Acquisition News
AppScatter to acquire mobile app intelligence platform Priori Data in $19m deal
Purchase expected to be completed by May 15th 2018
Pg Connects
Niantic Superstar Session at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Ross Finman will reveal the company’s plans for AR and how it will build on breakout hit Pokemon GO
Sky’s The Limit
The Walking Dead’s Skybound launches games publishing division
Skybound Games will debut with The Long Dark and Slime Rancher in September 2018
Skilled
Mobile esports company Skillz doubles revenue to $200 million run-rate in less than nine months
Revenue run-rate up by 125 per cent thanks in-part to player involvement in over one million tournaments per day
Cash Royale
Fortnite Mobile pulled in over $15 million in 20 days
The battle royale games daily revenue tripled after the game was made launched fully on iOS
Equal Pay
UKIE and TIGA call for UK games companies to take proactive steps over gender pay gap figures
UKIE and TIGA say that now is the time for companies to act on the clear disparity in their work force
Clone Dinner
PUBG developer sues NetEase over mobile 'clones' Rules of Survival and Knives Out
Lawsuit demands removal of titles
Big Screen To Small Screen
Dame Maggie Smith, Warwick Davis and Michael Gambon star in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Game set for April 25th launch
Joining The Band
Publishing giant Netmarble picks up stake in K-pop label Big Hit Entertainment for $190m
Becomes the second largest shareholder
Shrinking Marketplace
Google Play continues to grow while number of App Store releases shrinks for the first time
There were 755,000 titles released on iOS in 2017, a drop of 29 per cent
Gender Pay Gap
UK games companies reveal gender pay gap
New figures show men earning more than women
Job Losses
Twitch lays off staff as company restructures
But firm claims it still wants to grow its headcount overall
State Of Mobile Fraud
Mobile app fraud reached up to $800 million in Q1 2018
New AppsFlyer report claims $103 million of games earnings exposed during quarter
Partnership
PerBlue tapped for Disney Heroes: Battle Mode mobile RPG
Title part of Disney's new mobile strategy
Money Pot
Makers Fund raises $200 million to invest in interactive entertainment industry
Group has already invested in Bossa, SuperData, TinyBuild, Genvid and more
Something Of Value
Big Fish Casino constitutes “illegal gambling”, rules US federal appeals court
Case set to rumble on after victory for the plaintiff
Co-op
Crunchyroll launches its first anime-based mobile game Memoria Freese in the West
Company has partnered with Gree and Sumitomo Corporation for release
Group Up
China’s Shanda Games invests $9.4 million in Kakao Games
Kakao Games received a $131.6 million investment from multiple investors in February
Settlement Reality
Niantic settles Pokemon Go Fest class action lawsuit for $1.6 million
Attendees can claim for airfares, hotel expenses, parking fees and more
Esports Royale
World's top esports teams flock to Supercell's Clash Royale League
$1 million World Finals takes place at the end of the year
Kitted Out
ARKit-powered apps break 13 million downloads in six months
Games count for almost half of AR apps
Job Losses
Nokia to lay off 353 staff in Finland
The decision comes as part of the company’s global cost-savings plan
Bigger Than Ever
GDC 2018 attracts record 28,000 attendees
Rise of 2,000 industry professionals year-on-year
New Kid’s New Toy
FoxNext hits the ground running with Marvel Strike Force release
Debut from Fox’s new game division
Hitting The Mark
Hitman Sniper racks up 10 million players
Players can play the game for free from March 28th to April 4th on Android and iOS
Raw Funds
Multiplay founder invests $125,000 into indie publisher Raw Fury
"Thanks for the money, dude"
Stats Royale
NetEase’s Knives Out pulled in more than 50 million monthly active users in January
According to Newzoo, the battle royale genre may just have something going for it
New Show
Steel Media to launch new B2B and B2C event The Big Indie Fest @ ReVersed 2018
Show takes place from July 5th to 8th in Vienna, Austria
Virtually Unmissable
Second Life founder Philip Rosedale to keynote PG Connects San Francisco 2018
High Fidelity's influential entrepreneur will kick off conference's Superstar Sessions with his unique industry perspective
Enter Oasis
A breakthrough moment for virtual reality? Ready Player One hits cinemas
Biggest thing to happen to VR since the launch of the headsets
Job Losses
Hero Academy 2 developer Robot Entertainment lays off over 30 employees
The studio will continue to operate its current games as well as reveal a new title in due course
Building Revenue
Invitation-only Fortnite Mobile rakes in $5.3 million in its first 10 days
The battle royale title previously managed to snag $1 million within its first three days
Business News
ALAX signs blockchain games distribution deal with OEM Gionee
The deal will also see the ALAX app store available as an update for older Gionee phones
Coin Offering
South Korea's Reality Reflection launches ICO for AR game Mossland
Moss Coins can now be purchased
Royalty Engine
Crytek adopts Unreal Engine-like royalty-based business model for CryEngine
Firm to take five per cent of gross revenue following the first $5,000
Pop Quiz
HQ Trivia lands ad sponsorship from Nike and Warner Bros for themed quiz nights
The trivia app launched its first sponsored show earlier this week for Nike’s Air Max Day
Special Offer
Save up to $400 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Early Bird offer ends Thursday. Book now and treat yo’self!
Skills Development
Google puts up 15,000 online scholarships for new and experienced African developers
10,000 of the scholarships will go to beginners while 5,000 will go to those with over one-year of experience
Blowing Bubbles
Bubble Shooter bursts through 50 million download mark
Mobile games developer Ilyon originally acquired the IP from Abolitionist back in 2015
Hatching A Plan
Rovio proposes pay cuts for owner and chairman amid profit warnings
The board will meet on April 16th to discuss the changes
Nominees Revealed
Steel Media B2B team among finalists for the first ever Games Media Brit List 2018
The team is up for five different awards
Crypto Korea
South Korean cryptocurrency operator Dunamu to invest $93 million in blockchain technology
Dunamu to spread investment over three years
Moving On Up
Gameloft hires new vice president of marketing
Damien Marchi will be responsible for marketing and communications strategies for the publisher
Developer Wisdom
Vlambeer and Mag Interactive set to speak at Develop: Brighton 2018
The developers conference will take place from July 10th to 12th
Capital Investment
Mayor of London pledges $1.7 million to Games London
Funding helps programme support local industry
Good Mews
Niantic set to bring research and story-driven quest systems to Pokemon Go
Players will also be able to capture Mew when the update goes live later this week
Trail Of Destruction
Warner Bros taps mixed reality developer Trigger for Rampage mobile game
Movie tie-in launches ahead of film release
Under The Hood
Unity publishes reference-only C# source code on GitHub
Developers can now take a deeper look into the popular game engine and tool suite
New Games Platform?
Snapchat snaps up UK cloud-based HTML5 game engine PlayCanvas
Could it be eyeing up instant games for the platform?
Public Offering
Worms publisher Team17 plots $284 million UK IPO
Official announcement could be made "within days"