PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: App Store turns 5, the news from Develop 2013, and did Unity turn down a $750 million deal?
The big historic news from this week was the fifth birthday of Apple's App Store.
This milestone caused ripples of introspection throughout the industry, as many reflected on the booming successes and catastrophic failures in the mobile games market in the past half-decade.
At the Develop in Brighton 2013 conference, however, people were looking to the future and wondering where the industry will go from here.
Those questions might take another five years to answer in full, but let's not let them distract from our look back at the week that was.
Tools and platforms
- Gamevil announces that its reworked two games (Train City and Air Penguin Friends) specifically for Facebook Mobile.
- Unity's now being used by over two million developers worldwide.
- Unity CEO David Helgason won't comment about turning down a $750 million acquisition deal, but says if one existed he would have turned it down.
- Want to get in with Rovio Stars? Jussi Immonen says they're looking for 'Angry Birds' quality games.
Monetisation
- Our Editor-at-Large Jon Jordan outlines a data-driven approach that ranks free-to-play monetisation efficiencies.
- While PapayaMobile's Chris Hanage notes that you don't need to reinvent the wheel to break into the explosive Chinese mobile market.
- PlayFirst reports that tablet in-game spending is nearly three times that of smartphone spending.
- But the picture isn't all rosy, IDC and Appcelerator reveal that an increasing number of mobile devs are taking work for hire to make ends meet.
- Meanwhile, Amazon's Daniel Winner notes that half of all repeat IAPs are made within an hour of a previous purchase.
Industry voices
- Oscar Clark wishes the App Store a happy fifth birthday and many happy returns.
- At Develop, Boss Alien's Jason Avent notes that free-to-play games aren't evil, they're more like cake.
- 148apps' Carter Dotson worries that Double Fines dithering with Broken Age threatens the legitimacy of the crowdfunding model.
- appromoter's co-founder James Kaye shares five essential, new skills that mobile devs need to succeed
User acquisition and Retention
- Human Demand's Howie Schwartz shares some thoughts on why user re-engagement is so important.
- NativeX reports that mobile play sessions are increasing, and the number of players who invest 10 or more minutes into a game has doubled in the past nine months.
- Nordeus' Top Eleven tops 10 million downloads on Android alone.
- And Apsalar rolls out a new behaviourally-honed platform to focus on user acquisition and re-targeting.
Develop Brighton
Here are some highlights from our coverage of Develop Brighton 2013:
- Our Editor Keith Andrew shares five things that we learned at this year's conference.
- Lady Shotgun's Anna Marsh shared some thoughts on how to turn touchscreen controls into an asset.
- Marvelous AQL Europe's CEO Harry Holmwood believes that western developers can take the lead in Japan.
- GameStick creator PlayJam feels that some mobile games just work better on TVs.
- And Microsof's Lift London studio head Lee Schuneman weighed in on how to build a games studio ready for the 21st century.
Or you can read all of Keith's articles (11) from Develop here.
