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"
Change The Game
Google Play challenges female teens to change the game with new design challenge
Students could win college scholarship of $10,000 and $15,000 school pledge, plus all-expenses paid trip to E3
Rejoyce
King appoints global director of diversity and inclusion
Former BBC veteran, Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams MBE, joins Candy Crush developer
Fusion
Crytek teams up with PlayFusion to bring enhanced reality features into Cryengine
The addition will allow Cryengine licenses to tap into a new set of virtual reality development tools and features
Mobile Madness
Madfinger’s Shadowgun Legends launches globally on Android and iOS
The first-person shooter/ RPG hybrid was originally announced back in August of 2016
Testing
NetEase and Google partner up to bring automated testing software to Android
Google unveiled NetEase developed testing tech AirTest Project at GDC
Gdc Awards
Gorogoa grabs a brace of awards at GDC
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild bags a hattrick, Vlambeer co-founder wins Ambassador Award
Unreal
Epic Games to boost support for mobile developers with Unreal Engine 4
A host of improvements and features revealed at State of Unreal opening session at GDC
Unleashed
Vungle launches global self-serve platform for advertisers
New platform gives advertisers access to its audience for video content
Fit For A King
Honor of Kings helps double Tencent profits to $3.4 billion last quarter
56 per cent of third-quarter growth came from the success of mobile titles such as Honor of Kings
Chart Royale
Playerunknown’s Battleground Mobile grabs top spot on iOS free games chart in 17 countries
The battle royale title is also the second spot in Germany and the US
Gotta Go Fast
Games streaming service Hatch brings classic Sega titles Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis to Android
Other games like Sonic Jump, Sonic 4 Episode 2 and Sonic CD also heading to the platform courtesy of Hatch
Road To China
Ubisoft partners with Tencent to release games in China
Strategic partnership sees the French firm's titles move into the territory
Job News
Former staff at Telltale reveal a toxic working culture at The Walking Dead studio
Ex-employees complained of constant overwork, toxic management and creative stagnation
Polylingual
YoYo Games adds French, German and Spanish languages to GameMaker Studio 2
Development engine set to add more languages this year
Results Are In
Virtual Virtual Reality and Bury Me, My Love take the accolades at 14th annual IMGAs
Old Man’s Journey and Hidden Folks also receive awards
Augmented Reel-ality
Resolution Games set to give Bait! The AR treatment with Bait! Under the Surface on Android and iOS
The latest instalment of the franchise is expected to launch later this year
Given The Boot
Vivendi pulls out of Ubisoft as Tencent becomes shareholder in the French publisher
Conglomerate sells its 27.3 per cent stake in the firm
Phwoar
PlayFusion to give Warhammer the Pokemon Go treatment with new AR trading card game
The mobile games developer will also create additional content as a part of an IP partnership with Games Workshop
Moving Day
Avakin life developer Lockwood Publishing opens first international office in Lithuania
New Vinius office to comprise of up to 15 backend developers
Like Nite And Day
Invitation-only Fornite Mobile nets more than $1 million in-game on iOS within three days
Epic Games’ battle royale is currently top of the iOS charts in over 40 different countries
Chickens On The Menu
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile launches in America and Canada on iOS and Android
Further release dates for other regions to be revealed soon