Get Connected
Six reasons to attend Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki if you’re an indie
From Indie tracks and Big Indie Pitches to networking and parties
Chart Toppers
World’s top 50 mobile games developers to be revealed August 21st
The list will be revealed on PocketGamer.Biz after the prestigious event in Germany next Tuesday
Vr
Nazara Technologies invests in Bangalore-based VR gaming studio Instasportz
Mobile developer is looking to get into offline VR games lounges across India
Strong Hand
Second Dinner picks up three more Hearthstone veterans
Three former Blizzard developers join former Hearthstone director Ben Brode’s new studio
Financial
South Korean publisher Com2us posts over $100m in earnings for the 11th consecutive quarter
Summoners War creator reports a 9 per cent sales increase since last quarter
Crushing It
King’s Candy Crush Saga enjoys highest grossing 12 month period with $930m made
The match-three title made $693 million in the 12 months prior
Raw Investment
Indie publisher Raw Fury gets $5.5m boost from Nordisk Film Games
The label is behind upcoming mobile and switch game Bad North
Sweet
King enters mid-core RPG market with newly launched game Legend of Solgard
The candy crush dev’s has previously failed to garner any traction with previous soft-launched midcore titles
Book Now!
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki mid-term ticket prices end at midnight!
You have just hours to save up to $250 on Europe’s biggest event for the mobile games industry before tickets go up to full price
Finance
Tencent reports a quarterly drop in mobile revenue, but across the board business is booming
Mobile games revenue took a blow from “transient factors”
Mix It Up
One week to go: Games Mixer and Big Indie Pitch at Gamescom
Network into the night, learn about Asian trends in gaming, as well as blockchain - and enjoy the free bar too...
Boss It
Former Paradox CFO Andras Vajlok joins Like A Boss board
Six-year grand strategy veteran joins mobile sports maker
Investment
Animoca Brands receives $1.08m investment from Lympo and Sun Hung Kai
Publisher and developer to use the funding to open up opportunities in AI and blockchain
Co-op
Jagex launches third-party publishing label Partners as RuneScape revenue crosses $1bn
Will offer up live game publishing and operational services to third-party studios
Sponsored
Only 31% of app developers are satisfied with their current ad revenues
Chocolate’s App Developer Survey focuses on devs satisfaction with current ad revenues, perceptions towards ad mediation and impact of in-app video ads
Madness
Shadowgun dev Madfinger hits 200m downloads across entire games portfolio
The Brno-based developer has crafted 11 titles over eight years
War
Pixonic’s War Robots racks up $190m in revenue
The third-person shooter originally launched back in April 2014
On Tilt
Tilting Point targets more European partners with new Barcelona studio
New office follows on from the publisher’s recent pledge to invest $132 million in mobile games user acquisition
India
Alibaba-owned gaming firm AGTech puts $16m into Gamepind Entertainment
Mobile gaming venture will use the fund to release a separate app within the next six months
Invested
Metropolitan Partners Group invests in Tilting Point Media user acquisition fund
Marketing and publishing platform aims to deploy $132m annually to finance user acquisition
Time Out
Tencent's relationship with Riot strained over differences on mobile gaming
Riots declining playerbase also a point of contention
Nice
PUBG Mobile has made $50 million in revenue
The battle royale received a shot in the arm following the introduction of the Royale Pass
Touchdown
Lifetime mobile sales of Madden NFL exceed 73 million
Combined with PC and mobile, the franchise has sold over 200 million copies
Jaaaam...
Pocket Jam back with a bang at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Two-day game jam returns this September at Europe’s biggest mobile games industry event
Job News Klaxon
RuneScape dev Jagex snags ZeniMax and Trion Worlds vets for senior roles
New starters take on SVP of game development and VP of tech roles
Winner Winner Chicken Salad
Tencent soft-launches PUBG Lite in the Philippines on Android
Just a lite update for you
Fort-not
Google Play now warning Fortnite fans that the game isn’t on its Android store
Despite best efforts, clones are likely to flood the Google Play store
Unity
67% of Unity developers are choosing to publish independently
Unity reports on the development habits of 1,445 small to medium Indies
Pgc Speaker
Frogmind’s Teemu Mäki-Patola to discuss recent challenges and achievements at PGC Helsinki 2018
Will discuss the company's recent challenges and achievements
Mobile Mixer
Join the mobile games industry at our Mixer and Asia trends panel during Gamescom on August 22nd
Mix with industry bigwigs in Cologne
Get Online
Nintendo Switch Online will arrive in the second half of September
Long-delayed online subscription services pegged for the end of next month
Field Trip
Indian learning platform Quizizz raises over $3 million in funding
Homework gamification app has amassed over 10 million active users
Fine Catch
Pokemon Quest captures $8 million in revenue from mobile after one month
The RPG has proved most popular in Japan followed closely by the US
Oh No
Netmarble shares plummet to all-time low as Lineage 2 popularity fades
Shares dropped 11.27 per cent on August 9th to close at 126,000 won
Banned
No end in sight as South Korean games companies locked out of China for over a year
No signs of issues being resolved
Chinese Exports
Chinese games raked in more than $600 million in the US for the first half of 2018 alone
The haul was a 52 per cent increase year-on-year
Games Suspended
China hasn't approved any new mobile games since March 28th
Market sees single-digit growth in first half of the year, the slowest since at least 2009
Financials
Square Enix profits drop after three months with no new games and new mobile titles fail to perform
Three-month financial results show a slow quarter for the Japanese publisher
Write In
Interactive fiction specialist Dr Emily Short joins the Spirit AI board
Two-year Character Engine product manager takes on the role of executive director at Spirit
Fortnite Android
Fortnite Android rolls out exclusively on Samsung Galaxy devices first today
Heading to other Android devices over the next few days
Child-friendly
Industry veterans seek to structure children's screen time with Ava
The new take on parental controls ditches restrictions and blocklists to take a more positive spin
Diverse
Mobile diversification strategy helps drive NetEase to $2.5 billion revenue for 2Q18
Horror game Identity V and battle royale title Knives Out were namechecked specifically
Not Too Shabby
Nexon’s MapleStory M hits five million downloads globally in two weeks
The side-scrolling adventure game originally hit three million within its first week
Billion Dollar Baby
Magic Leap One Creator Edition launches with $2,295 price tag
Only available in select US cities however
Yo Yo Yo
GameMaker Studio 2 launches open beta for Nintendo Switch support
The new edition will let developers port any previous games made with GameMaker Studio 2 to Switch
20x20 Awesomeness
King, Nitro Games, Rovio, ZeptoLab and friends in epic PG Connects Helsinki PechaKucha Sessions
Wilhelm Taht returns with supercharged, hugely popular Connects element
Mobile Awards
One week left for International Mobile Gaming Awards Southeast Asia submissions
Deadline is August 15th
Ar Games
Facebook Messenger gets augmented reality games
Extends possibilities as a games platform
Casting Sales
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery hits $55 million revenue in just over three months
Nearly half of player spending occurs in US
On Job
Ad platform Bidalgo taps up former Clicktale CFO to bolster executive team
Nir Ackerman will join as CFO and will be tasked with overseeing all of the company’s financial operations