Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Lykke Studios founder Jakob Lykkegard on life after Playlab
The studio partnered with Apple Arcade to launch Tint.
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
Pgc London 2020
Snap Finger's Joanna Haslam on the positives of game design documents
Design director shared her tips and tricks in London
Pgc London 2020
Mag Interactive head of ideation shares the when, why, and how of prototyping
Matthew Buxton's top tips for developers
Pgc London
Good Job Games has the highest amount of video ad share on the App Store
Mobile Action's Aykut Karaalioglu shared details during PGC London
Pgc London 2020
Mobile makes up 40% of all games revenue in Brazil
Industry is worth $2.24 billion
Pgc London 2020
Black Desert Mobile reaches 20 million installs, series crosses $1.5 billion revenue
"One of the most popular MMORPGs in the Asian market"
Pgc London 2020
58 per cent of users turn off push notifications on iOS
Leanplum's Nathan Ceulemans shared his three 'tricks'
Pgc London 2020
Avid.ly on why user acquisition and monetisation need to go "hand in hand" for product success
Melinda Kang explained the importance of each
Pg Connects London 2020
Retention rate is key to in-game advertisements, says Tenjin lead data scientist
The US creates 10 times more ad revenue
Job News
AR studio Draw & Code names Spencer Crossley as new CEO
Brings experience from Sony, Hasbro, Warner Bros. and more
Home Turf
Nintendo Switch Lite passes 1 million sales in Japan
Console launched in September 2019
Green Is Good
Microsoft pledges to be "carbon negative" by 2030
Plans to remove all carbon emitted by 2050
Making Moves
Google and BT partner to offer customers free Stadia Premiere with broadband deal
UK residents can sign up until January 30th
Cat And Mouse
NetEase's Tom and Jerry mobile game catches 100 million users in China
Hanna-Barbara title launched in May 2019
"global Games Development"
Tencent's TiMi Studios discuss Call of Duty: Mobile, Pokémon partnership, and 2020 trends
"It is not our first cooperation with Activision and won't be the last"
Esports
Super League Gaming partners with Wanda Cinemas Games to expand esports further in China
Over 700 locations across China will be utilised for the events
Npd Group
US and Canada mobile games revenue grows 24% in 2019
$11.82 billion spent in the two countries
Making Of
Building an artistic game out of tiny bricks: The making of LEGO Builder's Journey
"The challenge was to keep the game fresh, challenging and understandable all the way through"
Bang Bang Into The Bank
Moonton's Mobile Legends crosses $500 million in gross revenue
281.3 million downloads since 2016, says Sensor Tower
Huge Success
Old School RuneScape battles to 8 million downloads on mobile
"Most successful year to date"
Billions And Billions
App Annie: Mobile gaming is on track to surpass $100 billion in 2020
59 per cent more companies are earning $100 million annually
Cod Go
Call of Duty: Mobile has best launch quarter for a mobile game since Pokemon GO
180 million installs in 90 days
Stadia Downloads
Exclusive: Google Stadia mobile downloads have halved since November
550,000 installs to date, according to Sensor Tower
Indie Spotlight
How Snowman got noticed by Apple and became part of Apple Arcade's launch with Skate City
"This growth in audiences combined with a service like Apple Arcade allows for indie studios to take more risks"
To The Top
Netmarble appoints chief global officer Seungwon Lee as new co-CEO
Will focus on core games business
Famitsu Charts
Nintendo Switch accounted for 26 of the top 30 best-selling games in Japan
Pokemon Sword and Shield continues to capture audiences
Higher And Higher
Mobile games revenue increased by 13% to $61.7 billion in 2019
Honor of Kings tops the list for worldwide spending at $1.43 billion
"power Up Bands"
Super Nintendo World theme park will let visitors become Mario via wristbands and smartphone app
New Mario Kart ride revealed alongside official theme park song
Moving Forward
Sony's mobile studio ForwardWorks partners with Kadokawa Games for new smartphone title
Cave Interactive also part of the development structure
Indies Unite
Track and Build competition offering indie game studios professional soundtrack by duo Koven
Cinematic bass pair will produce the soundtrack for the winner
Inside Story
Nintendo files trademark for Mario & Luigi series following developer's closure
AlphaDream shut down in October following "sluggish" revenue
Dice Summit
What the Golf? and Sayonara Wild Hearts score multiple nominations at DICE Awards 2020
Call of Duty, Grindstone and Sky: Children of Light all feature too
Peer-to-peer
Rainway launches streaming app for playing PC games on mobile
Can be downloaded across iPhones, iPads and iPods and Android for free
Funding
Hamburg to invest $2.2 million into local games industry over next four years
Open to developers of any size in the city
P.l.a.y
Former footballer Rio Ferdinand teams up with Ukie for parental control awareness campaign in games
"They're easy to use and save a lot of arguments in the long run"
No Slowing Down
Pokemon GO evolves to best year ever at $894 million in revenue from 2019
Over $3.1 billion in lifetime revenue
Job News
Casual games publisher Kwalee names Simon Prytherch new head of publishing
"There’s a great opportunity to grow the publishing department"
Tres Bien
Nintendo Switch surpasses 3.3 million units in France
Pokemon Sword and Shield rank as best selling games
Giganta-update
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon plus Sword and Shield expansion pass revealed in Direct
Pokemon Home will launch in February
Hotel Mario
Nintendo's former Kyoto headquarters to become hotel in 2021
20 rooms, including restaurant, gym, bar and spa
New Year's Day
Apple App Store revenue soars to new record of $386 million in one day
$1.42 billion accumulated between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve
Gold Pass Success
Clash of Clans achieves first year-over-year revenue increase since 2015
27 per cent increase over 2018
Closure
Digital tabletop game studio Fantasy Flight Interactive to shut down in February
"It's been an amazing journey"
Sensor Tower
Hypercasual specialist SayGames sees a 453% rise in downloads over 12 months
Facebook and Google top non-specific mobile game publishers
Time For Change?
Communications Workers of America launches campaign to support video game unionisation
Project began after discussions with Game Workers Unite
This Seems Familiar
CES 2020: Alienware and Razer take inspiration from Nintendo's Switch for new device and controller
Razer Kishi and Concept UFO take the spotlight
Top Trends
Sony's Fate/Grand Order was the most talked about game on Twitter in 2019
Second year in a row
Delayed Release
Square Enix partners with JSC and Gaea for Final Fantasy XV on mobile
Set to launch in China before releasing worldwide
Indie Spotlight
Studio Zero creative director William Mesilane on wanting to create "stories that subvert the genre"
"I want to make smaller-scale games that tell more meaningful stories that subvert the genre"
Fan Outrage
Riot Games reveals how it "avoided backlash" when announcing mobile titles
Staff were concerned after Diablo Immortal reveal