Dream Land
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate mashes the competition at Japan Game Awards 2019
All-star fighting title took top honour among several other awards on the night
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
Finding Balance
How Wargaming is tweaking its strategy in the search for new hits, while remaining totally tanked up
We catch up with Andrew Muesse about the studio’s new business units
A Challenger Appears
No ads, no IAPs: GameClub's iOS subscription service to launch this fall
Price point will be “extremely competitve” to Apple Arcade
Squeezed Funnel
GameAnalytics: Top 25% mobile games have average Day 28 retention of 4%
New report takes data from 1.2 billion monthly active players
Words With Hackers
Zynga cyber-attack sees some Words With Friends and Draw Something accounts hacked
No financial information believed to have been accessed
Live And Kicking
How Gummy Drop amassed 1.8 billion hours of gameplay in five years
"To date, the game offers players over 10,000 levels, 90 plus cities to travel to and over 1,000 monuments to rebuild"
Court Case
Nintendo files lawsuit against ROM website RomUniverse
Switch creator is seeking up to $2 million for each trademark infringement
What's In The Box?
Loot boxes should be classed as gambling says UK committee of MPs
MPs demand a change to the law
Jobs In Games
Zynga senior director of product Heather Houston on 'treating your career as a product'
Making sense of an incredibly dynamic industry
Licensing Not Publishing
Disney reportedly looking to offload Marvel Strike Force developer FoxNext Games
House of the mouse no longer interested in game development
Indie Spotlight
How KIDS dev Playables thrives in the intersection between animation and games
"We are still naive enough to believe that if you create something good, it will find an audience"
Looking Up
Playtika's scale is inspiring to us says Wooga's Jens Begemann
Berlin-based studio CEO shares his thoughts on acquisition, streaming and privacy
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Pokemon Masters tops US free App Store rank
Rankings from August 26th to October 1st
Exclusive Games
Apple Arcade, iPhone 11 and Pascal’s Wager headline Apple Special Event
Numerous new exclusive games announced
Paid The Game
Apple Arcade launches September 19th at $4.99/month
One-month free trial available
Good Gamble
Giant Network shows dark fantasy title Pascal’s Wager at Apple Conference
Game looks to take inspiration from Dark Souls series
Shovel Talk
Yacht Club Games' COO James Chan on potential 'sophomore slump' for Shovel Knight sequel
Still hopes to bring brand to mobile
Must Be Fate
Sony’s Fate/Grand Order tops mobile revenue for August at $163 million
PUBG Mobile followed with more than $160 million
Jeopardy
Drivetime secures $11 million in funding to expand game audio library for users while driving
Newest game sees Jeopardy with host Alex Trebek join the line up
Masterful
Pokemon Masters raked in $26 million from first week
Title surpassed 10 million downloads in less than four days
Court Case
Niantic settles trespassing lawsuit three years after Pokemon Go launched
Spouting up like Weedles
Series C Investment
VRChat secures $10 million in funding to expand team
Investment comes from Makers Fund, HTC, Brighstone VC and GFR Fund
Lovin It
AppLovin invests in Belka Games, Firecraft Studios and PeopleFun
“Strategic investments in dynamic studios with high-quality games and outstanding leadership is an important part of our goal"
Share This
Next Games looking to raise $8.85 million by offering shares in the studio
“The third and final phase of the turnaround project is to secure additional funding”
Seamless Loading
NCSoft's latest potential mobile blockbuster Lineage 2 M set to release in Q4
Previous titles Lineage M and Lineage 2 Revolution both made over $1 billion
Project Xcloud
Microsoft partners with SK Telecom on 5G-based cloud gaming in South Korea
“Partnerships, like the one we announced with SK Telecom today, are critical to continuing that trajectory and moving the gaming industry forward”
Shadow Drop
Update: Pokemon Go has best month for revenue in three years
Worldwide catch 'em all brings in $110 million as Dr. Mario World ends run as worst-performing mobile game from Nintendo
Keep Talking
Indie Spotlight: Steel Crate Games co-founder on the uncertainty of premium mobile games
If you don't enjoy the process and experience of game development, there are far more likely paths to wealth
Job News
Age of Learning appoints former Disney Asia head Paul Candland as CEO
“Paul’s outstanding talent and business acumen will greatly accelerate our growth in providing our world-class educational solutions”
Education
Nintendo UK partners with Digital Schoolhouse on UKIE “play-based learning” programme
“DSH has evolved enormously in just three years and their support means we can reach more pupils and teachers than ever”
Smashing
Nintendo Switch games dominated Amazon for the month of August
Six of the top 10 best-selling games for the month were attributed to the console
Gotta Sync ‘em All
Pokemon Masters champions 10 million downloads in four days
Number one for downloads across 27 countries including the US and Japan
New Studio
Fate/Grand Order developer Type-Moon opens new subsidiary studio
New location is headed up by Dragon Quest Builders series director Kazuya Niinou
Deal Closed
Annapurna Pictures reportedly resolves more than $200 million in debt
The agreed deal will see participants in revolving credit facility receive an estimated $0.82 on the dollar
Jobs In Games
"Game design isn’t all about grand ideas and blue-sky visions of exciting new games"
“The devil is in the detail”
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Olivér Papp on why it's important to acknowledge your learnings at the end of a project
"You gained so much knowledge and experience during your journey and you should acknowledge it"
Top Dog
How Zynga used M&A and forever franchises to become the world's number one mobile games company
"Personally, this is actually a quest that I’ve been going after since my days at EA Mobile"
Dig This
Gamescom 2019: New Shovel Knight game to launch on mobile
Announcement could be made at Pax West, according to Yacht Club Games COO James Chan
Gamescom
Cyberpunk 2077, Orcs Must Die 3 and Watch Dogs: Legion lead Google's Gamescom Stadia Connect
“It's kind of the same feeling I got when I saw the iPhone coming and what I thought that would mean for games”
Streaming
Devcom 2019: “Cloud gaming will begin with families”
PlayGiga director of product Juan Carrillo shared how the technology will take over in three phases
One In Four
Devcom 2019: 26% of the US has a disability that affects them playing games
46 million players across the country
Devcom 2019
Devcom 2019: “The best way to get a successful outcome of a publisher signing you is by letting them know your gaps”
Maximum Games CEO Christina Seelye details key elements of obtaining a publisher
Interview
“We view our development process more like a marathon than a sprint, so it makes no sense to have a crunch culture”
Future Games of London MD Ian Harper discusses how the studio aims to look after employees and fights off toxicity and crunch culture
Sensor Tower
Good Job Games’ Fun Race 3D tops downloads for hyper-casual games in July
Voodoo’s Aquapark.io slides to second spot
There Are Dozens Of Us
Pokemon Masters has five million Trainers already pre-registered
Release date tentatively set for August 29th
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Fortnite’s mechs send the battle royale hit to number one in the US
Rankings from July 29th to August 4th
Lawsuit Dropping In
Epic Games struck with class-action lawsuit over Fortnite account hacks
More than 100 class members have filed the document against battle royale phenomenon
Trump Tariffs
US video game console and mobile tariff delayed until December
“As part of USTR’s public comment and hearing process, it was determined that the tariff should be delayed to December 15 for certain articles”
Moving On
Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell leaves virtual reality company
“Virtual reality is still on the bleeding edge of technology, and this community continues to pioneer the way forward”
Dark Days
Isbit Games closes after running out of funds
“We have been working very hard to fight for the survival of the studio”