On The Go
Pokemon Go racks up $104 million as player base reaches its highest level since 2016
The game has surged 174 per cent year-on-year in time for summer
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
Employed
Ukraine plays host to over 80 games development companies
82 per cent of them are working on mobile games titles
Indie Spotlight
“The stories that they told us were so moving": The making of My Child Lebensborn
Teknopilot’s co-founder Elin Festøy on balancing messages
Cloned
Indie dev lambasts recently flush publisher Voodoo for ‘clone’ Hole.io
Hole.io is currently sitting at the top of the free-to-play charts on iOS
Big Pull
King enters the social casino space with Royal Charm Slots
The title had been in soft-launch since August 2017
Hot Five
Shadowgun Legends took two days to be Switch ready, Tencent to acquire Bluehole, and Lineage M breaks $1.2bn
The past weeks hottest articles
Tweeted
Nintendo the most talked about games company on Twitter during E3 2018
Super Smash Bros also received the most tweets out of the games on show
Building Blocks
Roblox set to raise up to $150 million
PitchBook estimates funding would value the company at $2.4 billion
Beef
Nintendo and Microsoft dunk Sony on Twitter over Minecraft cross-play
Sony’s cross-play policy has been under public scrutiny since Fortnite launched on Switch
Winner
Report: PUBG developer Bluehole snaps up mobile studio Delusion Studio
The terms of the deal are currently unknown
To Infinity
Sign up for next week's Beyond Games networking mixer in London
The mini-summit and mixer will also feature Game Insight’s Tanks of Boom
It's Snow Joke
Cuphead developer Studio MDHR signs up former Alto’s Odyssey producer Eli Cymet
The former mobile games journalist served a producer on Alto’s Odyssey
Tapped Up
TinyTap raises $5 million to fund accessible learning platform
The platform currently has over 150,000 educational games, digital books and interactive activities
Catch Em All
Pokémon Quest snags 2.5 million downloads on Nintendo Switch
The RPG is also set to launch on mobile on June 27th
Fine Lineage
Lineage M breaks $1.2 billion in revenue a year after release
The popular MMO is also aiming for a global release
Mighty
Singapore dev Mighty Bear Games fetches several million dollars in seed funding round
Developer founded by King, Ubisoft, Jagex and Disney alumni
Not Bad
Fortnite bags $100 million in its first 90 days on iOS
And it still has not launched in China or on Android
Android Odyssey
Snowman team up with Noodlecake to bring Alto's Odyssey to Android
The next instalment in the Alto series will launch next month
Funded
Walking Dead: Road to Survival publisher Scopely raise additional $100 million to fund acquisitions and investments
The Los Angeles-based publisher originally raised $60 million last year
Indie Mavens
What do indies think of the streaming model from a creative and business standpoint?
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
Gaming Disorder
Gaming Disorder included in WHO’s latest draft of International Compendium of Diseases
Members of WHO aren’t expected to report using the ICD-11 until 2022
Beast Mode
Beasts of Balance dev Sensible Object raises $3.2 million to back voice-capable board games
Sensible Object’s first game When in Rome will go on sale in July
Critical
Critical Force snags $6.3 million in funding to scale esports operations for Critical Ops
The FPS has also been downloaded over 40 million times since launching in 2015
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Brad Erkkila on Castle Pals and bringing a background of visual design to mobile
"As long as I can live pretty well and I can make the games I want to make, I consider that success."
Eve
Eve: War of Ascension mobile game enters soft launch in the Philippines
The Eve title is available on Android
Smashing
How ARKit is powering indie creativity in augmented reality
"It created the largest AR platform overnight and gave developers a powerful toolkit to play with"
Hot Five
Explaining Supercell’s M&A strategy, Wooga back to profitability, and Full XP snags new CTO
The past weeks hottest articles
Linked
Valve removes games purchasing from iOS Steam Link following App Store rejection
Pages now display a buy from PC option instead of a buy now option
Winner Winner
Report: Tencent set to acquire 10% of PUBG developer Bluehole for $500 million
Sale is not intended to raise capital for Bluehole but instead is a chance for early investors to cash out
New Job
Chimera signs up ex-Ubisoft Blue Byte designer to head up game design
Sebastian Bombera joins with over 13 years on industry experience
Lock Down
Apple closes App Store loophole in a bid to stop developers from sharing data on users' friends
The move cracks down on a practice that has been reportedly going on for years
Hitting The Mark
MAG Interactive’s Paint Hit makes a splash with one million downloads in one day
The paint shooter is sitting in the number one spot on the Google Play casual games chart in the US
Crazy
Animoca Brands eyes Middle East revenue potential with Crazy Defense Heroes release
An Android version of the game is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018
Data Klaxon
Analysing player behaviour in the Chinese mobile games market
Chinese gamers are also more likely to surpass the world spending average
Fortifying Ps4
Sony blocks Fortnite cross-play between PS4 and Nintendo Switch
The battle royale hit can still be played between mobile, PC, Mac and Xbox One though
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Ivan Kovalov on cognitive disorder and G30’s memory maze
"It is important that we understand other people and care for everyone around us, not just ourselves"
Dive In
Fortnite Battle Royale launches on Nintendo Switch today
Epic Games’ battle royale hit was revealed during Nintendo’s E3 Direct
Change The Game
Google Play reveals winners of Change the Game Design Challenge
Winners snagged an expenses free trip to E3 and a scholarship to a Girls Make Games
Summer Camp
We Are
ESA Foundation’s ‘We Are’ diversity initiative aims to inspire women in games
Scheme plans to connect women by highlighting individuals
Wired
Killing Floor dev Tripwire launches new publishing division at E3 2018
Reveals inaugural titles Maneater and Road Redemption
Moving Day
InnoGames closes Dusseldorf studio and shifts production to Hamburg HQ
The decision to shift production focus from Duesseldorf came in in late 2017
Karma
Can charitable platforms support good causes and also be a driver for player retention?
"Asking your player base to join you in making the world a better place and putting the decision-making in their hands a very powerful message to send to your player community"
Nintendo
Nintendo Direct E3 2018 Conference: Where to watch and what to expect
Details on Fortnite, Super Smash Brothers and Splatoon 2’s Octo expansion expected
World Tour
Platinum Games and DENA soft-launch World of Demons in Southeast Asia
The RPG is seen as a spiritual successor to Clover Studio’s Okami
Hot Five
Supercell invests in Redemption, SDKs aren't done yet, and MZ changes CEO
Last weeks hottest articles
Galactic
CCP Games teams up with NetEase for new Eve Online mobile game
Project Galaxy will drop in 2019 for iOS with Android to come thereafter
Switching It Up
Square Enix sets up new Nintendo Switch games division
More Switch focused titles are on the way from Square Enix
Bad Robot Good Deal
J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot launches new games division with backing from Tencent
Warner Bros is also a minority investor in the new venture
Tekkerz
Rovio and Everton kick off new YouTube series with social influencer Tekkerz Kid for World Cup
New animated series will also feature Wayne Rooney and Cenk Tosun
Killing It
Nintendo Switch takes lion’s share of Bloodstained: Cure of the Moon’s 100,000 downloads
Console/tablet hybrid takes 56 per cent of sales