To Boldly Grow
Digit Game Studios founder Richard Barnwell on life after Scopely acquisition
"Our natural chemistry and shared vision made us feel like one powerful, international team from the outset and since the acquisition"
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
Age Of 5g
Square Enix looking to "relaunch" and expand Indian business presence
Cloud streaming and 5G also touched upon
Gunning For The Top
PUBG Mobile fires to top of worldwide mobile revenue for December 2019
Honor of Kings settles for second spot
New Partnership
Tencent invests undisclosed sum in Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames
"We hope to use this capital to strengthen our foundation as a business"
Port-astic
Nintendo insider claims two further Wii U ports destined for Switch in 2020
Super Mario 3D Worlds? Star Fox Zero? Paper Mario: Color Splash?
Lucky Seven
Sports developer Nifty Games recruits EA, Warner Bros. and Zynga veterans
A roster of new hires join the LA and Bay Area-based company
Big Money
Report: Tencent-owned Miniclip purchases Ilyon Games for $100 million
The Israeli-based startup has accumulated over 370 million installs
Space Pirates
Nintendo wins injunction against Californian man for modding and selling pirated games on Switch
No fines and 10 unnamed defendants dismissed
Don't Forget To Subscribe
Apple Arcade predicted to reach 12 million subscribers by end of 2020
"This will make it the biggest bundled games subscription service globally"
Superdata 2019 Summary
Pokemon GO, Candy Crush Saga and Honor of Kings push mobile to $64.4 billion revenue in 2019
Free-to-play model continues to grow across all platforms
Friend Or Foe
Apple agrees new multi-year deal with Imagination Technologies to utilise IP
The new multi-use license agreement replaces the former, which was announced in February 2014
Christmas Cheer
Mobile games spending reached $210 million this Christmas, increasing by 8% year-on-year
76 per cent of all revenue across the mobile platform
Cut Losses
Nexon sells off mobile developer Gloops for one Japanese yen
Japanese studio was purchased for approximately $470 million in 2012
2020 Trends
Future Games of London's Elizabeth Sampat wants everyone to to take mobile gamers seriously in 2020
"We’re doing better on this front than ever before"
2019 In Review
Sega Hardlight's Neall Jones on why PC/console IP will keep going mobile
Expect more from Sega
2019 In Review
Exient CEO Dave Hawkins on what follows peak hypercasual
UK company moved into publishing
Into The Unown
Two new Pokemon games launch exclusively on Facebook Instant Games
Pokemon Tower Battle and Pokemon Medallion Battle are available to play on the platform now
Loot Boxes
Royal Society for Public Health urges new UK Government to legislate loot boxes as gambling
"As with any public health issue, this is one that requires a combination of measures focusing on both education and regulation"
Rising And Rising
Star Wars mobile games force their way to $1 billion in revenue
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes from EA tops the group at $924 million
2019 In Review
COO Alexis Bonte on why Stillfront will continue its M&A drive in 2020
Players prefer free-to-play on mobile
Fuelled For Success?
Gameloft puts the pedal to the metal with new racer Overdrive City
Asphalt with city-building?
Words With Hackers
Over 170 million passwords stolen in Zynga breach
"Cyber-attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today"
Little Acquisition
Embracer Group acquires Little Nightmares dev Tarsier Studios
"Together with Tarsier, we want to invest in developing new projects, in the same manner they have done successfully in the past"
Money Grows On Trees
Gardenscapes grows to $1.5 billion in lifetime revenue
213 million downloads accumulated since August 2016
2019 In Review
Wooga CEO Jens Begemann on why personalisation will be key in 2020
What the players want
Kicked Out
NetEase to remove Arsenal football star from PES 2020 in China
Player made comments to social media regarding the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the country
Making Moves
Facebook acquires cloud gaming service PlayGiga for $78 million
"We are continuing our work in cloud gaming, now with a new mission"
Acquisition
N3twork picks up NBCUniversal's abandoned match-three puzzler Funko Pop Blitz
"N3twork’s expertise in creating moments through events that excite fans is a perfect match with Funko"
2019 In Review
1,700 staff, 20 games in development, 8 acquisitions, 2 billion dollar games: Playrix's stellar 2019
Head of marketing Alexander Derkach drops some stats
Join The Monolith
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild developer looking to expand staff for sequel
Monolith Soft has been ramping up since the year's start
Testing Testing
Activision Blizzard unveils "King's Council" group to test mobile ads
Specialist players sought out depending on their playtime and engagement factor
A Long Time Ago
Disney Magic Kingdoms calls on the force with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker update
"It is a dream to welcome Star Wars to Disney Magic Kingdoms"
Lining Them Up
Shadowgun War Games hits half a million pre-registrations
"We’re thrilled at the response we’ve had since pre-reg launched in mid-November"
Subscriptions
Update: Apple Arcade annual subscription launched at $49.99
12 months for the price of 10
Three Of A Kind
Keywords Studios makes $12 million triple acquisition of Ichi, Kantan and Syllabes
"We are delighted to have made three high calibre acquisitions"
Oh My Stars
Supercell's Brawl Stars generates $422 million from first year
South Korean players make up $93 million of the overall total
Kinda Mobile
Kinda Funny's Greg Miller and Tim Gettys on Apple Arcade and Google Stadia
"Google Stadia failed on its first impression"
Surfin' Success
App Annie: Subway Surfers was the most downloaded mobile game of the decade
Clash of Clans tops consumer spend for the last 10 years
Caught Short
Apple rejects PewDiePie's latest mobile game Poopdie citing "crude imagery"
Developer Bulbware has launched an appeal to get the decision overturned
Jackpot
Devil May Cry: Pinnacle of Combat slashes its way to 500,000 pre-registrations
Licensed mobile title delayed to 2020
It's Acquisition Time
Animoca Brands snap ups Power Rangers: Legacy Wars developer nWay for $7.69 million
Animoca "immensely excited about the nWayPlay platform"
Seeking Audience
Mobile games shouldn’t be at The Game Awards - and that’s fine
Wrong time. Wrong place. Wrong audience
Accelerating
Mario Kart Tour downloads slump but revenue shows reasons for optimism
Player spending per download nearly doubled since first month
Expansion
UK dev Exient expands headcount as it focuses on new license deals
“The success of Lemmings has borne this out”
Whole New World
Update: Gameloft delays Disney Getaway Blast until 2020
Game set to launch "very soon"
Jobs In Games
IronSource's Sandra Schneider on using ads to improve retention and monetisation
"Whenever I recruit someone today, the first thing I do is give them a long list of top games to play"
Starting New
Pole To Win opens new game studio - Orange Rock Studios
The time to be disruptive is now
Happy Bird-day
Angry Birds celebrates 10 years with PUBG crossover and K-Swiss footwear
Now a phenomenon
Super Hero
Five years on, Marvel Contest of Champions is still growing strongly
Did $3 million on Black Friday
Nindies
Sports Story, Dauntless and Axiom Verge 2 headline Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase
16 games shown off during the December direct