Not Appy
US Senators urge FTC to investigate ‘manipulative marketing practices by apps designed for children’
Also described as “unfair and deceptive”
Staff
Iain Harris
About Iain is a freelance writer based in Scotland with a penchant for indies and all things Nintendo. Alongside PocketGamer.Biz, he has also appeared in Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, PCGamesN and VG24/7.
Articles by Iain Harris
Jamming
Disney taps Jam City for multi-year mobile games development partnership
The Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery developer will create a slate of new games based on Disney IP
Brawlin’
Supercell set to launch Brawl Stars globally in December on iOS and Android
Players who pre-register will get a free skin if two million signs ups are hit
Job Klaxon
Angry Birds developer Rovio swoops for Gameloft exec to head up games teams
Alexandre Pelletier-Normand joins from Gameloft, where he served as executive vice president of games
A Marvel
Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee passes away at the age of 95
Lee was one of the creative forces behind popular characters Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Hulk
Indie Spotlight
How an Oscar-nominated animator went from working on The Breadwinner to creating mobile games
“I wouldn’t trade the indie experience for the world"
Come Again
Activision Blizzard labels Diablo Immortal fan reception as "muted"
The games giant also reiterated that Mobile remains the largest and fastest growing platform for gaming in the world
Crushed
Revenues at Candy Crush dev King fall by $22m year-on-year
Monthly active users grew to 262 million, however
Developing Story
Nanobit on the opportunity for narrative games in China
"If it’s bigger than the US, and the US is our biggest market, and we can make a game that fits into that space then it’s what we need to do"
Wunderbar
German games industry set to enjoy $56.7m government games fund from 2019
New fund to be headed up by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure
Summoned
Overseas sales accounts for 83% of Com2uS’ $106.7m total sales figure for Q3
Profits for the third quarter came in at $33.8 million
Flat-lined
Bandai Namco shuts down soft-launched title Doctor Who: Battle of Time
Doctor Who: Battle of Time will come to a close on November 26th
New Digs
Hole.io developer Voodoo set for new office in Berlin
The French outfit is also hoping to snap up ‘dozens’ of new recruits by the end of 2019
Spooked
Epic Games’ Fortnite builds up $350m in revenue on iOS
$55 million was grossed in October
Uh Oh
Blizzard is working on bringing multiple franchises to mobile
Some of the titles will be developed internally
Indie Mavens
Maintaining a work/life balance as an indie games developer
The Indie Mavens air their views and tips
Lessons From Down Under
5 things we learned from the Melbourne International Games Week
No amount of jet-lag can stop us learning enough to write this feature
Gcap
“In 2018 one of the most punk, transgressive, brave and bad-ass thing you can do is to care about each other”
At Melbourne International Games Week, Mountains creative director Ken Wong delved into the new revolution that the industry needs
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Hutch's Matthew Pelly on how to get a job as head of QA and customer support
"We are not here to rubber stamp releases and it is a fatal mistake to step into that role"
Gcap
“We shouldn't see similarity as a requirement for helping each other"
At Melbourne International Games Week, The Working Lunch director Ally McLean delved into how mentorship can better the industry
Expansion
How the esports landscape will change in Australia and New Zealand over the coming 12 months
ESL managing director and EGAA chairman Nick Zanzetti gave a talk on the topic at the Melbourne International Games Week
Cherry On Top
Hollow Knight dev Team Cherry snags Studio of the Year accolade at Australian Game Developer Awards 2018
Mountains also got a nod for mobile narrative game Florence
Woah
Fortnite developer Epic Games to open new Australia and New Zealand branch
GDA Australia CEO Anthony Reed will be stepping down from his role to help start it up
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Neutronized's Gionathan Pesaresi on making Super Cat Tales 2 in a tough mobile market
"If you consider that Super Cat Tales 2 took almost a year from its start to release, you can imagine how hard it is to compete with publishers dropping a new hyper-casual game every two weeks"
Globe Trotting
Yoozoo VP on finding the next great games market and the importance of localisation
“It’s down to them because games publishing and making there will be very different to how they are in China”
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: How Simon Fenton became head of games at Escape Studios and his advice for devs breaking through
"Stay hungry and passionate, work hard and build your experience. You’ll get your chance."
Oh
Tencent’s Westernised Arena of Valor takes $15m a year after launch
The US proved to be its most popular region
Fab
Unity on the long and challenging road to developing workable nested prefabs
"We were building something, not for ourselves, but everybody else"
Lineage Of Ips
Netmarble on Lineage 2 Revolution's runaway success and finding the next big hit
Simon Sim talks up the company's global strategy and M&A activity
Alerte D’emploi
Ubisoft promotes from within for chief financial officer
Current CFO Alain Martinez will retire at the end of the year
Cutting Out A Niche
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out pulls in over $370 million
97 per cent of that figure comes from China and Japan
Job News Hype
Finnish studio Seriously adds trio of key hires to its ranks
Sylvain Cunzi joins at VP of games technology, Brian Ru joins as director of strategy and operations while Jamie Samson joins as Legal Counsel
Fiendish
Best Fiends games fetch $150m in lifetime revenue
Titles have been downloaded over 85 million times
Dead On
Chinese outfit GAEA snaps up 20% stake in Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour Interactive
The pair are currently co-developing a Game of Thrones game for mobile
Space Odyssey
Toys-to-space: The making of Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle for Atlas
"It was something that none of us had ever done before"
Summoning A Hit
Com2uS on Summoners War's rapid expansion and applying lessons learnt to Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
"I think that gaming is a hits-driven business in the same way that publishing is a hits-driven business"
Fine Art
Stugan founder to auction off Simon Stålenhag’s Forest Iron Painting to benefit games accelerator
The painting will be auctioned off at Bukowski's auction house on October 23
Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost finds $16m in revenue after two weeks
$13.5m of which, comes from the US and Japan
Building Blox
Roblox acquires app performance start-up PacketZoom to boost output on mobile
PacketZoom Co-founder and CTO Chetan Ahuja will join Roblox at part of the deal
Perfecto
Perforce snaps up Cloud-based software developer Perfecto Mobile
The acquisition is expected to close this year
Puzzled
GungHo to shut down Puzzle & Dragons in Europe
Service is set to conclude December 10th
Monetised
Rovio and Hatch join Finnish seminar to discuss how to monetise effectively and ethically
Event taking place in Finland and will be streamed online
Sweet
King’s Candy Crush Friends Saga lands on App Store and Google Play after global launch
A 3D-focused event to be hosted in New York to celebrate the launch
Catching Season
Niantic’s Pokemon Go catches $84.8m in revenue for September
The location-based AR game also added 8.86m new trainers to its ranks
Deal
Advance snaps up majority stake in games analytics firm Newzoo
The media company will make a significant capital investment in Newzoo as part of the deal
Hay Maker
Indie darling Stardew Valley launching on App Store later this month
Eric Barone’s tranquil farming RPG hybrid will drop first on the iOS, Android release TBC
Clans
Supercell’s Clash of Clans brings in $41m in revenue for September
Supercell’s hit game was also downloaded by over 5.4 million players for the month
Sweet Business
King’s Candy Crush Saga hits $3.91 billion in lifetime revenues
All-time downloads sit at 823 million
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: SYBO's Amy Kalson on how to get a job as a games lead
"My advice to aspiring game makers is to study psychology. We make things for humans so understanding the human mind is vital for success"
Fore
Playdemic’s Golf Clash gets new clans feature
The new feature allows groups of up to 50 golf clash players to chat, share replays and work together to earn in-game rewards