Igda
One-to-one mentoring at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
The IGDA Mentor Cafe connects developers with expert mentors
Monumental
Monument Valley worldwide revenue climbs to over $25 million
Non-euclidean puzzler has made almost 18x its reported budget back in revenue
I Choose You
Niantic contributes tech to community improvement through new fellowship programme
The Niantic/ Knights Fellows Program will be a six-month initiative that will allow US communities to use the developer’s tech
Igdc
NGDC rebrands to The India Game Developer Conference
Event returns to Hyderabad on December 4th and 5th 2018
Restrictive Policies
China’s block on new game licenses could be coming to an end - but fresh regulations are incoming
Calls to restrict the number of new game releases
Nice
500,000 people fly into Cologne for Gamescom 2018
Devcom, meanwhile, snagged 200,00 for its second annual conference
Job News
Spil Games appoints Patrik Wilkens as new VP of mobile
Publisher makes its third internal promotion, completing the formation of a new senior management team
Labo
Nintendo launches Interactive Labo Workshops across America
DIY sessions for kids will run in ten cities across the country
Gdc
Supercell: It takes more than one great idea to make a successful game
Studio veteran Touko Tahkokallio shared his granular approach to development at this year’s GDC
Get Hyper
From hyper-casual to instant messenger: What’s going on with Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki’s Game Changers track
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki will touch down in Finland from September 11th to 12th
High Above The Sky
Airheart crowned champion at the 2018 Gamescom Big Indie Pitch
Horizon Chase Turbo races into second and Pic-It-Up snaps third
Mistakes
Miyamoto: Regrettable choices were made during the development of Super Mario Run
Difficulty curve and fixed-price model could’ve been improved, claims the legendary designer
Report
Report: 34 per cent of American gamers are playing on mobile alone
EEDAR report also shows over a quarter of players are considered “incidental players”
Best Of 2018
Fortnite developer Epic Games named the world’s top mobile games company in the PocketGamer.biz Top 50 Developer list
The full list of the 50 hottest mobile game developers! [UPDATE: exclusive video]
Making A Splash
Paint Hit scores over 15 million downloads in two months
The hyper-casual paint-based shooter originally launched on June 11th
Events
G-STAR Games Mixer presented by Pocket Gamer at Gamescom 2018 attracted more than 600 industry professionals
Event sees huge success in Koln!
South Africa
Emerge counts Arcade X platform a success in South Africa with over 500,000 games played
Esports company’s hybrid platform has served over 60,000 users in the country since launch
Catch Em All
Pokemon Go sees daily revenue increase grow 39 per cent following trading update
Pokemon trainers are now spending an average of $2.5 million per day
Optimised
Lab Cave’s Fernando Garcia: “Our goal is to become the best ASO agency in the world"
App Store Optimisation agency celebrates 200 million organic downloads
Job News
Ex-Rovio EVP Wilhelm Taht joins Dodreams board of directors
Drive Ahead! Developer appoints Taht as a member of the board and investor
Oh No
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney dubs Google ‘irresponsible’ over Android bug row on Fortnite
Google had made it public knowledge that hackers could hijack the game's installation software and load it with malware
Building A Blockchain Strategy
Animoca Brands acquires The Sandbox dev Pixowl for $5 million
Betting on blockchain user generated content
Gone In An Instant
“The goal really is for developers to be able to build and scale games profitably”
Facebook director of games partnerships in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Bob Slinn on ditching the revenue split on Android
Traffic
Crossy Road celebrates over 200 million downloads
Hipster Whale’s classic continues to break records five years post-launch
Movie
Monument Valley has landed a film adaptation
Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures will be producing a movie tie-in to the mobile puzzler
Expansion
Jam City to set up shop in a new studio in Culver City
The new location is double the size of Jam City’s existing space, setting it up for expansion
Speak Up!
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki conference schedule revealed
Amazing roster of talent on show as Europe’s biggest B2B mobile games industry event unveils its full speaker schedule for September
Jobs Jobs Jobs
Hutch bolsters work force with new senior designer and client engineer
Mark Bridle and Martin Pane join from Marmalade Games and ALPixel Games respectively
Tindered
HBO and Nerial partner for Games of Thrones Reigns spin-off
Reigns: Game of Thrones will land in October for mobile and PC
Star Wars
Zynga stock soars 11 per cent after securing a deal to create licensed Star Wars titles
Farmville creator partners with Disney for a mobile title, with potential for a second in future.
Revenue
Game of War’s spoils surpass $2.8 billion revenue worldwide
MZ’s flagship hits the milestone just after its fifth anniversary
Merges And Acquisitions
RuneScape firm Jagex on eye out for mobile games acquisitions
CEO Mansell says the historically PC-focused company is looking to expand its PC expertise.
Bloody
Bloodstained cans Vita port as Sony “plans to discontinue” the handheld
Sony’s handheld has stopped producing physical copies and the end of crucial store features
Report
Liftoff reports women are buying in-app purchases 79 per cent more than men
The report also finds iOS users are harder to acquire but more valuable to get on board
Revenue
Fortnite swoops past $200 million revenue on iOS five months after launch
Rapid success puts the battle royale on equal footing with Clash Royale’s performance
Limitless
Hatch is offering Deutsche Telekom subscribers in Germany limitless gaming data
Mobile provider's StreamOn program expands to include Hatch's streaming catalogue of games
Spot On
CD Projekt Red's new studio Spokko to create mobile titles for the Polish giant
The studio will be creating an “advanced and ambitious” mobile title for the Cyberpunk 2077 developer
Partnership
Ad network ironSource is now available on Google’s AdMob mediation platform
Developers using AdMob can now gain access to Ironsource’s existing marketplace
Partnership
Gismart partners with Appodeal to publish casual and hyper-casual games
Developer will also utilise Appodeal’s extensive ad platform to push music, entertainment and utility apps
Speeding
Crossy Road speeds past in-app purchase revenues of $10 million
Multi-million milestone doesn’t even account for sales made through advertising in-game
Devcom 2018
Devcom managing director Stephan Reichart calls for video gamers to be a force for good
Devcom head Stephan Reichart has called for video games to be a force for good in the troubling times we live in.
Early Bird Gets The Worm
“In 2030 the market will be in the top five economies in the world” How to get into Indonesia’s mobile market early
Agate’s Shieny Aprilia gave a talk at Devcom on how to get into the industry
Devcom 2018
What can indie developers learn from the music industry?
"Do crazy shit"
Acquisition
Game of Whales acquires tracking app Appstatics
AI-powered tool acquires tracking app on its way to becoming a fully automated management platform
Not So Angry
Angry Birds 2 bookings grow 44 per cent to reach a record $33.9m in Q2 2018
But Rovio’s financial report sees a slump in the wake of last year’s movie successes
Android
App Annie: Fortnite will push Android apps to over 170 billion downloads in 2018
Users to spend over $50 billion on the platform this year
Spending Spree
US Librarian spends $89,000 of public money on Game of War
Adam Winger sells his home and drains retirement fund to pay back the appropriated funds
Dinners On Them
Tencent’s PUBG Mobile racks up over 100m downloads
The mobile iteration of the popular battle royale game launched four months ago
Starring Role
Revenue up 616 per cent for Supercell's soft-launched Brawl Stars in July
The month saw the Finnish developer add new countries to the soft-launch along with new content
The Finnish Line
Free bus rides for Finns to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
All aboard the party bus for Europe’s biggest mobile games industry event