year
Japan
Meet us at Tokyo Game Show
PocketGamer.biz will be at TGS this week - and we’d love to hear from you!
Blurred Lines
European regulators claim “blurring of lines” between gambling and gaming in joint statement
"We have joined forces to call on video games companies to address the clear public concern around the risks gambling and some video games can pose to children"
Good Cause
Supercell, Rovio, Outfit7 and more back One Special Day charity fundraiser
Takes place on September 28th
Delicious Downloads
Nukebox’s Food Truck Chef serves up 16 million installs
Average monthly revenue said to have triple since $18 million Tilting Point partnership
Monetisation Blow
China's regulatory roadblocks stop most downloaded game PUBG Mobile from making money
Despite 100 million downloads and 50 million active users, there are no IAPs
Switch Up
Players will need to sign up to Nintendo Switch Online for cloud saves
Service will go live September 18th and will cost $3.99 a month, $7.99 for three months or $19.99 for 12
Pocketed
Miniclip pockets over $400 million from 8 Ball Pool on mobile
Lifetime installs more than 80 million
London Calling
Super Early Bird prices for Pocket Gamer Connects London end next week
Ticket prices now lowest they'll ever be for January event, to rise after next Friday
Off The Blockchain
Cocos-BCX raises $40m in funding to accelerate development of blockchain games platform
Funding led by Binance Labs, NEO Global Capital, 500 Startups, among others
Co-op
Skybound teams up with Sky to create narrative focused mobile games
Skybound Stories will create games based on new and existing IPs
Scrollin
Bethesda's Todd Howard shows off Elder Scrolls: Blades gameplay at Apple’s iPhone event
Elder Scrolls game set for a fall release this year
All The Range
iPhone XS, XS Max and XR unveiled at Apple keynote event
Previous ranges also discounted or discontinued
Direct
Delayed Nintendo Direct set to go ahead September 13th at 11pm UK time
Last weeks direct was delayed due to natural disasters
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go saw a 35 per cent increase in activity over the last 4 months
Niantic also announced a scheme to tie Pokemon Go to civic engagement events
Super Cells
Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen explains why its cell structure puts developers before management
“The less the management had to do with their games, the better their chances of success”
Big Indie Pitch
Boom Slingers dazzles judges to clinch top spot at the Very Big Indie Pitch at PGC Helsinki 2018
Top five revealed
Super
The first mobile Spider-man game almost made its creator bankrupt on day one of development
Indiagames reflects on creating the web-slinging mobile title on a low budget with four developers