Fight
Huawei wants to take on the Switch with a $1,000 phone
Chinese manufacturer wants its new gaming phone to compete with the hybrid console
Nope-mon
Former US president Barack Obama doesn't care for Pokemon
I’d honestly always figured him more of a Digimon fan anyway
Crunch
Minit developer encourages developers to share games made without crunch
Indies take to Twitter to share games developed without excessive overtime
Narrative Games
Universal is the latest contender in the mobile interactive fiction space with Series Your Story Universe
Game set to tap film and TV IP such as Vanderpump Rules, Saved By The Bell, The Breakfast Club and Law & Order
Mobile's Millions
Popular kids MMO Roblox generates nearly $500m on mobile
UGC-based MMO picked up $92 million in Q3 2018 alone
Ask Me Anything
Skybound Games CEO talks finishing The Walking Dead: The Final Season, bringing back Telltale staff and crunch
"I can say that I would never expect or ask anyone to work what would be considered inhumane hours"
Apponboard’s Tech Is Taking Off
Google Play’s Try Now demos are boosting retention and monetisation by more than 29%
AppOnboard’s tech is taking off
Play Together
Instant Games comes to Facebook’s 270k Gaming Groups
Groups attract combined 90 million active users each month
Winner Winner
PUBG Mobile has scored over 100m downloads on Google Play
Tencent's mobile battle royale reaches Android milestone two months after hitting it across platforms
New Pad
Lords Mobile developer I Got Games has opened a new office in Indonesia
Company celebrates opening of branch with grand ceremony and orchestral performances
Event
India’s biggest media and entertainment expo is just weeks away
25,000 visitors expected for December’s 15th festival, IndiaJoy
Alerte D’emploi
Ubisoft promotes from within for chief financial officer
Current CFO Alain Martinez will retire at the end of the year
Cutting Out A Niche
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out pulls in over $370 million
97 per cent of that figure comes from China and Japan
Job News Hype
Finnish studio Seriously adds trio of key hires to its ranks
Sylvain Cunzi joins at VP of games technology, Brian Ru joins as director of strategy and operations while Jamie Samson joins as Legal Counsel
Fiendish
Best Fiends games fetch $150m in lifetime revenue
Titles have been downloaded over 85 million times
Dead On
Chinese outfit GAEA snaps up 20% stake in Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour Interactive
The pair are currently co-developing a Game of Thrones game for mobile
Legal Rift
John Carmack's legal dispute with Zenimax Media ends
But the fight for Oculus isn’t over yet
Jobs News
Sega aims to improve work-life balance for employees
Japanese publisher also interested in addressing addiction
Marketing Fuel
Nitro Games plots share issue to raise over $5m
Funds will primarily go toward Heroes of Warland marketing
Going Mobile
Facebook tests fb.gg app for Android
The app is currently being tested with a 'limited set of features'
Tech Support
Ubisoft after developers to participate in its third Station F incubator program
AI and Blockchain startups encouraged to take part in the six-month program in Paris
Korea
Expo space at G-STAR sold out!
Asia’s leading games industry conference and expo fills b2b show floor one month ahead of November dates
Event
Supercell, Jam City, SYBO, Riot Games and Nerial join first wave of speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
January’s 21-track conference schedule already boasts a plethora of top industry experts
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