Callin' Hacks
Credit card thieves reportedly laundering money through Clash of Clans and Clash Royale
Kabam’s Marvel Contest of Champions also said to be a target
Big Deal
China’s iQIYI acquires developer Skymoons in deal worth up to $300 million
Online video platform hopes to utilise IP across mediums
Development
Develop:Brighton 2018 breaks attendance record with 2,369 visitors over three days
Represents a nine per cent year-on-year increase
A Pretty Penny
Fortnite hits $1 billion through in-game purchases across mobile, PC and console
Viewers racked up 574 million hours watching Fornite in May alone
Victory
Investment company Victory Square snaps up venture fund V2 Games
Pacific Rim: Breach Wars soft-launched in the US back in April
Giggity
Jam City’s Family Guy Another Freakin’ Mobile Game breaks $30 million in revenue
The match-three game originally launched last year in April
Hungry For Downloads
Future Games of London's Hungry Shark series chomps up 500 million downloads
The arcade game can now be snapped up on the Nintendo Switch
Event
Big Indie Pitch heads to ChinaJoy
International game developer competition returns to China this August
Seismic Acquisition
Pokemon Go dev Niantic acquires Marvel Strike Force developer Seismic Games
Studio to craft new augmented reality experiences
Messenger Gaming
HTML5 and chat app games specialist FRVR secures $3 million investment
CEO Brian Meidell labels chat app platforms "the next paradigm shift" in game distribution and content discovery
No Biggie
Nintendo’s lawsuit against Japanese publisher Colopl won’t stall White Cat Project Switch release
Console giant says these are "completely separate matters"
Crunch
Facebook Instant Games match-3 title Cookie Crush surpasses one billion level starts
Developer Softgames thanks a ‘mainly female’ and ‘surprisingly younger’ audience for game’s success
Invested
Equity firm KKR & Co purchases $400m minority stake in mobile marketing platform Applovin
Deal increases the marketing platform’s value to $2 billion
On The Go
Niantic lures 180,000 Pokemon trainers to Chicago with Pokemon Go Fest
21,000 players attended Pokemon Go Fest in Lincoln Park alone
Kamehameha
Dragon Ball Legends generates $40 million in revenues in just over a month
The lion's share of revenue comes from Japan with 67 per cent
Co-op
App Store and Google Play game revenues hit combined $26.6 billion in first half of 2018
The combined total is a 28 per cent year-on-year increase from last years $26.9 billion
Competition
Win a chance to pitch your blockchain game to investors free, $15,000 prize pool
Roadshow Pitching Sessions comes to Blockchain Gamer Connects Helsinki
Flying High
Skybolt Zack soars to victory at the Big Indie Pitch at Develop:Brighton 2018
Oco takes second while PaperLand nabs third
On Tap
Huuuge Games launches hyper-casual publishing label Tap Tap Games
Social casino company makes a move into publishing one-finger casual titles
Scaled Up
Samsung’s new Indian mobile factory dubbed 'world’s largest'
South Korean manufacturer's new Noida plant should help pump out more stock for less money
First Strike
Marvel Strike Force generates over $25m revenue in four months
Comic book RPG has been downloaded over 10 million times since its March 28th launch
Augmented Vision
Machine learning-driven AR outfit Octi raises $7.5 million
Eyes up clients in gaming, fitness and fashion industries
Grand Job
Fate/Grand Order rakes in over $2 billion in revenue worldwide
97 per cent of the game’s revenue comes from a home-grown Japanese audience
Stanga Scores Investment
Underworld Football Manager dev Stanga Games picks up further $500k investment
Studio aims to hire new staff and increase marketing efforts
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Pokemon Go and Fortnite rise to the top grossing summit as Candy Crush Saga falls
Rankings from July 2nd to 8th
First Strike
Tropico dev Kalypso acquires classic Commandos IP
Plans to develop new games in the franchise, remaster old titles for new hardware
Event
New venue for Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2018
FInland’s biggest B2B games event outgrows its home from home, moves waterside
Card Draw
How Supercell uses machine learning to automate monetisation in Clash Royale
Mobile hit uses multiple factors to target the right cards at the right users
Constructive
Roblox creator community on track to earn over $70 million this year
Active creator count has grown over 250 per cent in the last year alone.
Pocket Money
Ubisoft Berlin receives $1.84m in subsidies from city senate
Newly formed studio hopes to use funding to expand up to 150 staff
Gold Chest
Fortnite’s first major esports tournament boasts an $8m prize pool
Epic begin digging into the $100m set aside for this season’s competitions
Jammin’
Jam City signs up ex-EA creative director Chris Tremmel
Tremmel will provide design direction for Genies & Gems and Wild Things: Animal Adventure
Valor
Tencent’s Arena of Valor breaks $3 million in revenue in the US
Tencent’s MOBA hits one million downloads
Winner Winner Second Dinner
Former Hearthstone game director Ben Brode opens new studio Second Dinner
The ex-Blizzard dev took to Twitter to reveal the news but details are sparse
Lovin It
AppLovin launches publishing division Lion Studios
The developer is also putting up $300K in prizes for the four best mobile gaming apps submitted
Event
Call for speakers for Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
Do you have expertise or insights to share with the mobile games industry, as well as PC, blockchain and VR/AR? We’d like to hear from you
Payday
Epic Games' new 88/12 revenue-share split will give more back to Unreal Marketplace creators
Creators will be issued retroactive payouts to match the new 88/12 split
Dead Ringer
AR tie-in The Walking Dead: Our World launches worldwide today
But will the adaptation be enough to mend Next Games’ revenue woes?
Collaboration
Playgendary teams up with ad platform Appodeal to publish casual games
Appodeal to lend its expertise and exclusive monetisation tools to the publisher's titles going forwards
Closure
Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire dev MZ lays off 125 staff as it shuts down ad-tech branch Cognant
The entire Cognant team and about half of its in-house media buyers are said to have been laid off in June
Big Switch
Nintendo Switch sales set to eclipse PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the US for the year
The Switch is also expected to generate the most software revenues at retail
Page Turner
First UK Games Fund Awards set for November
Comic and newspaper publisher teams up to showcase fresh talent in the UK games scene
Branded
Mobile publisher Animoca Brands raises $4.5 million through over-subscribed share placement
The Hong Kong-based publisher also entered a partnership with HTC
Job News
Venatus appoints Tom Briant as new head of business development
Briant brought on board to strengthen the sales house’s global development strategy
Expansion
Swedish mobile developer Funrock raises $2.5 million for expansion in the Middle East and North Africa
Funrock has already opened a new studio in Alexandria, Egypt
Sirius Business
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery drops in Hong Kong and Taiwan
The narrative adventure game is available on both iOS and Android
Chat Up
Warner Bros. acquires mobile games communication platform Plexchat
"Advancing the social aspect of our mobile games is a top priority for us"
Ah Ah Ah
FoxNext and East Side Games team up to bring It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to mobile
Planned for release on both the App Store and Google Play in 2018
Tilted
Tilting Point out to invest $132m in mobile games user acquisition annually
The mobile games publisher is out to solve fundamental challenges in the free-to-play mobile games marketplace
Royalty
Supercell’s Clash Royale plunders $2 billion in revenues in just over two years
It’s the first mobile publisher to have more than one multi-billion-dollar title on the App Store and Google Play