Suns Out Thumbs Out
Average cost per paying mobile game player falls by 47% in first half of 2016
iOS users are more likely to spend though
Play And Chat
Mobile messaging app Telegram adds bot-powered gaming platform for in-chat gaming
Developers can add their own games to the platform right now
Talktastic
Space Ape, NaturalMotion, Twitter, Wooga, Verve, Fox, Icejam, Jam City and more speakers confirmed for PG Connects London 2017
The names keep coming for Europe's largest mobile games industry conference
Analytics For Everyone
New indie developer-focused analytics tool comes to drag-and-drop game engine Stencyl
Install the extension, drop in some code, get retention data
Touch The Rift
Oculus opens pre-orders for $199 Oculus Touch VR controllers
Shipping December 6th
Big Pond
How to get a job at Deep Silver Fishlabs
Senior HR Manager Christoph Hillermann shares insights
Second Mass Recall
UPDATE: Samsung permanently halts production of Galaxy Note 7 and issues second mass recall
Recommends users get an S7 instead
Hollywood, Baby
Koukoi Games raises $1 million to work on licensed Hollywood IP games
Funding from IPR.VC and TEKES
Vungle X Kakao
Vungle partners with Kakao to launch rewarded video ad service Kakao Game Ad+
Brings expertise to fledgling platform
Real-money Arcade
GSN Games launches real-money arcade platform Sparcade
Make money playing Pac-Man and more
Too Big To Fail
Pokemon GO may be losing millions of users, but its retention rate is on par with Clash of Clans
Niantic Labs has nothing to fear if SurveyMonkey is right
Getting In Early
Zynga, MZ, and King are already blocking App Store Search Ads on their own games
Bigger brands leave space wide open
Uk's Biggest
Outplay Entertainment becomes the UK's largest independent mobile studio, employing over 150
New title lined up for November
Blazes
Sales of Galaxy Note 7 halted as Samsung investigates five exploding phones
Stops production and shipments of replacement phones
Jam-packed
Ex-EA EVP and Linden Labs CEO Rod Humble joins Jam City
And Robert Zakari joins as General Counsel and EVP of Corporate Development
Blimey
Chinese phone manufacturer Xiaomi sells 500,000 units in India in 3 days
A new record for India
Heating Up
Samsung profits increase by $3.6 million despite exploding phone fiasco
Other arms of the business still performing well
Moving On Up
Oculus looking to invest $50 million into mobile VR developers
Setting aside money for education and diverse developers
Look, No Cables!
Oculus working on standalone VR headset that's more advanced than the Gear VR
Lowers system specs for Rift devices
Making Of
Upholding visual fidelity without sacrificing game design: The making of Oz: Broken Kingdom
This Game Studio talk us through the Asian influences on a Western title
Big Money
Oculus takes virtual reality developer funding up to $500 million as it searches for the killer app
A quarter of what Facebook spent to buy Oculus
Vr, We Are
Introducing VR Connects London 2017: A brand new VR/AR/MR industry conference
January 16th-17th event comes from the team that brought you PG Connects…
Ready For China
NCSoft signs $10 million deal to bring mobile game Lineage Red Knights to China
Publisher could collaborate with the Alpha Group on animations, cartoons and toys
Sell Your Dragonsoul
GREE International Entertainment acquires RPG DragonSoul from PerBlue
Developer sells just the game, not its company
Pixel Perfect
Google holding back some of Pixel's best features for its own phones
Makes perfect business sense really
Walking Disruptor
Disruptor Beam reveals new story-driven mulitplayer game The Walking Dead: March to War
Story-driven competitive multiplayer strategy based on the comics
Optibot Rolls Out
Optimove aims to make marketing easier through automated Optibot
CRM optimisation bot will recommend new courses of action for marketers
First Investment
LA VR start-up First Contact Entertainment closes $5 million investment round
Brings on two new senior hires
Moomin On Up
Finnish start-up Snowfall raises €1 million to bring Moomin mobile games to Asia
Turku-based studio eyes up niche market
N-app-oli
Apple opens App Development Centre in Naples' oldest university
Free iPhone, iPad, and MacBook for all students on the free nine month course
Goodness Gracious
Samsung's big recall up in smoke as replacement Galaxy Note 7 catches fire on US plane
Samsung's own system claimed it was safe
Asia Bulletin
Chinese investor buys marketing platform AppLovin for $1.4 billion, Netmarble gears up for multi-billion dollar IPO, and more
Asia mobile gaming news weekly from PocketGamer.biz
Get The Message
Zynga’s pro-activeness with iMessages reaps dividends for Words With Friends
Downloads up 74%
Fund Seekers
Ex-RuneScape team wants to create a new generation of toys-to-life games with Lightseekers
UK studio heads to Kickstarter to take game into production
Top Of The World
Mobile eSport Vainglory goes to Hollywood for first ever World Championship on December 2nd
First mobile eSports world championship ever
Pokemon Maybe
Pokemon GO still jostling for top spot on US App Store with Clash Royale and Mobile Strike
Remains at the top of the UK charts
Back To Reality
EA, Ubisoft, Warner Bros and CCP all making games for Google Daydream VR
Big developers and relatively big indies get in on the launch
Apple Tv Go Home
Apple discontinues third-generation Apple TV
Focusing on flagging fourth-gen model instead
Dreaming Of Vr
Google reveals new $79 Google Daydream View VR headset for November release
Search engine giant expands its VR presence
Google Pixel Reveal
Google unveils Google Pixel smartphone
New lineup of smartphones
Investing For The Future
$2.3 billion has been invested in AR and VR over the last 12 months
$500 million in the last quarter alone
Mail.ru Pix Pixonic
Mail.ru acquires War Robots developer Pixonic for up to $30 million
Gets a foothold in key Asia markets
Pixel Perfect
UPDATE: Multiple retailers and carriers leak Google Pixel smartphone details ahead of official reveal
Plenty of information made available
Always Android
Google faces major EU fine over anti-competitive Android practices
European Commission demands end to financial incentives to smartphone manufacturers
Watch The Drop
Apple Watch sales to drop by one million units in 2016 compared to 2015, analyst claims
So says analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
Foster The Pixels
Google hires former Amazon exec to lead development of new Pixel phones
David Foster joins as VP of Product Engineering
Virtual Report
Steel Media launches new VR and AR business website The Virtual Report
Industry event VR Connects coming to London in January 2017
#madebygoogle
Watch the Google Pixel and Google Daydream VR headset reveals right here
YouTube livestream to show off everything Google has to offer
Daydream Into Reality
Google Daydream to launch in October for $79
According to sources close to the announcement
Road To Publishing
Vivid partners with Romania developer to publish endless runner Road Survivor
Polish publisher lines up multiple projects for 2017