Building Bricks
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen joins LEGO’s board of directors days after Squad Busters’ soft launch
Ilkka Paananen and YouTube Studio’s director of product Ebi Atawodi were appointed on April 26th
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
A Soda Saga
King’s Paula Ingvar: a games industry journey from "I’m not worthy!" to Candy Crush Soda’s VP of product
Paula Ingvar moved from traffic engineering to the games industry following encouragement from friends and has "only ever found it stimulating"
Loads Of Layoffs
A Thinking Ape lays off staff across game design, software engineering, art teams and more
Layoffs continue to impact the games industry as restructuring persists in 2024
Hot Five
Hot Five: Supercell’s Squad Busters levels up, retro Nintendo on iOS, and Genshin Impact’s worst month yet
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from cartoony cats to sports stars
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Monster Milestone
Monster Hunter Now reaches 15 million downloads
Monster Hunter Now reached 10 million installs in 35 days but its taken another six months to gain five million more
Do Tell, Hotel
Pokémon Sleep goes IRL with $1,800 hotel experience for fans
To coincide with the game’s first anniversary, Pokémon Sleep is partnering with the Grand Hyatt Tokyo
Emulation Sensation
Everyone loves Nintendo… Delta emulator hits 4.4 million downloads in its first week
Since Apple lifted its ban on retro emulators, playing Nintendo games on iOS has never been simpler… Or more free
Noncompete No More
FTC bans noncompete work clauses to encourage entrepreneurialism and higher pay
The ruling should bring about 8,500 new businesses per year and bolster innovation
Tiktok Troubles
It's bad day for TikTok as both the US and EU clamp down
TikTok faces a rewards programme ban in the EU and a complete ban in the US unless it sells up
Warzone Wobble
Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile generated 'just' $6.92 million in its first month
Meanwhile its predecessor Call of Duty: Mobile’s launch month brought in over six times as much at $44 million
Art Ascends
King’s Trevor Burrows on the power of art: "We could see our numbers literally dropping"
Farm Heroes Saga has a willingness to experiment but importantly listens to its fans so taking a U-turn back from a "fresh, more contemporary art style" proved to be a smart move
Honkai Hoorah
Honkai: Star Rail earned more than double Genshin Impact’s revenue in March
Honkai: Star Rail generated $118.3 million in-game on mobile compared to Genshin Impact’s $58.5 million
King Of King
Tjodolf Sommestad talks AI, tips for indie devs, and a day in the life of King's president
It's all about "collaboration, curiosity, and transparency." Plus plenty of data-driven decisions
Crushing It
AI joins the team at King: "Our challenge is to create the right amount of challenge"
A day at King: Using AI in harmony with experts to craft evergreen games with the perfect balance
Loads Of Layoffs
Kwalee layoffs impact up to 10% of workforce, report claims
Kwalee has laid off up to 40 people as industry-wide job cuts continue
Brand Boost
Fallout Amazon series boosts Fallout Shelter downloads by 516%
Layer founder and CEO Rachit Moti discusses Fallout Shelter’s rise, including 384% daily revenue rise
Purchase Power
Roblox Marketplace opens up, outlining eligibility criteria for hopeful sellers
Roblox reveals which boxes need ticking and which hurdles need jumping in order to sell items to its 71 million users
Uk Ukie
UK video games market hits £7.82 billion valuation with mobile up 4.5%
Ukie’s Consumer Market Valuation Report reveals the UK games industry saw 4.4% YoY growth in 2023
Making Sense Of Slowdown
The IGDA calls for "sustainable measures" to stop mass layoffs and "stop driving talent away"
The International Game Developers Association calculates that more than 8,700 game developers have lost their jobs so far this year
Hot Five
Hot Five: XCOM Legends’ rumoured shutdown, Squad Busters verges on soft launch, and Royal Match reaches $3 billion
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from Disney denizens to a gen AI puzzle solver
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Spring Survey
Values Value and InGame Job launch the Big Games Industry Employment Survey 2024
The survey is looking to understand how layoffs are affecting confidence in the future of the games industry
Profit Power
ByteDance profits reportedly rise 60%, surpassing Chinese competitor Tencent
ByteDance has been pulling back from gaming after TikTok has played a greater role in the company’s surging revenues and profit
Web Shop Wisdom
Xsolla’s Andrey Kalugin talks web shops tips to get users out of mobile "jail"
Speaking at the Dubai GameExpo Summit 2023 powered by PG Connects, Andrey Kalugin suggested that devs should tailor their discounts since "whales don’t want to save money"
Subtenant Startups
InnoHub returns as InnoGames rents out office space to aspiring gaming startups
InnoGames is renting private workspaces ranging from 14m² to 200m² in size
Gaming Generations
62% of Gen Alpha gamers play 5+ hours per week, VS only 17% of Gen Z
Livewire’s 2024 Next Gen Attention report compares playing habits of Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha
Microsoft's Might
Microsoft saves the day: Activision Blizzard games are set to return to China in new NetEase deal
The untimely end of Activision Blizzard and NetEase’s deal meant that games such as Overwatch and World of Warcraft have spent over a year offline in China
Pocket Preservation
End of an era: Nintendo 3DS goes offline, but what does this mean for mobile?
It's game over for both Nintendo's 3DS and Wii U as their servers are finally turned off
Bot Backlash
Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile has a bot problem and players aren't happy
Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile’s Season 3 update has brought in a cascade of complaints
Speculative Shutdown
XCOM Legends shutdown rumoured as the game only made $2,637 last month
Iridium Starfish’s mobile spinoff of Mythos Games’ XCOM franchise took a different direction to the mainline that may have led to its downfall
Rainbow Recalibration
Rainbow Six Mobile’s rollout on pause as "areas for improvement" are addressed
The soft launch’s expansion has been delayed so the team can address feedback and improve the experience
Hot Five
Hot Five: New VC funds for mobile, Turkish investments, and Baby Shark makes a splash in Brawl Stars
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from bad botanists to bunny befrienders
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Merge And Match
Merge-2 revenue surges 10% while Match-3 flops by 11%
AppMagic data shows the highs and lows of February 2024, from revenue to downloads to winning events
Baby Brawlers
Brawl Stars collabs with YouTube’s most-viewed video Baby Shark
The partnership brings in-game cosmetics, a new challenge, and a Baby Shark pin to unlock
Super Stars
Brawl Stars crushed Clash of Clans’ monthly revenue in March
Meet the new champion. New features, events, content, and lead producer all help push Brawl Stars to greater heights
Investment Incoming
Ludus Ventures invests $1M in Turkish studio Midas Games
Midas Games plans to launch multiple titles later in 2024
Top Topics
10 games industry questions answered: From AI and alternative app stores to layoffs and more
Omdia's analysts and researchers spill the truth on the industry’s key topics, including post-pandemic recalibrations and the "ballooning development costs" of triple-A games
Hot Five
Hot Five: GDC highlights, Tencent’s strategy shift, and Candy Crush’s biggest tournament yet
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Five New Games
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile to CookieRun: Witch’s Castle
We highlight five new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Loads Of Layoffs
Sega lays off 240 employees and sells Relic Entertainment
Sega Europe, Creative Assembly and Sega HARDlight are all affected by the layoffs
Studio Suite
Pocket Worlds’ Highrise surpasses 40 million users as it unveils new development tools
Highrise Studio allows creators to make content that can be integrated into Highrise 4.0
Something To Sell
Embracer to sell Borderlands dev Gearbox to Take-Two in $460m deal
Gearbox games from Borderlands and Homeworld to Duke Nukem will fall under Take-Two’s possession
Green Gaming
$700,000 raised in Playing for the Planet’s Green Game Jam 2023
40 games were entered into the Green Game Jam, focused on preserving three endangered species
Major Milestone
Hypercasual developer FreePlay surpasses 1.5 billion downloads
The company's portfolio has generated 500 million installs during the last year alone
Funding Influx
Illuvium raises $12M funding for blockchain games
An open-world creature collector, city builder and autobattler will feature interoperable blockchain elements
King Calls
King appoints ex-TomTom and Zalando exec Eric Bowman as CTO
Steve Colins steps down from the role to explore AI and return to investment world
Dubai Gamexpo Summit 2023
Super Evil Megacorp’s Taewon Yun: "Gen AI is like a goldmine surrounded by a minefield"
Super Evil Megacorp chief business officer Taewon Yun’s talk at Dubai GameExpo Summit 2023 powered by PG Connects focused around AI and Web3
Iteration Inspiration
Report: Tencent's top studios developing Palworld-like mobile games
TiMi and Lightspeed studios are reportedly developing mobile games inspired by Palworld