Nex-marble
Netmarble forming consortium to acquire Nexon
Serious contender for $9bn-valued publisher
Switched On
Nintendo posts strong quarter despite lowering Switch sales estimates to 17m for the year
Mobile spurs on approximately $300m in sales
Blame The Blue Shell?
Mario Kart Tour for mobile delayed until summer 2019
Was expected to launch by end of March
Ofcom
Ofcom reckons almost 90 per cent of gamers aged between 12 and 15 are playing online
UK report finds young gamers are increasingly online and social
Location, Location
Israeli publisher Playtika has opened new R&D office in Bucharest
Qualitest partners with the Israeli developer to launch the new testing and QA location
Touchdown
EA Sports mobile games score $1 billion in revenue
Madden franchise has generated sales of $490 million
Financials
iPhone revenue drops 15% year-on-year as Apple looks to services
But iPad revenue is up
Demonic
DENA and Platinum's World of Demons possibly canned after App Store removal
The hack and slash game had initially soft-launched in Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia in June of last year
Analytics
FanAI acquires esports analytics and middleware firm Waypoint Media
FanAI gains access to Waypoint Media’s range of trackers, data and APIs
Deal
Unity acquires games chat platform Vivox
Text and audio comms tool has been used in Fortnite, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, and League of Legends
$$$$$
Report: Global games company investment more than doubled to $5.7bn in 2018
More than double the year prior
Deal
Codemasters and NetEase are making a mobile game together
UK firm to make $8m in revenue over the next three years
Unity
Unity Playground aims to open game development up to kids
Scriptless asset suite seeks to provide a stepping stone for young users looking to get into the engine
Shutdown
Updated: Behaviour claims Westworld Mobile shutdown unrelated to Bethesda lawsuit
Game to go offline for good on April 16th
Big Indie Pitch
Run An Empire Sprints it's way to 1st place at Pocket Gamer Connects London 19's Very Big Indie Pitch
The Big Indie Pitch gets 2019 off to a flying start by hosting it's flagship London pitch
Squawk
Angry Birds 2 revenue grew 47 per cent in a record-breaking 2018
Bird-flinging sequel brought in revenue over $116 million last year
Subscription Gaming
Report: Apple plots subscription service for games
But how will it work?
Big Move
Ex-PlayRaven CEO Lasse Seppänen joins Supercell
Spymaster studio was acquired by Rovio in November 2018
Switch
Nintendo president: "We certainly want to release mobile games across a wide variety of genres"
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa believes the Switch is strong enough as-is to meet the company's ambitions
Glad
GLAAD Awards to celebrate queer-inclusive video games for the first time in 2019
Five games head up the inclusivity organisation’s first Outstanding Video Game award category
Charts
Weekly Global Mobile Games Charts: PUBG Mobile breaks into US top 10 grossing slots
Charts from January 14th to 20th
For Sale?
Chinese owner of RuneScape developer Jagex considers sale of RuneScape developer
Company bullish that MMO, mobile and publishing initiatives will continue to fuel further growth despite news
Best Ever
PG Connects London 2019 breaks all records, with over 2,350 delegates, 1,200 companies and 8.5k organised meetings
We’re going to need a bigger boat…
Locked
NetEase is enforcing an 11-hour curfew of mobile gaming for kids
New limits will also severely restrict daily playtime for young children
Game On
Gamemaker Studio 2 gets Amazon GameOn support enabling cross-platform competitions
YoYo Games and Amazon have released an asset to get GameMaker devs onto the GameOn service
Hot News
Hothead Games takes a step into the third-party publishing business
"We know what it’s like to be in their shoes, and we are just as committed to their success as they are”
Changing Infrastructure
Facebook set to integrate Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram apps
Users to be able to message each other across services
Substance Deal
Adobe picks up Substance Designer firm Allegorithmic
Tools to be integrated into the creative cloud
Unreal Ads
Appodeal brings free in-game ad monetisation plugin to Unreal Engine 4
Offers access to more than 60 ad demand sources and features analytics, A/B testing and other capabilities
Big Spender
Fortnite developer Epic acquires Agog Labs and 3Lateral
Company continues to splash its cash
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: King's Candy Crush Saga the top grosser in UK and US
Charts from January 7th to 13th
Eastern Trailblazer
Jeff Lyndon awarded first-ever Eastern Trailblazer accolade at Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards
Recognised for a hugely successful career in building companies and bringing the global industry together
Gallery
In Pictures: The Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019
The industry's finest looking their finest
Uh Oh
Hyper-casual in 2019 "may be even more complicated to succeed without the product and marketing help from expert publishers”
Voodoo's Celine Droit spoke about the coming year in hyper-casual at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
Frozen
As many as 6,000 games could be stuck in China's licensing backlog
The waiting list for those titles could be two-years also
Mobile Legend
Tommy Palm named Mobile Legend the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards
A worthy winner for a very special award
Victory Royale
Fortnite wins Game of the Year at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards
Epic also picks up Best Developer
Catch 'em All
Pokemon Go developer Niantic takes two home accolades at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards
Wins Best Live Ops for Pokemon Go and Technological Innovation for Niantic Real World Platform
Job News
Andrew and Philip Oliver leave Rebellion
Duo launching a consultancy firm
Heating Up
China's backlog of new game approvals still holding up Tencent and NetEase
257 titles granted license for release since March 2018
Winner Winner
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019 winners revealed
Industry's finest celebrated
Magic
Voodoo's portfolio of games builds up over 1.5 billion downloads
That number grew 50 per cent over the past four months
Brexit
"Even if we were to revoke article 50 tomorrow, a lot of damage has been done"
Three industry experts discuss the ramifications of Brexit at Pocket Gamer Connects London
Retained
Three billion mobile gamers worth of data says that trivia and word games hold best week one retention
Game Analytics CEO Ioana Hreninciuc delved into the stats at Pocket Gamer Connects London
Nonstop Sequel
Flaregames reveals Nonstop Knight 2 for 2019 release
New title adds customisation, fresh progression system and social layer
Pgc London
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 kicks off and promises to be our biggest and best show yet
Around 2,500 attendees expected
Event
Celebrating the sponsors for next week’s Pocket Gamer Connects London
The companies that help make the UK’s biggest B2B games industry event possible
Events
Don't stop at mobile: Here’s how to cross platform lines at the PGC London Connects X Track
Track for mastering your opportunities across platforms old and new
Mobile Games Awards
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards just days away - Get your ticket now!
Celebrate this great industry with the sector's leading lights
Events
Look to the clouds with this look at the Pocket Gamer Connects London Game Changers: Cloud Track
Track for getting clued in on the power of cloud computing in mobile gaming