Fold
Tencent axes poker game as China tightens the leash on gaming
Servers for “Everyday Texas Hold’Em” will go offline on September 25th
Staff
Natalie Clayton
About Natalie Clayton is an Edinburgh-based freelance writer and game developer. Besides PCGamesInsider and Pocketgamer.biz, she's written across the games media landscape and was named in the 2018 GamesIndustry.biz 100 Rising Star list.
Articles by Natalie Clayton
Pubg
Tencent is holding its first PUBG Mobile tournament in India
PUBG Mobile Campus Championship 2018 will pit teams from 1000 colleges against each other
China
A third of the Chinese population is playing mobile games
China’s 459 million large mobile audience rivals the total population of Japan and the US combined
Blast
Toon Blast revenue rockets to $200 million in its first year
Toy Blast follow-up reaches milestone thanks to a successful celebrity marketing campaign
China
China’s gaming crackdown pushes Tencent towards further age restrictions in Honor of Kings
As part of a government campaign to prevent myopia amongst children and reduce gameplay time
Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp reaches $50 million in worldwide revenue
But the mobile life-sim is still the slowest-growing of Nintendo’s three mobile titles
Ban
France bans mobile phones during school
Phones, tablets and smart-watches banned during school hours for under-15 students
Top Celler
Dead Cells is selling four Nintendo Switch copies for every one sold on PS4
Roguelike slasher manages to outsell on Switch despite console’s smaller install base
Knight
Hollow Knight topped Nintendo Switch eShop charts in Europe last month
25 per cent cut and fourth free content release help propel Hollow Knight to No.1
Bought
AppLovin acquires in-app header bidding company MAX Inc
Discoverability platform expands services to include the new header bidding solution
Amazon
Amazon quickly follows in Apple's footsteps and hits $1 trillion valuation
The online store joins Apple as the second public US firm to pass the threshold
Switch
Nintendo Switch closes on five million sales in Japan
Handheld hybrid has sold almost five million units in its home market
Charity
Angry Birds Match and Imagine Dragons team up to take down paediatric cancer
Rovio collaborates with the band for a special event during childhood cancer awareness month
Olympic Values
Esports 'too violent' for Olympics
Popular titles focused on combat “cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values"
Crypto
Reality Clash developer opens the doors on a temporary crypto-only London store
Soho store set up to educate the public on cryptocurrency will hand out free virtual coins
Switch
Sony’s Hiroyuki Oda believes the Nintendo Switch has had “positive influence” on the industry
But kind words won't change the company line on collaboration in the gaming sector.
Indie
Dead Cells developer Motion Twin "took a big risk" leaving the mobile market behind
“We traded that relative security for the ability to develop a game that we wanted to play”
Sharp
Razer is taking a second shot at developing a gaming phone
Earnings report confirms the development of a second-generation Razer Phone is underway
Revenue
King of Avalon ventures abroad to bring in $380 million outside of China in two years
Online strategy is the third-highest grossing Chinese game in the USA
Apple
Apple set to show off new iPhones on September 12th
Three new iPhone X devices are scheduled to headline the Cupertino event this month
Revenue
Candy Crush games bringing in almost $4 million a day
The original Candy Crush Saga is still doing the bulk of the legwork at 62 per cent of total revenue
Direct
Dragalia Lost set for launch on September 27th in US, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau
The company's first original mobile IP is launching in Japan, The US and various territories next month
Partners
Dreamloop and Big Blue Studios join Remote Control Productions' developer network
Development and mediation outfit picks up minority stake in studios
Job News
Spil Games appoints Patrik Wilkens as new VP of mobile
Publisher makes its third internal promotion, completing the formation of a new senior management team
Labo
Nintendo launches Interactive Labo Workshops across America
DIY sessions for kids will run in ten cities across the country
Gdc
Supercell: It takes more than one great idea to make a successful game
Studio veteran Touko Tahkokallio shared his granular approach to development at this year’s GDC
Mistakes
Miyamoto: Regrettable choices were made during the development of Super Mario Run
Difficulty curve and fixed-price model could’ve been improved, claims the legendary designer
Report
Report: 34 per cent of American gamers are playing on mobile alone
EEDAR report also shows over a quarter of players are considered “incidental players”
Best Of 2018
Fortnite developer Epic Games named the world’s top mobile games company in the PocketGamer.biz Top 50 Developer list
The full list of the 50 hottest mobile game developers! [UPDATE: exclusive video]
South Africa
Emerge counts Arcade X platform a success in South Africa with over 500,000 games played
Esports company’s hybrid platform has served over 60,000 users in the country since launch
Catch Em All
Pokemon Go sees daily revenue increase grow 39 per cent following trading update
Pokemon trainers are now spending an average of $2.5 million per day
Job News
Ex-Rovio EVP Wilhelm Taht joins Dodreams board of directors
Drive Ahead! Developer appoints Taht as a member of the board and investor
Traffic
Crossy Road celebrates over 200 million downloads
Hipster Whale’s classic continues to break records five years post-launch
Movie
Monument Valley has landed a film adaptation
Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures will be producing a movie tie-in to the mobile puzzler
Expansion
Jam City to set up shop in a new studio in Culver City
The new location is double the size of Jam City’s existing space, setting it up for expansion
Star Wars
Zynga stock soars 11 per cent after securing a deal to create licensed Star Wars titles
Farmville creator partners with Disney for a mobile title, with potential for a second in future.
Revenue
Game of War’s spoils surpass $2.8 billion revenue worldwide
MZ’s flagship hits the milestone just after its fifth anniversary
Bloody
Bloodstained cans Vita port as Sony “plans to discontinue” the handheld
Sony’s handheld has stopped producing physical copies and the end of crucial store features
Revenue
Fortnite swoops past $200 million revenue on iOS five months after launch
Rapid success puts the battle royale on equal footing with Clash Royale’s performance
Spot On
CD Projekt Red's new studio Spokko to create mobile titles for the Polish giant
The studio will be creating an “advanced and ambitious” mobile title for the Cyberpunk 2077 developer
Partnership
Ad network ironSource is now available on Google’s AdMob mediation platform
Developers using AdMob can now gain access to Ironsource’s existing marketplace
Partnership
Gismart partners with Appodeal to publish casual and hyper-casual games
Developer will also utilise Appodeal’s extensive ad platform to push music, entertainment and utility apps
Speeding
Crossy Road speeds past in-app purchase revenues of $10 million
Multi-million milestone doesn’t even account for sales made through advertising in-game
Acquisition
Game of Whales acquires tracking app Appstatics
AI-powered tool acquires tracking app on its way to becoming a fully automated management platform
Not So Angry
Angry Birds 2 bookings grow 44 per cent to reach a record $33.9m in Q2 2018
But Rovio’s financial report sees a slump in the wake of last year’s movie successes
Android
App Annie: Fortnite will push Android apps to over 170 billion downloads in 2018
Users to spend over $50 billion on the platform this year
Spending Spree
US Librarian spends $89,000 of public money on Game of War
Adam Winger sells his home and drains retirement fund to pay back the appropriated funds
Vr
Nazara Technologies invests in Bangalore-based VR gaming studio Instasportz
Mobile developer is looking to get into offline VR games lounges across India
Strong Hand
Second Dinner picks up three more Hearthstone veterans
Three former Blizzard developers join former Hearthstone director Ben Brode’s new studio
Financial
South Korean publisher Com2us posts over $100m in earnings for the 11th consecutive quarter
Summoners War creator reports a 9 per cent sales increase since last quarter