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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
Awards
BAFTA reveals this year’s winners of the Young Game Designers competition
Annual celebration shines a spotlight on young game development talent
Moneyscape
RuneScape generates more than $800 million in lifetime revenue
Racked up over 250 million player accounts, experiencing consistent user growth
Company Values
Jade Raymond on why company culture isn't just words on the wall
The EA Motive Studios GM on the importance of consistent values
Beep Beep
McLaren expands its esports program to include mobile racing games
Motor manufacturer wants Shadow Project to become more “open and inclusive”
Secret World
Netflix to air Niantic’s Ingress in October 2018
Ingress: The Animation set to release alongside a sequel to Niantic’s debut title
Classic
Old-School Runescape comes to mobile with an open beta on Android
Subscription-paying Members to playtest mobile port of the venerable MMORPG
Hub
Google Play testing news and trending hub features with Google Play Games
News and trending features make up the new additions
That’s A Lot
Nintendo targets 20 to 30 indie releases per week on Switch
Senior executive officer Susumu Tanaka and former president Tatsumi Kimishima were on hand to take questions at the latest shareholders meeting
Job News Klaxon
Keywords shakes up senior management structure with new chief commercial and marketing roles
EA vet Efremov is Keywords Studios' new CCO while Coke and Activision Blizzard alum Andrew Brown coming on as CMO
Toying Around
EA snags Industrial Toys
The mobile development studio is headed up by former Bungie CEO Alex Seropian
Handy Deal
THQ Nordic picks up German developer HandyGames
Giebelstadt-based studio to act as international publisher for small to mid-sized projects and devs
Grand Revenue
Sony-owned Fate/Grand Order publisher Aniplex's sales surpassed $1.8 billion in last fiscal year
Net profit came in at $312 million
Whew-two
Niantic's Pokemon Go catches $1.8 billion in revenue in two years
US players splash out $607 million on title
Cashed Out
Monopoly Towns goes straight to jail as Backflip cans soft-launched title
Support will cease September 3rd
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Pokemon Quest jumps into top 10 download rankings for iPhone and iPad
Rankings from June 25th to July 1st
Event
Join us for The Big Indie Pitch & Big Indie Drinks @ Develop:Brighton 2018
Software by the seaside with sponsors Space Ape, Jagex, The Games Hub and G-STAR.
Doors Open
The Big Indie Fest @ ReVersed consumer games expo kicks off in Vienna
Around 4,000 visitors expected across two days
Gotta Catch ‘em All
Pokemon Quest passes 7.5 million downloads across iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch
It captured 3.5 million downloads on mobile alone within days of launching
Big Indie Pitch
Experimental collaborative drawing game Mish Mash wins Big Indie Pitch at The Big Indie Fest @ ReVersed
Hamsterdam comes second as Golf Club: Wasteland takes third
Shiny
Disney releases Moana production assets for public use
Cloud data and island geometry released to provide an insight into CG production techniques
Tip Top
Global Top Round’s $300,000 accelerator program is open for submissions
Accelerator invites small studios to apply in its fourth consecutive program
Live Drop
Live.me’s new streaming app Fluxr will promote Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds esports
Streaming platform’s new app is looking to grow the mobile esports market
Localisation
5 reasons to localise your game as an indie
Applanga CTO Steffen Romer discusses why translating indie games for various markets is worthwhile
Data Klaxon
Taiwan’s pool of 14.5 million players to spend $1.3 billion in 2018
The Taiwanese games market is the 15th largest in the world
Simple
The Sims Mobile builds up $15 million in revenues after four months
59 per cent of revenues come from the US
Exclusive
NetEase’s Identity V racks up over 100 million downloads
More than 10 million people are playing every single day
Big Indie Festival
Indie is dead. Long live indie
Vlambeer's Rami Ismail discusses the history of indie games and what it means today
Competition
Win: Indie Showcase space at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Demo your work to 1,200 games industry professionals this September free; worth $650
Excellent
Google Play Excellence program welcomes Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and six other games
World of Warships: Blitz and Flutter: Starlight also feature in high-quality highlights list
Yahtzee
US publisher Scopely’s Yahtzee with Buddies lands on iMessage
The dice-rolling game will also release on Facebook Instant Games in due course
Legal
San Mateo County drops charges against Vungle founder Zain Jaffer
Child abuse and assault against the former CEO cleared by district attorney
On The App
Over 90% of Google Play revenue in South Korea comes from games
Wise App surveyed 23,000 Android smartphone users in Korea from May 1st to 31st
Not So Hollow
Nintendo Switch makes up a fifth of Hollow Knight's 1.25 million total sales
PC sales hit 1 million a day before the sidescrolling soulslike's switch launch
Return Of The King
Candy Crush dev King launches new IP Diamond Diaries Saga on iOS and Android
The physics-based linker game has been in soft-launch since October of last year
Battle Royale
Fortnite Mobile has five times the revenue of PUBG but half the downloads
Fortnite made $92 million revenue in the 11 weeks ending on June 18th, compared to PUBG’s $19 million
Milan Bound
505 Games taps up Ovosonico for a new and "ambitious" IP
Italian studio is moving its headquarters to a new Milan office
Making A Splash
MAG Interactive’s Paint Hit breaks five million downloads
Real-time word game Word Domination brought in one million downloads
$$$
Keywords sets up venture capital division
Amount backing this arm unclear
On Your Marks
International Olympic Committee to host esports-focused forum
IOC to start discussing the future of relationships between games and sports
Go Wild
170,000 Pokemon Go trainers flood Dortmund during Safari Zone event
Trainers from across the world caught over 28.6 million Pokemon in the city last week
Mobile Game Of Thrones
Tencent snags rights to publish Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming to China
Shanghai-based developer Yoozoo originally acquired the rights from Warner Bros last year
Grand Strategy
Paradox expects 10 per cent of sales to come from mobile by 2020
Tencent-backed PC strategy giant has eyes set on mobile development and more acquisitions
Feast On This
Dead Island: Survivors gets worldwide release after two-years in soft launch
The zombie action game soft-launched on iOS in November 2016 with an Android beta following soon after
Love Better
Failbetter Games sets up Love Indies Week to celebrate developers and communities
The week-long event looks to highlight the importance of reviews on indie games
Gotta Dash
Diner Dash inspired title Mak Cun’s Adventure serves up 100k downloads in 10 days
The game puts a Malaysian twist on the diner management game
Going East
Ad sales house Venatus expands east with new Seoul office
Venatus provides ad sales services to studios including Rovio, EA and Spil Games.