Trends Survey
Win a free ticket to Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco by filling out our Spring Developer Survey!
First 50 people to complete the survey will also get a 20 per cent discount code to the event
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
The CEO of publishing giant Tencent is now the richest person in China
Tech mogul Ma Huateng also moved 23 places up the global rich list to 15th
Jobs News
Changes at Angry Birds developer as Rovio London closes and head of games Wilhelm Taht departs
Changes afoot at company following recent profit warning
Big Moves
Lineage 2 developer Netmarble names new CEO
South Korean-based developer Netmarble
Trumped Up Charges
Trump 'invites' games industry to meeting to scapegoat video games for US gun violence
Unclear what the point of this all is
Going Ape
Space Ape teams up with London universities for Varsity: Masterclass programme in March
UK developer to host a series of seminars in March in association with Universtiy College London and the University of Greenwich
Building Blocks
Unity partners up with blockchain marketplace DMarket for in-game item trading
Unity and DMarket team up to build links between gaming and blockchain trading
Crushed It
Mobile streaming outfit Mobcrush recruits ex-Studio 71 COO Phil Ranta as head of creators
Phil Ranta joins up with Mobcrush to lead their creator community
Good Cause
Esports platform Skillz partners with breast cancer organisation for $100,000 charity tournament
"By supporting Susan G. Komen the Skillz platform will contribute to change"
You're A Wizard
Jam City opens Google Play pre-registrations for Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Mobile title set for spring 2018 release
Egged On
Kirby developer HAL Laboratory’s Part Time UFO touches down in the West
New mobile-focused studio HAL Egg's debut title is out now in the west
Level Up
Video games graduates have more than doubled in the UK over the past five years
Gamer grads in fine company after 116 per cent increase over the last five years
Hot Story
Ubisoft acquires 1492 Studio to get in on mobile interactive fiction craze
Publisher brings in Is it love? series to its widening mobile portfolio
Jobs News
Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli steps down
His two brothers and co-founders take the top job
#shetalksgames
Facebook teams up with leading industry figures for new Women in Gaming social hub
The social media giant has committed to helping women find a way into the industry
Big Plays
New global mobile games publisher Finger Punch sets up shop in Singapore
Company plans to partner up with developers across the globe
New Speakers
Super Evil Megacorp, ESL, Reality Clash, FunPlus and Seriously confirmed for PG Connects San Francisco 2018
May 14th to 15th mobile games industry conference set to be biggest US outing to date
Big Moves
Two new staff writers for PocketGamer.biz as Ric Cowley is named editor of PocketGamer.com
New hires, a promotion and a new top secret website incoming!
Wild
Games distributor EuroVideo taps Daedalic and others for new publishing label Wild River
Wild River teams up with German-based studios Daedalic, Independent Arts and Morphicon to release three new mobile games this year
Parallel Bidding
Ad mediation platform Appodeal introduces in-app header bidding
Parallel Bidding currently in alpha testing
Match-india
Zynga targets burgeoning Indian mobile games market with Rangoli Rekha: Color Match release
Match-three title heads out of soft launch
Sweet Money
Candy Crush Soda Saga fizzes into top 10 of global grossing mobile game charts for January 2018
Two Candy Crush games in the top 10 revenue generators for January, according to SuperData
Augmented Spooks
Ghostbusters World gives iconic films the Pokemon Go treatment
South Korean publisher Four Thirty Three and partner studio NextAge on board to develop and publish
Mapping Reality
Softbank-backed Mapbox launches location-based augmented reality platform
Toolset designed to enable developers to create Pokemon-Go like experiences
Ka-ching?
KamaGames eyes hotly competed slots games market on mobile
Integrates slots into flagship title Pokerist
No Payne No Gain
Next Games and AMC turn to Jesus to teach gamers about The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land
Actors Tom Payne and Alanna Masterson promote mobile title with series of videos
Jobs Losses
Pearl's Peril developer Wooga lays off 30 staff as it refocuses on story-driven casual games
Company restructures from in-house studio structure to one based around dev cycles
Chart Royale
Tencent’s PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield tops the mobile battle royale stakes in February
Tencent's Playerunkown's Battlegrounds duo make top five most downloaded for February
Job News
Football Manager firm Sports Interactive hires Disney vet Matt Carroll as first chief operating officer
"A COO is something that Sega has been telling me that I've needed for a few years now," studio chief Jacobson says
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Rules of Survival battles its way into the top 10
Rules of Survival leaps up 11 places in this week's charts
Pocket Rumble
Sony unveils Xperia XZ2 phone with built-in rumble and 4K HDR filming
4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage and oh so much more
Arcore In The Wild
Google launches its augmented reality SDK ARCore on Android
Available now on 13 different devices
New Nokia Phones
HMD Global unveils five new Nokia phones including relaunched 8810 feature phone
Four new smartphones for high-end, mid-range and low-end devices
Big Indie Pitch
Nood Climbrs grasps first place at the Big Indie Pitch at the White Nights conference in Prague
FINIFUGU && friends becomes the first ever back-to-back winner
Competitive Gaming
Vision Esports raises $38 million to power competitive gaming investment
Plans to fund more companies in the space
Say What?
Trump says US needs video games ratings after blaming them for gun crime
Commander-in-chief rambles about system its games industry has had since 1994
Boom!
My.com partners with Pushkin Games Studio to bring Armored Warfare to mobile
PvP title has players duke it out in 3v3 and 8v8 matches.
Awards Nominees
Lineage 2, Animal Crossing, Arena of Valor and more pick up IMGA Global nominations
Winners to be announced at ceremony in San Francisco on March 20th
Business News
Rovio issues profit warning as company plots big Hatch investment and UA costs rise
Revenues also anticipated to be well down from forecasts
Keep Your Receipts
Norwegian Consumer Council claims Nintendo's "no refunds" policy on Switch eShop is not compliant with EU law
Nintendo says that it is fully compliant
Ultra Educational
New educational mobile games studio Ultra Creative Games sets up shop in Vancouver
Headed up by former IGG senior game designer Matthew Tomporowski
Performance Index H2 2017
Apple's Search Ads fall in rank in latest AppsFlyer Performance Index due to higher costs and lower ROI
Facebook and Google still on top
Poopdiepie
Bulb Boy developer Bulbware partners with YouTuber PewDiePie for upcoming mobile game Poopdie
PewDiePie providing creative direction with Bulbware handling development
New Fyber
Fyber absorbs Heyzap and Inneractive as part of its rebranding efforts
Also launches new product FairBid
International Expansion
Mobile esports platform RewardMob opens new European office
Start-up wants closer ties with developers in the region
New Ipad Rumours
Report: Apple to refresh its line of iPad products in March 2018
Filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission suggest new models are coming
Improved Recipe
Save the date: Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 is set for January 21st to 22nd return
Europe's largest mobile games industry confirms sixth appearance in UK capital
Dash Downloads
Sony ForwardWorks' No Heroes Allowed! Dash! clears 500,000 downloads in three days
Players rewarded with free premium currency in-game
Together At Last
Bandai Namco and Sega partner to bring Pac-Man and Sonic together on mobile for the first time
Month-long cross-promotional event in Sonic Dash and Pac-Man starts now
Join Us
Meet the PocketGamer.biz team at GDC 2018 and Game Connection
Journalists, ad sales, business development and our top execs are flying out to San Francisco