New Studio
Warner Bros. Interactice Entertainment opens cloud-based technology studio WB Games New York
Providing backend services across all its online titles
Staff
Ric Cowley
About Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.
Articles by Ric Cowley
Play With Me
IronSource opens up entire suite of interactive ads to all clients
Performing 400% better in some cases
Mad For The Sesh
Mobile gamers are spending 44 seconds longer in games across fewer sessions
Flurry Analytics takes a look at average mobile gaming sessions
Round Two
"Big, hairy fight" rumbles on as ZeniMax demands block on Oculus sales or 20% share
Also looking for another $500 million in damages
Cutting The Ribbon
German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open Gamescom 2017
First time the Chancellor has opened the event
Wooga's New Vp
Wooga appoints new VP of Publishing
David Nixon will now oversee all the marketing and customer care teams
For Sale
Imagination Technologies puts itself up for sale after Apple begins designing its own graphics chips
50% of Imagination's revenues gone in a flash
Indie Mavens
What impact will Apple's App Store redesign have on indie games developers?
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
Tranzfuser Round 2
UK Games Fund reveals 23 teams for second year of its Tranzfuser competition
Graduate teams given £5,000 to develop a prototype
Global Mobile Market
Global mobile gaming market expected to grow to $46.1 billion in 2017
Newzoo breaks out the stats
Esports In China
Tencent outlines five-year plan to create $15 billion eSports industry in China
Theme parks, tournaments, merchandise, the lot
Strong Start
NCSoft's Lineage M tops South Korea's iOS grossing charts in seven hours
5.5 million pre-registered players already enjoying the game
Royal Rumble
Glu Mobile signs multi-year partnership with WWE to develop new licensed game
Tap Sports Baseball team taking over development duties
Australian Funding
Film Victoria awards $500,000 to nine Australian developers to help finish their games
Mobile titles include Joko's World: Pocket Planet and Paper House's Paperbark
Tencent Investment
Tencent makes $72 million strategic investment in Chinese developer Ourpalm
Strengthens the relationship between the two tech giants
Hutch Hires
Hutch snaps up ex-Splash Damage and Square Enix staff
Rachael Edwards and Corentin Delprat join the studio
Sneaky Purchase
Samsung quietly acquires mobile VR developer VRB for a reported $5.5 million
Increasing internal Gear VR development
Mtg Acquires Kongregate
Modern Times Group to acquire casual games publisher Kongregate for $55 million
Kongregate pushing further into developing its own games by acquiring other studios
Rewards For All
Atari partners with Tapjoy to bring rewarded ads to its games starting with Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch
F2P park builder crosses seven million downloads
Dashing Onwards
Dashy Crashy introduces new live events and IAP to expand on experimental monetisation design
Get a free dinosaur if you eat enough meat
Most Read
TreasureHunt raises $6 million, Lakoo on subscription over F2P, and Supercell soft-launches Brawl Stars
The hottest articles of the last week
Gateway Games
Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé: Mobile introduces the consumer to our IP before they move on to the "full experience"
Reggie explains Nintendo's mobile philosophy, forgets that it hasn't released any games in China yet
It's A Hit
IO Interactive holds onto Hitman IP as it becomes an independent studio
But what of Square Enix's Hitman Sniper and Hitman Go?
E3 2017 Figures
E3 2017 sees 68,400 visitors interact with 2,000 products from 293 exhibitors
ESA reveals some big numbers from the show
Go Nitro
Nitro Games begins public trading on NASDAQ First North Stockholm with $8.45 million market cap
Hoping to facilitate move into self-publishing through IPO
Tencent Eyeing Rovio
Report: Tencent considers Rovio acquisition in deal worth $3 billion
Either that or Rovio is going to IPO
Soar With The Eagles
All 4 Games launches its first VR game Soar: Tree of Life in partnership with eLearning Studios
Return colour to an island and reduce your anxiety while you're at it
King Of The World
Tencent's Honor of Kings the world's top grossing mobile game in May 2017
App Annie breaks out some figures
Brighter Future
Silicon Studio acquires real-time global illumination tool Enlighten from ARM subsidiary Geomerics
Where does that leave Geomerics?
Talkin' Bout A Revolution
Lineage 2 Revolution sees English language soft-launch in Asia ahead of worldwide release
Already a top ten grossing game in Macau, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia
Blade Runner 2049
Next Games partners with Alcon Entertainment on Blade Runner 2049 mobile game
Ryan Gosling's outline might make an appearance
Brawl Stars Reveal
Supercell teases new 3v3 shooter Brawl Stars - watch the livestream here
Will a new Clash-less Supercell game survive?
Green Apple
Apple offers up $1 billion green bond to fund clean energy and environmental projects
Showing support for the Paris climate agreement
Children Are The Future
British eSports Association partners with Wesminster City Council to create first after-school eSports training club
Teaching kids important life skills through the power of competitive video games
Best In Class
Google Play adds quarterly Android Excellence section to highlight its best apps and games
Galaxy of Heroes and Hitman GO among the first to be featured
Level Up
Level-5 acquires Keiji Inafune's studio Comcept
Currently developing mobile title Dragon Colonies
Critical Mass
Mobile eSports shooter Critical Ops clears 20 million downloads with no paid UA
Still considered a soft launch title
From The Ashes
Kabam spin-off Phoenix One decloaks to reveal hardcore real-time strategy game Guardian Kingdoms
Developed as Kabam was considering selling its business
Struck Gold
TreasureHunt closes $6 million series A funding round ahead of Pet Paradise launch
Total funding now sits at $8.4 million
Marketing On The Go
AppsFlyer launches mobile marketing app for advertisers on the go
Check your KPIs while you're on the train or out for a coffee
Tapjoy Ad Preferences
79% of mobile gamers prefer opt-in rewarded video ads to mandatory ads
Tapjoy asks gamers what ads they like to see
Fight The Tide
Playmob partners with We Are The Oceans to raise awareness of climate change through playable ads
Previous ad garnered 3.2 million plays
Changes In Ios 11
A handy guide to what the changes in iOS 11 mean for mobile developers
Not sure what's new? We've got you covered
Directing Brainz
Colombian developer Brainz adds former Miniclip CTO to Board of Directors
Camilo Marrugo will help see the developer right
Minecraft Everywhere
Minecraft adds cross-platform play between mobile, PC and consoles
DLC will also transfer between consoles
A Grand Order
Sony's Fate/Grand Order launches in North America on June 25th following nine million downloads in Asia
Can it make it big in the West?
Most Read
The App Store is getting an overhaul, Clash of Clans is back on top, and Pokemon GO is very much alive
The hottest articles of last week
Mobile Masters
Amazon brings Summoners War, Hearthstone and Vainglory together for Mobile Masters Invitiational eSports tournament
Top teams and streamers come together to battle it out for a $65,000 prize pool
Sow The Seeds
Discord reportedly valued at $725 million after quietly raising $50 million funding round
Also hires former Twitch veteran Andy Swanson as Head of Publisher Relations
Pokemon Party
Pokemon GO clears 750 million downloads as Niantic prepares first anniversary celebrations
Time to crack open a cold Pokemon with the boys