Knighted
Netmarble’s Knights Chronicle pulls in 500,000 pre-registrations in one week
Players who sign-up will gain a slew of rewards come games launch
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
Whoops
"Lack of oversight" to blame for Overwatch art in Paladins Strike ad
Hi-Rez art director was swift to assure that the matter was being looked into
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: State of Play's Katherine Bidwell on art inspirations and spinning plates
"I think with running a small company it’s about making sure all the plates are spinning and keeping the focus on achievable goals"
Well Now
Epic puts up $100 million for Fortnite esports tournament prize pools
And that’s just for the first season
Nice
Cartoon Network soft launches new Powerpuff Girls game in Asia
The horde mode-styled beat ‘em up pits the girls against monsters
Hot Five
Project Cars coming to mobile, Glu's Design Home inspired revival, and Rumble Stars Soccer
The past weeks hottest offerings
Boom
Game Insight and ESL put up $200,000 for Guns of Boom’s inaugural esports season
Online qualifiers begin June 9th with international events planned for Poland and LA
Up Up Up
Over 25% of iOS 11 game downloads now come from browsing the App Store
A boost in downloads has been helped the launch of iOS 11
On The App
Mobile revenues up 66% as Ubisoft posts total sales of $2 billion for the financial year
Performance exceeded the company’s original expectations
New Job Klaxon
NCSoft appoints chief development officer for Western operations
Chris Corry will be responsible for overseeing all development in the West
Rip
Sony to cease production of physical PlayStation Vita Games, except in Japan
Creation of games cards to finish by the end of March 2019
On The Move
Farming Simulator dev Giants Software opens new studio in the Czech Republic
Swiss company also set to move offices as part of the shakeup
Take Profit
WWE Supercard and Dragon City help launch Take-Two's yearly profits to $173.5 million
The usual suspects at play again
One V One Me Bro
Street Fighter characters touch down in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars
Cammy, M. Bison, Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile and Akuma set to join the fray
Switching It Up
LA-based start-up Wonder working on Android Nintendo Switch-like hybrid device
Wonder is hoping to release the device next year
Indie Spotlight
"If you are an indie and you are making an indie game, I think it’s becoming very difficult to lead from the heart"
Darjeeling's Marc Lustigman on Homo Machina and Fritz Kahn's presentation of the body
Indie Mavens
Is ad revenue a good revenue generator for indies in 2018?
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
Weekly Charts
Weekly UK App Store charts: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery surges up iPad and iPhone top grossing charts
Rankings from April 30th to May 6th
Financial Fantasy
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Hoshi no Dragon Quest help bump Square Enix to profits of $348 million
Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light and Kingdom Hearts Union X also given nods
Don’t You Mean Football
Badland developer Frogmind soft launches new IP Rumble Stars Soccer
Currently playable in Finland, Sweden, Vietnam, Philippines and more
Take To The Seas
Overseas sales push Com2us to $100m revenues for Q1 FY18
85 per cent of revenues came from abroad as Summoners War continues to draw players
Ouch
Tencent up against worst margins ever as value drops $78 billion
Rising costs and continued investments will strain profits
Hot Five
What makes the Finland games scene special, Space Ape Games on making hits and Idle Factory Tycoon hits 4m downloads
The weeks hottest articles
Down
Revenues and profits down for DENA’s games segment over the past year
Virtual currency consumption for browser titles declined
Oh
Mobile games Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links and Pro Evo 2018 power Konami to record profits of $413m
Revenues also grew 4.2 per cent year-on-year to $2.19 billion
Rip
Nintendo’s social app Miitomo goes offline two years after launching
The decision to take the app was revealed earlier this year
Going Global
Pokemon Go developer Niantic to call upon players to help build AR maps
Efforts would involve supplementing Pokemon Go data with new information gathered through smartphones cameras
Witness The Fitness
Animoca Brands nabs investment to create AI-based exercise app
Animoca Brands’ subsidiary OliveX to lead the development
Downloads Assemble
Avengers Infinity War boosts related mobile game downloads by 120%
IAP revenue was also boosted by 50% along with a 16% increase in DAU
Not Bad
Top 25 public games companies captured 77% of global games revenues in 2017
Tencent, Sony, Apple, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard took the top five spots
That’s A Lot Of Money
Fortnite Mobile hits $50 million in revenue on iOS
Player spending increased 293 per cent following the launch of season four
Winning
Empires and Puzzles takes home Best Breakthrough Hit from Google Play Awards
Broken Rules also won the Standout Indie Award while Pocket Gem snagged the Community Award
This Report Is Quite Operational
Sims Mobile and Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes help propel EA Mobile bookings to $659m in FY18
The games giant has two new mobile titles set for release in the next year
Its Time To Play The Game
Google Play Instant opens to all Android developers
The internet giant revealed the update at its I/O 2018 developer conference
Epic
Epic Games set to host series of workshops and panels at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
The talks will centre on the latest Unreal Engine mobile advancements
Pokemon Goes On Tour
Pokemon Go Summer Tour heads to the US, Germany and Japan
Events will feature a host of interactive adventures and special challenges
Moving Day
PlayMagic set for public expansion on the Swedish Stock Exchange
The games development studio hopes to start trading within the fourth quarter of 2018
Float On
Worms developer Team17 set to float on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange
The company hopes to extend its business and broaden its profile globally
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Laser Dog's Simon Renshaw on Ava Airborne and the passion of indie games
"Personally, I’m a big believer in doing what you really want to do. I draw the things I love for a living and I couldn’t imagine a better job"
Hot Five
Fastlane's rapid success, Facebook Instant Games adds in-app purchases and PUBG’s first week revenues
The weeks' hottest articles
Why Not
Activision Blizzard has eyes on battle royale's mobile success
King has been working on a Call of Duty title for mobile
Installed
CrossInstall launches new playable mobile ads service for Facebook, Snapchat and Google
New service offers design, development and quality assurance for playable ads
Lumos
Jam City slashes Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery IAPs following player backlash
Only some players are receiving the discounted prices
Crushed It
Candy Crush Saga revival propels King revenues to record $534m
King’s monthly active users jumped up to 285 million
New Digs
Games Factory to open new hub for Finnish games companies in June
The tech space will hold 20 Finnish small to mid-sized gaming companies at a time
Decent
Apple posts best second quarter ever with revenues of $61 billion
International sales accounted for 65 per cent of Q2 revenue
Heroic
Crazy Defence Heroes helps boost Animoca Brands’ revenues to A$3.4 million for 1Q18
The tower defence RPG game brought in A$2.6 million during the quarter
Not Bad
Fate/ Grand Order helps launch Sony Music’s revenue to $7 billion in FY17
The division saw a 24 per cent year on year increase
On The App
Annual consumer app store spend to increase to $157 billion by 2022
Mobile app downloads will also increase to 258 billion by 2022, according to App Annie
Ouch
Next Games revenue down 56% in Q1 2018 as Walking Dead: No Man’s Land loses players
Finnish developer cites change in daily active and monthly active users as the primary reason for drop in revenues