Esport Support
Marcos Gaming completes pre-seed round to bolster Indian Esports
Funding from India Accelerator, Finvolve and SucSEED Ventures will support content creation, community growth and more
Staff
Aaron Astle
Job Title
News Editor
About Aaron is the News Editor at PG.biz and has an honours degree in Creative Writing.
Having spent far too many hours playing Pokémon, he's now on a quest to be the very best like no one ever was...at putting words in the right order.
Articles by Aaron Astle
Startup Synergy
Unicorn Factory Lisboa opens The Gaming Hub in Portugal to support startup developers
Fortis Games has opened a Libson-based studio in partnership with the programme
New Year Goals
Square Enix promise greater globalisation and "aggressive" use of AI
Square Enix has begun 2024 with its familiar new year letter outlining the good and the bad and its global intentions ahead
Best Of 2023
Aaron Astle's top stories of 2023: Monster Hunter Now's $100m success, the future of livestreaming, and pesky App Store fees
From giant games to monetisation models… PocketGamer.biz news editor Aaron Astle picks his favourite stories from throughout 2023
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games to check out this holiday season
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Platform Power
Tencent is advertising DreamStar on ByteDance platforms in competition with NetEase
After a fierce rivalry, Tencent and ByteDance are finally warming up to one another
Kotick Conclusion
Leadership changes under Microsoft as Bobby Kotick departure date confirmed
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard means leadership changes and a transition period ahead
Fashion Fanatics
Tilting Point, Hilfiger Ventures and Brandible prepare to launch AI fashion game
FashionVerse will aim to leverage modern technology to scale the fashion world
Billion Brilliance
Royal Match and League of Legends: Wild Rift among 19 games to cross $1 billion in revenue in 2023
A total of 26 mobile apps surpassed the milestone this year
Metacore Manoeuvre
Metacore appoints new CTO in first key hire at Berlin studio
Sérgio Laranjeira’s former roles include senior director of engineering at Delivery Hero and engineering manager at Zalando and N26
Kaiju Closure
Tencent’s Team Kaiju closes
Team Kaiju is believed to have secretly closed this June, with most staff reassigned to other projects
Epic Response
Epic Games blasts Google's settlement with US states as "no true relief for consumers or developers"
Epic Games has released a settlement following the reveal of Google’s $700 million settlement
Cma Concerns
UK's CMA to resume cloud gaming and mobile web browser investigation
Investigations into Apple and Google will resume on January 24 2024
Google Grumbles
Google agrees to pay $700 million and change app store rules after antitrust settlement
The results of Google’s loss against 50 US attorneys general are finally revealed
Legacy Leak
Apple TestFlight "teraleak" exposes thousands of beta apps as far back as 2012
TestFlight is designed to enable internal and external beta testing on Apple devices
Finding Flexibility
Embracer Group secures credit and loan extension to 2025 as it restructures to clear debt
Embracer Group finally cashes in good news for the end of 2023
Zenless Zenith
Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse opens closed beta for latest game Zenless Zone Zero
Title likely to see a full release in 2024
Sprouting Seeds
Barnyard Games raises $3.4m in seed round to make games for Fortnite
Menlo Ventures led the round with participation from BetaWorks, Alumni Ventures, Charge VC and others
Acquisition Ahoy
Keywords Studios acquires The Multiplayer Group for £76.5M
Keywords has bought The Multiplayer Group from its former owner Improbable following interest in "blue-chip client base"
Hot Five
Hot Five: MyGamez raises $1.6m, Peak soft launches Star Match, and Monster Hunter Now hits $100m
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from Goat Simulator chaos to a cat café RPG
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Latest In Leadership
Thunderful Group appoints four new executives in leadership shift-up
Thunderful Group’s CGO will stay on as an advisor during the transitional period
Layoff After Layoff
A third of the workforce slashed in 2023 as Hasbro lets go another 1,100 roles
Hasbro’s toyline sales slump is to blame, not its video games
Ad Application
Ad creative analysis: How to enhance ad performance in 2024
Tenjin and ObtainAds have joined forces for a report on the current state of the ad creative space and where it’s going next
Allstar Series A
Zynga and Activision Blizzard-backed Allstar raises another $12 million for content creation tools
Investors from Zynga and Activision Blizzard have previously backed Allstar; now Drive Capital has led a $12 million Series A round
Support From Supercell
Supercell co-founder supports $1.6M funding round in Chinese publisher MyGamez
Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja, Small Giant Games co-founder Timo Soininen, Reworks co-founder Ilkka Teppo and former Riot China head of operations Daniel Wang are on board
Sweeney's Success
"The end of these ridiculous 30% fees is near." Tim Sweeney crows victory in Epic Vs Google battle
Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney has been taking to social media and more to celebrate his win over Google
End Of An Era
E3 is dead. And for good this time
The legacy of E3, with over a quarter of a century of gaming reveals, platform victories, surprise success and crushing defeat has comes to an end
Wordy Wonka
Chocs away! Word With Friends 2 lands Wonka movie multimedia promo
Zynga and Warner Bros. Pictures partner for cross-promotional campaigns
Magic Mag
MAG Interactive records biggest year yet after Wordzee marketing push
MAG Interactive recorded net sales of $34.6 million this year, at a 10% yearly increase
Guilty Google
An Epic victory: Google found guilty of illegal monopoly in Epic lawsuit
The Epic vs Google case has reached a verdict with a unanimous jury vote finding in favour of CEO Tim Sweeney's anti-App Store crusade
Coming To Conquer
First mobile-exclusive Civilization game gets a rebrand under soft launch
Conquests and Alliances is officially rebranded as Civilization: Eras & Allies
Puzzle Power
Zach Gage and Orta Therox’s puzzle platform Puzzmo acquired by Hearst Newspapers
Gage is the dev behind SpellTower, Wordbind, Knotwords and more
Data Decisions
Apple’s privacy push continues with big implications come "Spring 2024"
Developers must be ready for Apple’s privacy manifest requirements and third-part SDK policy changes
Monster In The Making
Monster Hunter Now is a roaring success, making $100 million in under three months
Another milestone for Monster Hunter Now solidifies Niantic’s latest success
Hot Five
Hot Five: Activision Blizzard’s app store alternative, Google Play’s download dominance and a 3D Candy Crush
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from Sonic’s latest adventure to a gyroscopic rhythm game
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Ads Ahead
Google Ads overhaul: AdInMo and Usercentrics prepare for the big changes due January 2024
A case study with Black Smoke Studios shows that 83% of players are still willing to provide basic personal information
Audio Ads
Odeeo claims over 90% of audio ads are not skipped by gamers
Odeeo’s research provides tips on designing the ideal audio ads
Subs Only
3D Sonic adventure Sonic Dream Team launches as an Apple Arcade exclusive
This marks Hardlight’s second exclusive Sonic game on Apple Arcade
Candy Crown
King soft launch Candy Crush 3D: Is their next crowning victory on its way?
King stealthily reveals Candy Crush 3D on the Google Play Store
About Apple Ads
Apple Search Ads and SKAdNetwork make waves as marketing attributions rise 55% in two years
Kochava’s State of Mobile Measurement 2023 report reveals how the landscape has changed since ATT
Plenty To Predict
Candy Crush to lose its crown in 2024? But overall mobile game revenues will be up
As 2023 comes to a close, data.ai makes its predictions in mobile gaming, AI and more for the new year ahead
Twitch Pullback
Twitch is pulling out of Korea after "significant" losses with "no pathway forward"
Twitch’s costs in Korea are too high, so the platform is leaving the country next February
Heroes Heights
Nintendo pulls out the stops for Fire Emblem Heroes' billion-dollar future
Nintendo’s biggest mobile game gears up for its next major update and Book 8’s opening chapters
American Ascent
The US accounted for 53.5% of casual game installs in Q3, but what are the hottest genres globally?
Monopoly GO and Subway Surfers prove to be the quarter’s most downloaded games
Download Disparity
Q3's biggest genres saw 700% more downloads on Google Play than Apple App Store
A total of 12.36 billion downloads across top three Android genres VS 1.54 billion on iOS
Platform Psychology
Former Activision Blizzard CEO supports GameTree's $1.7M seed round for AI app to unite gamers
The funding round saw support from Ukraine’s former president and a former Activision Blizzard CEO
Activision App Store
Activision Blizzard, Epic Games and Supercell considered forming a Google Play competitor
The Epic vs Google case reveals past plans for an app store alliance
Beastly Balancing
Monster Hunter Now enters new season with "major update" promised every quarter
New balancing, monsters and weapons are on their way to Niantic’s second-biggest game