Out Of Hiding
Social First launches with $2.5 million backing to create cross-platform, social games
Founded by industry veterans Kim Soares and Mikko Kähärä
Staff
Aaron Orr
About The man formerly known as News Editor.
Articles by Aaron Orr
Selfie Services
Pixelynx and Ready Player Me to bring selfie-generated 3D avatars to music metaverse
Will feature in upcoming music metaverse AR mobile game
Done Deal
Airnow and Lab Cave talk the importance of a shared vision for acquisitions
Both sides talk how the acquisition has given "new life" to Lab Cave
Ad Affinity
Anzu: 66% of UK gamers would welcome more ads in games
70% are positive or neutral towards in-game ads
Slowly Growing
Netflix games surpass 8 million downloads, says Apptopia
Teeter (Up) leads the 12 games at 820,000 downloads
On The Bandwagon
Gismart launches NFT collection BillionPeeps
Currently developing an upcoming blockchain project
First One
Kwalee acquires French narrative developer Tictales
Marks the studio’s first acquisition
Calling It An (ig)day
IGDA executive director Renee Gittins steps down
Transitioning to general manager of Canadian game dev Phoenix Labs
Na Release
Disney Twisted-Wonderland gets English release in US and Canada
Aniplex of America publishes the previously Japan-exclusive title
Part Of The Crew
Bandai Namco Mobile brings on former Brawl Stars artist Paul Chambers
Will focus on the creation of new F2P IP
Apac Predominance
Mobile games spending passed $93 billion in 2021, says Newzoo
Report indicates TikTok users are more likely to spend on mobile games
Maskgun Millions
MaskGun surpasses 60 million downloads in three years
Gets biggest update yet
Total Divestment
Update: Stillfront acquires 6Waves for $201 million, buys out Nexon's 34.8% stake for $93 million
Purchasing 26.5 million shares from Nexon
Jotaro...
KLab to distribute upcoming JoJo's Bizarre Adventure mobile game worldwide
Will be the first globally available mobile title from the franchise
Cfo To Consultant
Thunderful CFO Anders Maiqvist steps down
Will continue to consult the firm on games M&A
Starting To Spread
AviaGames begins global expansion, starting with UK
Bringing Solitaire Clash and Bingo Tour to the App Store
Apac Advertising
Anzu partners with Livewire to boost APAC ad reach in Roblox
Follows the increasing MAUs on the platform
Rising Arpdau
MAG Interactive Q1 sales increase 11%, despite decline in users
Boosted by strong performance of liveops
Aspiring Aspirants
Moonton launches Mobile Legends: Bang Bang NFTs on Binance
Featuring popular MLBB characters Layla and Fanny
Garena Of Africa
Carry1st raises $20 million to create the "Garena of Africa"
Will expand into the co-development of mobile games
Requiescat In Pace
Free Fire World Series to be held on Singapore island, Sentosa
Welcomes first collaboration of the year with Assassin’s Creed crossover event
Royally Funded
Royal Match sees Dream Games raise $255 million
Valued at $2.75 billion
Still Completely Free
Rocket League Sideswipe swiped 20 million downloads in 40 days
Reached number one in US and UK for December 2021
Progressive Play
Ryu Games' Lilly Contino on coming out as trans, representation, and personal achievements
"One of the significant issues is that trans people are simply not represented enough in professional environments"
Microsoft Monopolises
Microsoft: mobile gaming key to Activision Blizzard acquisition
Firm puts mobile at the forefront of the acquisition
Deep Breaths
Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion cash
Aims to bring its franchises to players "virtually anywhere"
Another One
Nukebox Studios launches blockchain branch
Looking to invest in new evergreen franchises
Adding Adtech
Nazara acquires majority stake adtech firm Datawrkz
An initial 33%, with the option to acquire a further 22% by Q4 2023
Sumo's Sold
Tencent closes acquisition of Sumo Group
Will operate under Tencent subsidiary, Tencent Bidco
Mobile In Menat
WePlay Ventures invested in more mobile companies in 2021 than console or PC
60% of portfolio is mobile games studios
Curtailed Copycats
Update: Apple shuts down Wordle clones on App Store
App Store guidelines tell developers to "come up with your own ideas"
Action Advances
Genshin Impact drove US Action mobile game spending in 2021
Hypercasual was the most downloaded genre
Boosting Blockchain
Forte acquires N3twork tech platform to boost blockchain growth
Will form new games focused studio, N3twork Studios
Four New Games
Mighty Kingdom and East Side Games partner to co-develop four mobile games
Two-year partnership will leverage original and existing IP
At It Again
Krafton sues Garena, Apple, and Google over Free Fire copyright infringement
Demands the app be removed and damages paid
Airnow Acquires
Airnow acquires mobile growth firm Lab Cave
CEO Luis Bertó will continue to lead
B2c Pro
Thunderful brings on former Playstation exec Kathrin Strangfeld
Reshuffles executive team
Almighty Acquisitions
Mobile games deals reached $15.5 billion in 2021, says Drake Star
Topped $85 billion in games deals across the board
Goat
App Annie: consumers spent $116 billion on mobile games in 2021
App Annie report Roblox and Genshin Impact boost player spending
Broadening The Board
Playtika brings Dana Gross and Hong Du onto the board
Brings total board members to seven
Getting Comfortable
PUBG Mobile takes top spot in December 2021 at $244 million
China makes up over half of all revenue for the battle royale
Best Year Yet
App Store developers earned $260 billion since launch
Up $60 billion from start of 2021
Itchy Twitter Fingers
Japan’s mobile games community dominated Twitter in 2021
Genshin Impact leads the conversations
Wow
Take-Two acquires Zynga at $12.7 billion valuation
Second largest games industry acquisition
Gamer's Guerdon
StageZero raises $1.8 million to reward mobile gamers for training AI
Will include labelling tasks which can help train virtual assistants
Strategic Signing
Azerion extends partnership to exclusively publish Ubisoft Nano titles
Will manage distribution and monetisation of titles
Competition Collaborators
Hashcube partners with wagering platform Pllay to integrate esports competitions
Provides access to over 20 million casual mobile gamers
Cheaters Come A Cropper
PUBG Mobile hackers to pay $10 million to Tencent and Krafton
Will be used to fund anti-cheat tech
Making New Frens
OP Games launches indie publishing arm GM Frens
Aims to bring indie developers onto the blockchain
Spearheading Subscriptions
Team17 acquires What the Golf? publisher The Label for up to $40 million
Foothold in mobile games subscriptions market