Had Its Hay Day?
Supercell revenues fall for third consecutive year to $1.56 billion in 2019
Profits fell to $577 million too
Staff
Matthew Forde
About Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.
Articles by Matthew Forde
#avankinsforaustralia
Update: Lockwood Publishing raises $20,000 via Avakin Life to help aid Australia bushfires
All profits go to WIRES, a New South Wales charity
Service Ace
Rovio soft-launches Angry Birds Tennis in US
Mexico players can also test new sports title
Jobs In Games
Mag Interactive’s Violetta Palinder on how to get a job as a games artist
"I was always attracted to character design, environments and animation"
A New Contender
How Snap Games tackles exclusivity, monetisation, and competition from Apple Arcade
Snap Games head Will Wu shares his thoughts on the first 10 months
Umph And Wump
Update: King taps Crash Bandicoot license for new endless runner
12-year absence from the platform
"significant Growth"
Call of Duty: Mobile shoots through 150 million downloads in three months
Mobile now leading platform for Activision
Ubi-down
Ubisoft's Q3 revenue drops, mobile accounts for 7% of net bookings
26 per cent decrease year-over-year
King Of The Hill
King accounted for 34% of Activision Blizzard's FY19 revenues
$2.3 billion in sales
Stuck The Landing
Glu Mobile returns to profitability with $8.9 million net income for 2019
Revenue increased by 12 per cent to $411.4 million for 2019
Making Of
Developing an AR game after the success of Pokémon GO: The making of Bird BnB
"The core gameplay is rooted in strong appointment and collection mechanics"
On The Up
Zynga's FY19 revenue soars to record $1.32 billion
"Live services are the foundation of our multi-year growth strategy"
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: How Apple Arcade kept Dinosaur Polo Club from switching to console
Co-founder Robert Curry talks Mini Motorways
Following Developments
Apple restricts employee travel as firm monitors coronavirus
iPhone production still looking to be impacted
No More Rockstars
Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser scheduled to exit Grand Theft Auto maker
Will leave on March 11th, 2020
Jobs In Games
Kwalee head of publishing Simon Prytherch on 30 years in the games industry
"With hypercasual it's raw, you can’t hide behind amazing graphics or big names"
Can't Catch 'em All
Pokemon GO is now for the hardcore, not the casual
Niantic has done wonders with Pokemon GO, but it's starting to feel overwhelming
Job News
EA DICE art director joins Metroid Prime 4 developer Retro Studios
"I’m leaving something that’s been part of my life for such a long time"
Infectious
Plague Inc. overtakes Minecraft as top paid app in the US due to coronavirus association
Minecraft lead chart for the majority of 2019
Ukie Report
Female representation in the games industry still "significantly" below UK national average
Only 28 per cent of games workers are female
Soft Launch
Pocket Gems pushes into "mature" storytelling with soft-launched Ivy: Stories We Play
Available on iOS in Australia and New Zealand
Cut To The Race
ZeptoLab soft-launches Om Nom: Run following Cut the Rope success
Available on Android in the Philippines
Ubisoft Goes Idle
Ubisoft moves further into mobile with acquisition of Kolibri Games
75 per cent stake purchased
Financials
EA's mobile digital net revenue decreased by $51 million last quarter
Company still "conscious" of Nintendo Switch
China Bound
EA confirms partnership for Apex Legends on mobile
"We're very excited about the opportunity"
Sensor Tower
Sony's Fate/Grand Order accumulates over $4 billion in lifetime revenue
Top grossing title in Japan for 2019
Interview
A decade on, MAG Interactive CEO Daniel Hasselberg discusses the firm's growth
"We decided to focus the company around social multiplayer games at the end of 2018"
Triple Deal
Scopely scores partnership with Mattel and Hasbro for new Scrabble mobile game
Scrabble GO is a new free-to-play experience
Live And Kicking
Live and Kicking: Talking 'Super Saiyan' with Dragon Ball Legends producer Toshitaka Tachibana
"As a team, we constantly prioritise the fans of the Dragon Ball series"
Blue Shelled
Unofficial Mario Kart experience ordered to pay $458,000 in damages to Nintendo
Mari Mobility Development must pay five times originally cost
Refining Reflections
GameRefinery acquires app developer market insight firm Reflection.io
Platforms will be integrated for better analysis
Nintendo Q3 2019 Financials
Nintendo Switch tops 52 million sales, surpasses SNES
Over 300 million software sales in less than three years
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Capybara game director Dan Vader on the unlikely success of Grindstone
Why Apple Arcade was the place to be for the slice-and-dice puzzler
Minor Adjustments
Adjust appoints Bill Kiriakis and Silvia Buermann to senior global sales team
Experience from App Annie, Adobe, Zignal Labs and more
Staffing Up
Lockwood Publishing expands into Lisbon with new office
Applications are now open for those interested in joining
Battle 'em All
Niantic rolls out Pokemon GO Battle League preseason worldwide
Pikachu Libre exclusively found within
Daunting Acquisition
Free Fire studio Garena acquires Phoenix Labs for an estimated $150 million
100 developers now under "Garena family"
Rolling Out
Huawei approved for 5G across the UK in restricted capacity
"Reassured by the UK government's confirmation"
Partnership
Square Enix and Suntory partner for Dragon Quest Walk missions via Japanese vending machines
14,000 can be found across the country
Jobs In Games
Jobs In Games: Square Enix's Lucy Shears on how to get a job as a market research analyst
"It’s awesome to be able to say I work for Square Enix"
Job News
Miniclip appoints Tencent's Jurgen Post as new CEO
Former CEO Rob Small moves to board president
Ukie Report
UK game companies employ over 16,000 people and contribute $1.75 billion to the local economy
Data collated from 2,100 games businesses in 2016
Sales Spike
Plague Inc. developer Ndemic Creations warns players to look elsewhere for coronavirus information
"Not a scientific model"
New Deal
US and China proposed console tariffs postponed indefinitely
"There's a lot of work to do ahead"
Blizzard In The Cloud
Activision Blizzard and Google sign up for strategic "multi-year" streaming partnership
YouTube becomes exclusive streaming partner outside of China
New Record
SpecialEffect's One Special Day fundraises nearly $600,000
"Life-changing difference"
Financials
MAG Interactive sees 17% revenue jump but a 40% drop in active users
Interim report detailed September to November 2019
Staffing Up
Report: TikTok's ByteDance is looking to make a major push with mobile games in 2020
Two games expected by Spring
Marvel-ous
Scopely acquires Marvel Strike Force developer FoxNext Games
Deal includes Cold Iron Studios
Loot Boxes
NHS mental health director urges game developers to ban loot boxes
“Frankly no company should be setting kids up for addiction"