Sensor Tower Report
37 of July's top 100 mobile game publishers came from China
Chinese publishers accounted for nearly $2 billion for the month
Regulations
China’s game licencing system to be extended to all mobile applications
Companies will need to either have a branch in China or work with Chinese companies in order to publish apps
Moving To Mobile
Dana White’s Power Slap is coming to mobile courtesy of Zynga
The “sport”, connected to numerous health concerns, will receive a mobile adaptation from developer Rollic
Krafton Financials
Krafton's latest figures show 28% decline from record first quarter 2023
The company generated $294.2 million in the second quarter of 2023
Roblox Financials
Roblox hit a record $680.8 million in revenue in the second quarter of 2023
The figure represents a 15% year-on-year increase from $591.2 million
Subscriptions
Netflix goes big screen with game controller app on mobile
The app doesn’t yet have any games available, but we can hazard a guess from leaks earlier this year
Release
Netspeak takes Sunshine Days cross-platform with PC debut and planned creator mode
The new PC version will also see the introduction of a “Creator mode” which will also come to mobile
Rumours
Are Silent Hill and Metal Gear coming back to mobile?
Konami’s latest financial report hints at new mobile games for two of its biggest franchises
Financials
Sony sees 6.8% drop in income for games but a rise in sales
Games income increased by 167bn yen despite other slim financial results
Financials
Mobile now accounts for 53% of Take-Two’s revenue
One year on from its acquisition of Zynga mobile dominates Take-Two’s Q! 2023-2024 financial report
Financials
Playtika latest results show decreases in revenue & paying users
The company previously halted all further development on new titles in favour of concentrating on their existing portfolio
Job News
Sandsoft appoints Ahmed Sharif as CTO
Sharif previously held the role of head of VR, AR, metaverse automation and platform engineering at Meta
On The Right Track
Honkai: Star Rail races to $500 million in worldwide sales
The game has pushed miHoYo to second place in global game publisher sales rankings
Financial Fuel
Konami’s profits back on track with 22% rise in quarter one
Video games account for the most profit, but not the biggest proportional rise
Collaborations
Subway Surfers to mobilise players in conservation efforts
Sybo has also donated a fixed amount of $25,000 to various efforts
Mindful Of Mental Health
79% of devs are increasingly pressured to release unfinished games
New data from Sauce Labs reveals the state of play from the game dev frontlines with staff exposed to bullying and threats online
Pokemon Presents
Pokémon Presents provides updates on five Pokémon mobile games
Whether you’re in bed or on the go, there’s a mobile game for everyone
Investment Opportunities
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Scopely X Flexion
Scopely is bringing more of its titles to alternative app stores with Flexion
Monopoly GO! is available on alternative app stores already, with Stumble Guys coming soon
Investment
Japanese mobile entertainment company Mixi to invest $50m in Indian market
The money will be issues as part of their corporate venture capital
Major Milestone
Nekki celebrates 20 years of mobile gaming innovation after surpassing one billion installs
95 percent of installs are organic
Nintendo Numbers
Nintendo's mobile future unclear despite “tripled” revenue
The latest financial report muddies the waters by including LEGO and The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the same financial category…
Mega Mobile
Mobile is gaming’s strongest platform in a market set generate $187.7 billion this year
Newzoo's 2023 Global Games Market Report expects mobile games to generate $92.6 billion
Investment
Studio Billion receives undisclosed investment in pre-series A bridge round
WePlay Ventures, Aura B4YO Fund and Lima Ventures make another major investment in the Turkish market
Releases
My.Games to launch Little Big Robots in every region but China
The new mobile shooter is the third title in the successful War Robots franchise
Major Milestone
InnoGames' Forge of Empires surpasses $1 billion in lifetime revenue
Forge of Empires is responsible for half of all revenues
Jobs News
August's Mobile Movers and Shakers: Damian Burns leaves Twitch plus new hires for Epic Games, FunPlus, Newzoo and more
August has already seen some significant moves by some of the industry's biggest company's - here's the highlights from the last week
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go is the USA’s fourth most downloaded mobile game of all time
Seven years on the game remains a smash hit worldwide with 168 million downloads
Financials
Square Enix’ new titles fail to offset weak performance from existing catalogue
New financials show that the launch of Dragon Quest Champions failed to boost their mobile performance any higher than in the previous year
Collaboration
Drest announces new collaboration with Copenhagen Fashion Week
The collaboration will highlight the designers taking part in the event
Genre Report
Arena and adventure games are set to exceed $4.7 billion in revenue in 2023
The post-apocalyptic genre saw a significant surge in downloads
Subscription Success
Paid subscriptions redeem Apple’s Q3 after hardware sales fall
Apple’s Q3 2023 sees 1% revenue fall but surpasses 1 billion paid subscriptions
Web3 Goes Mobile
Inside Animoca Brands and Yuga Lab's Wreck League web3 strategy
Developer nWay hopes to make waves with web3 and web2 releases of the same game
Funding
Zibra AI raises $500,000 from a16z Speedrun
The funding brings the company's total investment so far to $2.5 million
Q&a
Bringing Second Life to mobile: "There’s a lot of excitement and anticipation in the community"
Second Life’s VP of product, Grumpity Linden tells us how the legendary PC pre-metaverse experience is making the leap to mobile
Job News
FunPlus appoints industry veteran Alexandre Amancio to leadership role
Amancio joins the team as SVP and head of world building and IP Strategy
Financials
Unity celebrates a record quarter with $533 million in revenue
The company’s revenue increased 80% year-on-year
Gem Games
Gem Capital’s new $50M fund will invest in fledglings of F2P, midcore and more
Investments to be made in pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds
Job News
WAGMI appoints EA veterans to leadership roles
Esteban Gil and Brent Pease will assist the company in its web3 goals
Moving To Mobile
Mobile exclusive Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade launches first closed beta
The open-world game is available on iOS and Android until 11 August 2023
Google Goes Blockchain
Inside Google’s blockchain content policy
The tech giant has recently revealed its policy on in-app blockchain and NFT and commentators are digging deep as to what it all means
Artificial Intelligence
AI startup Inworld raises another $50 million for a $500 million valuation
The new investment follows the company’s work on AI-driven non-player character experiences
New Release
Anything World launches its 3D models on the Unity Asset Store
Unity users can now access their library of rigged 3D animated models and more
Subscription Success
Mobile games using a subscription model almost triple in a year
Liftoff and Appsflyer report that mobile games represent almost 30% of subscription-based apps
Anniversary
Fireproof Games prepares for the tenth anniversary of The Room
The cross-platform hit will be on sale across platforms in September
Startup Speedrun
a16z Games announces Speedrun 2024 with $75 million investment pool
Startups are encouraged to enter for the next event starting in January
Indie Funding
Google opens applications for its latest Indie Games Fund
The tech giant will distribute $2 million to small studios in Latin America
Chinese Restrictions
China to implement new restrictions on children's smartphone use
Just when it looked like China legislation was opening up, new moves to restrict the market are afoot
Financials
EA delivers a record $1.9 billion in net revenue in the first quarter of 2023
Mobile accounted for only a small percentage of the 9% YOY increase, despite FIFA Mobile success
Ai Activity
Homa's AI hackathon just built 10 new AI tools in just 48 hours
The company's first Internal Gen AI Hackathon saw 10 teams create new tools to a strict deadline