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
Not Bad
Fate/ Grand Order helps launch Sony Music’s revenue to $7 billion in FY17
The division saw a 24 per cent year on year increase
On The App
Annual consumer app store spend to increase to $157 billion by 2022
Mobile app downloads will also increase to 258 billion by 2022, according to App Annie
Four In A Row
CSR Racing 2 and Words With Friends 2’s strong performance extends Zynga’s profit streak
Plus Willy Wonka’s Sweet Adventure in testing
Preparing For Takeoff
Building up to IPO, Flexion adds experienced game exec Chris Bergstresser to its board
Bolt-on experience
One Share, One Vote
Mark Pincus’ decision to relinquish Zynga majority voting rights reflects “my confidence in the company”
Founding CEO is stepping back
Ouch
Next Games revenue down 56% in Q1 2018 as Walking Dead: No Man’s Land loses players
Finnish developer cites change in daily active and monthly active users as the primary reason for drop in revenues
Formulated
Gumi’s The Alchemist Code racks up five million downloads worldwide
The Japanese mobile games developer is celebrating with special in-game events
Chicken Little
PUBG Mobile’s first week revenues on iOS only a fifth of Fortnite’s
Players outside of China spent $700,000 in its first week of monetisation
Instant Hit?
In-app purchases come to Facebook Instant Games
But monetisation through Google Play will smaller less returns for developers
Into The Wild
Facebook wants to make virtual reality more accessible with $199 Oculus Go launch
F8 Developer Conference attendees get free headset each
Connect
CyberAgent’s new release Princess Connect! Re:Dive propels games revenues to $368m in Q2 2018
Company credits Princess Connect! Re:Dive for the improved financial performance
Marvellous
Marvel Future Fight breaks the 70 million players mark
Netmarble celebrates the milestone by extending its in-game event campaign
Competitive Gaming
Amazon’s $100,000 Mobile Masters esports tournament returns in June
Games include Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, Survival Arena, World of Tanks Blitz and Critical Ops
Amazing
Games Week Berlin 2018 brings in 15,000 visitors
The seven-day rendezvous featured over 12 individual events including A MAZE/ Berlin
Indie Spectacle
Develop:Brighton opens submissions for Indie Showcase
10 developers will get a chance to show off their game at the event
Silly Money
Ads generate majority of $270k revenue for Finnish indie Part Time Monkey's Silly Walks
Unity Ads-driven earnings made up 97 per cent of all revenue
Big Deal
Tencent eyes investment in Playerunknown's Battlegrounds outfit Bluehole
Local media reports investment could equal around $468 million
On The App
Mobile games revenues to hit $70 billion in 2018
Revenues will account for more than half of the $137.9 billion made across all platforms
Key Release
$1 billion mobile title Disney Tsum Tsum comes to Facebook Instant Games
'Introductory version' launches globally
Face Games
Snapchat gets ‘Snappables’ augmented reality games
Weekly games launch on the platform
On The App
Games featured on iOS 11’s Games Tab see 450% more installs
Largest increase in percentage was seen in the Medium List which resulted in a 451 per cent increase
Finnternal Promotions
Next Games promotes from within for management team
Finnish games developer also promotes former Head of Games Sami Nurmio to Head of New Projects
Lost And Found
Nintendo taps up Cygames for new RPG game Dragalia Lost
New RPG will be released this summer
Not Bad
Fortnite made $223 million across all platforms in March
Revenue was up 73 per cent from February according to SuperData