Pog Champ
90s fad POGs set for comeback with new AR Mobile game in the works
POGs AR pencilled in for a September launch for both iOS and Android
Ads Business
Apple has eyes on new mobile ad network
Looks to partner with Snapchat, Pinterest and others
Congrats
Florence, Alto's Odyssey and Inside named Apple Design Awards winners
Other recognised games include puzzle title Frost and action-adventure platformer Oddmar
M&a Warchest
Keywords gets access to more than $120 million to fund further acquisitions
Services provider has bought four companies in 2018 so far
Augmented Reality
Apple unveils ARKit 2 with shared experiences and persistent AR
Persistent AR lets users continue where they left off with a virtual world
Taking Back Control
iOS 12 Screen Time lets parents set daily gameplay limits on their children's devices
Apple surprisingly brings in features to restrict phone usage
Big Numbers
App Store receives 500 million visitors per week
500 million visitors per week
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Ludia's Jurassic World Alive opens at fifth in the download rankings
Rankings from May 21st to 27th
Got Insight?
Call for speakers for biggest PG Connects Helsinki on September 11th to 12th
Fifth outing to feature new tracks, new partner conference, new fringe events in new venue
New Subsidiary
India’s Nazara taps real-money games market in Kenya
New company NZWorld formed
Jobs News
Lightneer names new CEO, cancels Big Bang Legends
Co-founder Lauri Jarvilehto steps into chairman role
Competitive Investment
Tencent invests in Chinese esports tournament operator VSPN
Company already runs Honour of Kings and Clash Royale competitions
Microhub
Microsoft acquires GitHub for $7.5 billion
Announcement could be made as early as Monday, June 4th
Zoned Out
MZ CEO Gabe Leydon leaves Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire developer
COO Kristen Dumont takes the reins
Destined To Be Partners
Destiny developer Bungie could be set for mobile push following $100m investment from NetEase
US studio could be set to explore the mobile games market
Say What?!
Talking Tom dev Outfit7 surpasses eight billion mobile game downloads
That’s more than the entire world’s population
Live Ops
Codename recruits Wizards of the Coast producer to oversee Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
Chris Dupuis appointed live services manager
Gearing Up
Codemasters teams up with Eden Games to develop F1 Mobile Racing
The new racing game will come to iOS and Android with the date to be announced
Switching It Up
Reports: Battle royale sensation Fortnite set to parachute onto Nintendo Switch
A classification for the game appeared on the Korean Games Ratings Board
Big Marketing
Goodgame plots major TV and influencer marketing campaign for Big Farm: Mobile Harvest
Partners with YouTube channel Bibi's Beauty Palace to detail latest game update
That Was Onix-pected
Pokemon Quest catches one million downloads on Nintendo Switch within two days of launch
The title is currently out on Switch but will find its way to mobile in June
Nation Of Domination
DomiNations hits $150 million mark in time for third anniversary
The strategy game has also racked up more than 37 million downloads
Data Klaxon
75% of spending in the iOS App Store came from games over the past 10 years
In terms of downloads games took 31 per cent
Premium No Go
Square Enix Montreal no longer working on the Go series
Studio head says it's becoming increasingly difficult to make a game with a premium business model on mobile
Switch Up
Bethesda swaps The Elder Scrolls: Legends developer Dire Wolf with Sparkypants
Dire Wolf is out; Sparkypants is in
One In One Out
Nitro Games appoints former head of Rovio Stars as COO while CMO departs
Jussi Immonen joins as COO as CMO Mikko Kähärä parts ways with the company
Crackdown
Russia gives Apple one month to remove Telegram messenger from App Store
Could the App Store be blocked if Apple refuses to comply?
Going Public
Chinese games publisher iDreamSky plots Hong Kong IPO
Gardenscapes and Subway Surfers publisher could raise as much as $300 million
Hatching A Plan
Hatch expands games catalogue with Noodlecake Studios partnership
The deal will see premium titles Death Road to Canada, Lumino City and Chameleon Run come to the streaming platform
Job Losses
Report: Redundancies hit Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery dev Jam City
Some claims suggest layoffs were ‘sizable’
International Events
Pocket Gamer and G-STAR launch international promotional partnership as Big Indie Awards heads to South Korea
UK publisher Steel Media Ltd extends partnership with South Korea’s leading game expo G-STAR, including the Big Indie Game Awards in Busan in 2018
Exclusive Reveals
Watch: Guns of Boom developer Game Insight reveals casual and hardcore games line-up for 2018
Four new casual games and new 'Boom' titles
Ticket Discount
Early bird prices for The Big Indie Fest @ ReVersed end today
Save up to 20 per cent and book your ticket to the four-day Vienna celebration of gaming
Tagged Up
Subway Surfers sails past the two billion download mark
Installs are 100 per cent organic, according to Kiloo’s CEO
No Troll
Spil Games' Troll Face Quest series breaks 100 million downloads
90 per cent of downloads are organic
Batman Royale
Batman joins Arena of Valor in new update
Update also includes new deathmatch game mode and complete UI overhaul
Smokin
Keywords Studios purchases Fire Without Smoke for $6.9 million
Creative and marketing services company joins Keywords’ expanding roster of assets
Financials Klaxon
Fyber endures challenging first quarter as revenues drop to $34 million
Revenue fell 41% while profits also came in at a loss
Unreal
Interactive Gaming Ventures and Epic Games out to invest in indies using Unreal Engine 4
IGV plan to invest $1 to $5 Million in one to three indie teams per year
Going Up
Pokemon Go captures 800 million downloads
Niantic is ramping up activity ahead of the summer
I Choose You
Slate of new pokemon games set for Nintendo Switch and mobile
Pokémon: Let’s Go duo to come out late next year while Pokémon Quest is out now
Debt Collection
Codemasters plots $20 million mobile games investment following IPO
But most of the money raised will go to paying off debt to current majority shareholder
There Can Be Only One
PUBG Corp sues Epic over Fortnite Battle Royale
Follows threats last September and a lawsuit against NetEase
Augmented Reality
Google’s ARCore heads to China
Partners up with Xiaomi
Big Indie Fest
New event for indie devs: The Big Indie Fest at ReVersed 2018
Four-day celebration of gaming comes to Vienna, Austria this July
Starman
Finnish start-up Space Nation snags ex-NASA astronaut Gregory Johnson as chief space officer
He'll lead the development of its astronaut program to train future space travellers
Critical Hit
Pokemon Company profits almost halve to $81 million
But still represents the second highest on record
Star Hire
Starbreeze appoints Ubisoft’s Stéphane Decroix as chief development officer
Will be responsible for all internal projects
Mobile Advertising
Learn about the present and future of ads in the Mobile Games Advertising Report 2018
In association with Mintegral, the report looks at how publishers are creating significant revenue streams from ads
Investment Magic
Casual mobile games publisher Voodoo raises $200 million
Publisher has more than 150 million monthly active users; plots further growth