Roblox Recap
70 new Roblox experiences surpassed 1 billion visits in 2022
With an incredible 15,900 new experiences being added daily
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
Lots Of Licences
Happy Chinese New Year! Regulators grant 88 new game licences
Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo and others to benefit with new licences for games such as Honkai: Star Rail
Scaling Up
Flexion bolsters its management with key hires and promotions
Victor Horbach promoted to general manager of the newly formed Distribution unit
Marketing Masterplan
New Fire Emblem Engage characters emerge on mobile first
Ahead of the game's Switch launch, it's mobile players that get to see Nintendo's new characters
Declining A Deal
Apology not accepted. NetEase refuses to take Activision Blizzard back
The refusal of a new, extended deal means that games licences in China for World of Warcraft and more could expire soon
Qyou Acquisition
QYOU Media acquires 51% of Maxamtech Digital Ventures, sets sights on remaining 49%
The majority stake has been acquired for an undisclosed amount
Racing And Riding
Nexon’s new KartRider game races onto mobile with a Premium Racing Pass for bonus challenges
KartRider: Drift launches simultaneously on PC and mobile
Crypto Coin Coming
Hypercasual goliath Voodoo is launching its own blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency
Approximately 10 blockchain games are currently in development
Gpu Upgrade
Imagination Technologies reveals IMG DXT: an immersion-boosting GPU for mobile games
The new GPU has 2.25 teraflops at FP32
Global Gaming
The Global Game Jam returns later this month as a hybrid event
The world’s biggest annual games creation event takes place from 30 January to 5 February 2023
Openly Optimistic
Why mobile developers should be optimistic about 2023
In spite of 2022’s mobile revenue dip, 2023 is on the up. Kim Soares highlights the industry’s continued upward trajectory when omitting pandemic blip
About Ua
Matej Lancaric shares his tough love UA strategies, ATT response and more
Suggested UA channels include Meta, TikTok, Google Ads and others, while Facebook gets short shrift
Genshin's First-ever Exhibition
Genshin Impact hosts its first art exhibition with life-size characters
The Paris-based exhibit features more than 16 original pieces of concept art
A Year At Homa
Victor Vielliard reflects on Homa’s "landmark" 2022, from 1 billion downloads to 20 new games
Social media milestones, game installs, funding and more highlighted in LinkedIn post
Aiming For Acquisition Approval
The list of nations approving Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition grows
Among the approving nations are Brazil, Serbia and Chile
Stakes And Shares
Tencent becomes second-biggest shareholder in South Korean studio Shift Up
20 percent stake in Goddess of Victory: Nikke co-creator acquired
Actively Acquiring
Moon Active to acquire Zen Match from Good Job Games
The associated Istanbul-based team will also be joining
Increasing Installs
Kwalee saw 12% revenue growth and 200 million downloads in 2022
The last year at Kwalee saw it nearing the major one billion milestone
Trends In 2022
Azur Games summarises trends in gaming through 2022
Idle, puzzle, strategy and more outlined in genre-based trends
China And Cyberspace
China’s Cyberspace Administration plans to confront mobile app "chaos"
The body aims to tackle a supposed prevalence of fake apps, illegal data collection and more
Keywords Acquires
Keywords acquires Labcom with initial $1 million cash consideration
Keywords' expansion continues following new Australian studios and Helpshift acquistion
Aims Of An Acquisition
RuneScape creator Jagex acquires Croatian studio Gamepires
Acquisition aiming to enable open-world game Scum to be prepared for a 1.0 release
Tackling Tiktok
15 state attorneys general demand Apple and Google change TikTok’s age rating
Mobile's two biggest players requested to address concerns around the content on the platform before the end of 2022
Investment In Istanbul
Turkish studio Pink Games has $1.2 million valuation after first investment
Investment comes from Geometry Venture Development, Alesta Investment and an individual investor
Adjustments In Ads
Tenjin and InMobi’s monetisation report shows short-term effects of Google Play’s new ad policy
Ad impressions increased by nine percent and revenues by five percent
People Positivity
CALM research finds gaming has a positive impact on mental health
Gaming helps people to connect, CALM finds
New To Netflix
ElectricNoir's Scriptic: Crime Stories is "a new category of digital entertainment" now on Netflix Games
An hour-long live-action crime drama played on mobile
Supersonic Studio
Sega opens new California-based office to encourage creativity and facilitate streaming
Office will be a space for 235 employees across Sega and Atlus
Lucky Seven
Nintendo’s most successful mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes celebrates Version 7.0.0 update
Book 7, new characters, in-game celebrations and more
A Platform To Empower
The Mirror platform aims to someday be "akin to a next-gen Roblox"
$2.3 million raised in pre-seed funding; led by Founders Fund
Revenue Results
Genshin Impact makes it to $4 billion revenue as PUBG Mobile reaches $9 billion
Installs for both games are down compared to last year
Alleged Arrest
Yuji Naka reportedly arrested for second time in three weeks over insider trading allegations
Trading investigation relates to Square Enix’s Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises
A Helping Of Hires
Supercell starts up two new studios, with four ex-Riot employees on board
Steve Desilets, Matt Mocarsk, Maya Kylmamaa, Kevin J Bray, Candace Thomas and Charles Lee all join Supercell
Engineering Experience
Roblox snaps up Apple Veteran John Stauffer as VP of engineering
Following 23 years at Apple with the past 14 of those years as VP of Apple’s Interactive Media Group
Pinball-esque Play
Infinity Games’ Flipper Island could be the start of a new idle genre
New iOS title made within 48 hours
Cross Worlds Celebration
Celebrations and content galore as Netmarble’s Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds reaches 200 days
200 days on from Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds’ global launch
Dragalia's Final Day
Nintendo’s first mobile IP Dragalia Lost closed down this morning
A retrospective of Dragalia Lost’s four-year journey
End Of An Era
How Apple’s ATT could end the current free-to-play gaming era
Privacy changes continue to have significant consequences for many devs
Business Casual
X-Flow invests $6 million in casual developer Plummy Games after Star Merge launch
Company founded by veterans of Peak Games
Mobile Monopoly
Apple and Google investigated by UK regulator over suspected cloud gaming and mobile duopoly
In the UK, 97 percent of mobile web browsing took place on Apple and Google browsers last year
Adtech Approach
New advertising platform immersiion uses new "hybrid" approach to reach gamers
Launched by adtech firm iion for mobile, PC, console and more
Making It In Ar Mobile
Pokémon Go to Minecraft Earth: the successes and failures of AR mobile games
Can anyone compete with Pokémon Go’s success in the AR genre?
Sprouting Seedlings
Can a push from Nintendo help Pikmin Bloom recapture the magic of Pokémon Go?
Pikmin Bloom’s first anniversary features a Nintendo Switch crossover event
Data On Diversity
A mere 1.87% of venture capital is allocated to minority-owned startups, Diversity VC finds
Survey carried out between 28 June 2022 and 20 September 2022
Appgallery Achievements
Huawei AppGallery surpasses 220,000 HMS apps and 580 million user milestones
Achieved since the initial launch in 2018
Financial Findings
Unity’s latest financial report reveals $322.9 million in Q3 2022 revenue and predict Q4 earnings
Up by 13% from Q3 2021
Workforce Adjustments
Approximately 7% of employees laid off from Kabam after reviewing "strategic priorities"
Around 35 of company’s 500+ employees have been let go
Nintendo Numbers
Nintendo mobile downloads "equivalent to the cumulative unit sales total of all Nintendo hardware"
The milestone of 800 million downloads since 2016 was achieved in October
Growing Globally
Gismart opens new office in Warsaw with compensated language courses offered
The company’s latest European centre currently employs 40 staff members
Lacking Licences
October saw the return of no new game licences in China for the first time in six months
But concerns of another licence freeze may be overly hasty