Financials
Netmarble revenue and profits tumble year-on-year as sales slow
Lineage 2: Revolution takes 35 per cent of revenue share of game sales
Rapid Growth
Chinese mobile games sector set to double to over $24 billion by 2022
Set to surpass PC this year
Down
Revenues and profits down for DENA’s games segment over the past year
Virtual currency consumption for browser titles declined
Pocket Gamer Connects
17 reasons why you need to be at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco next week
From the 10 conference tracks by 100 world-class speakers to networking, pitching and the Global Connects Party
Excite
Steel Media is looking for a business development executive to drive sales on our B2B websites and events
Join us as we continue to grow our operations
Oh
Mobile games Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Pro Evo 2018 power Konami to record profits of $413m
Revenues also grew 4.2 per cent year-on-year to $2.19 billion
Juicy News
YouTuber Guava Juice partners with developer PopReach on Tub Tapper
Partners with developer PopReach on title
Rip
Nintendo’s social app Miitomo goes offline two years after launching
The decision to take the app was revealed earlier this year
Going Global
Pokemon Go developer Niantic to call upon players to help build AR maps
Efforts would involve supplementing Pokemon Go data with new information gathered through smartphones cameras
International Expansion
Kongregate gets first international expansion with Montreal office
“Expanding our resources and time zones allows us as a company to be closer to our Canadian and European partners," says CEO Emily Greer
Witness The Fitness
Animoca Brands nabs investment to create AI-based exercise app
Animoca Brands’ subsidiary OliveX to lead the development
Downloads Assemble
Avengers Infinity War boosts related mobile game downloads by 120%
IAP revenue was also boosted by 50% along with a 16% increase in DAU
Not Bad
Top 25 public games companies captured 77% of global games revenues in 2017
Tencent, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard took the top five spots
Playtime
Bidalgo launches support for playable ads on Facebook
San Francisco-based company also offering free ad production for its fully managed clients
Supply And Demand
Fluffy Fairy’s Idle Factory Tycoon surpasses four million downloads in two weeks
Follow-up to Idle Miner Tycoon finds early success
Linked In
Steam Link app lets you play your PC games on your mobile
Launches week of May 21st
Augmented Reality
Google’s ARCore 1.2 gets social
User can collaborate in the virtual space
That’s A Lot Of Money
Fortnite Mobile hits $50 million in revenue on iOS
Player spending increased 293 per cent following the launch of season four
Winning
Empires and Puzzles takes home Best Breakthrough Hit from Google Play Awards
Broken Rules also won the Standout Indie Award while Pocket Gem snagged the Community Award
Fly By
Angry Birds the latest big IP to flock to Facebook Instant Games
Joins Disney Tsum Tsum as latest hit mobile title to release on the platform
Avenger Royale
Thanos brings the Infinity War to Fortnite
Two giants collide in a limited-time mode for Epic's smash shooter
Tencent... Again
Tencent signs strategic partnership with UK's Department for International Trade
But barely a mention of video games at the event announcing the collaboration
This Report Is Quite Operational
Sims Mobile and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes help propel EA Mobile bookings to $659m in FY18
The games giant has two new mobile titles set for release in the next year
Flip The Switch
Virtual Console unlikely to be coming to Nintendo Switch Online
The games giant also revealed data cloud backup and pricing for Nintendo Switch Online
Its Time To Play The Game
Google Play Instant opens to all Android developers
The internet giant revealed the update at its I/O 2018 developer conference
Mena Expansion
PocketGamer.biz expands with new Arabic-language sister-site PocketGamer.me
Steel Media partners with leading Jordan games publisher Maysalward
Epic
Epic Games set to host series of workshops and panels at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
The talks will centre on the latest Unreal Engine mobile advancements
Pokemon Goes On Tour
Pokemon Go Summer Tour heads to the US, Germany and Japan
Events will feature a host of interactive adventures and special challenges
Moving Day
PlayMagic set for public expansion on the Swedish Stock Exchange
The games development studio hopes to start trading within the fourth quarter of 2018
Float On
Worms developer Team17 set to float on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange
The company hopes to extend its business and broaden its profile globally
Art Of The Deal
“Don’t sign a bad deal, there are plenty of publishers out there”
Jon Hare offers some tips on signing contracts with publishers
Finnish Culture
Ilkka Paananen: Open and friendly community is what makes Finnish games industry special
“Fundamentally I think this results in better games"
Pocket Gamer Connects
Meet Niantic, Netmarble, EA, King, Super Evil Megacorp, Ubisoft, Zynga and more next week at PG Connects San Francisco
Join the cream of the mobile games industry in West Coast America for an amazing two-day conference
Q1 Financials
Glu Mobile cuts losses as it hits record $86 million in bookings
Design Home, Covet Fashion and Kim Kardashian: Hollywood the key performers
Pocket Gamer Connects
Sign up for one-on-one mentoring at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Learn from the best at the IGDA Mentor Cafe, Monday May 14th
Why Not
Activision Blizzard has eyes on battle royale's mobile success
King has been working on a Call of Duty title for mobile
Installed
CrossInstall launches new playable mobile ads service for Facebook, Snapchat and Google
New service offers design, development and quality assurance for playable ads
Lumos
Jam City slashes Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery IAPs following player backlash
Only some players are receiving the discounted prices
Royale Royalty
NetEase recruits Battle Royale film scriptwriter for Knives Out
Kenta Fukasaku to build story and lore for hit mobile game
New Studio
Google spins up mobile social games start-up Arcade
Developing a new kind of social network
Crushed It
Candy Crush Saga revival propels King revenues to record $534m
King’s monthly active users jumped up to 285 million
Tax Claims
UK games tax relief claimed by £1 billion-worth of game development in the last year
Fewer developers approved for tax relief in Q1 2018 than the year prior
New Digs
Games Factory to open new hub for Finnish games companies in June
The tech space will hold 20 Finnish small to mid-sized gaming companies at a time
Decent
Apple posts best second quarter ever with revenues of $61 billion
International sales accounted for 65 per cent of Q2 revenue
Partner Up
Nintendo could partner up with more developers to make mobile games
"If we find other partners that can bring unique strengths that are not found within Nintendo, then we may work with them as well"
United
Unity introduces scriptable render pipelines and C# Job System in 2018.1 update
Latest version includes 330 new features and improvements
Smart Expansion
Mobile a key driver for Nintendo's growth in Asia and Middle East
Access to IP leads to strong Switch sales, says company president
Ready To Float
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi files for world's biggest IPO since 2014
Could value company at as much as $100 billion
Heroic
Crazy Defence Heroes helps boost Animoca Brands’ revenues to A$3.4 million for 1Q18
The tower defence RPG game brought in A$2.6 million during the quarter
Majority Stake
Mail.RU acquires 51% stake in Russian Guild of Heroes dev Bit.Games
Developer making $1 million-plus a month from hit title