Court Case Conflict
US Supreme Court refuses to hear Apple’s appeal on Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm requests that justices reject the appeal
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
Shutdown
101 Studio becomes ByteDance’s first games unit closure
Some staff will reportedly transfer to Bytedance's games division, Nuverse
Tencent Titles
Tencent Games revealed 44 products and 26 game updates at SPARK 2022
Games include League of Legends Esports Manager and Return to Empire
Moving Metaverses
Jon Vlassopulos steps from Roblox to join Dubit advisory board
Responsibilities include advising on metaverse strategies and brand partnerships, whilst retaining advisory capacity at Roblox
Brand Benefit
Layer aims to streamline processes between games and brands
Matchmaking IP holders with game developers within its platform
Bounty Hunting
CloudFeather Games raises $1.25 million in seed funding round
"Bounty Hunting" SDK aims to tap into competitive side of gamers
Reality Rebrand
Reality Gaming Group rebrands to Reality+ with move to full-service Web3
NFTs and blockchain using "side-chain" of Ethereum mainnet
Subscription Prediction
Ericsson projects more than 1 billion 5G subscriptions in 2022
1.1 billion prediction tweaked following invasion of Ukraine
Hardware Happenings
Tencent rumoured to have entered hardware space with XR ambitions
Three sources suggest an extended reality business is in the works
Chipset Court Case
Qualcomm wins four-year battle against $1 billion fine from EU antitrust regulators
Following accusations of paying Apple for exclusive use of Qualcomm chipsets
Cause To Captivate
User acquisition to be dominated by three key factors: predictive analytics, automation, and data privacy
Tempr. report suggests casual mobile games will especially benefit from predictive analysis
Multimedia... Maybe?
Nexon eyes a multimedia western expansion for its biggest franchises
Discussions between the publisher and independent film and television production company AGBO to translate MapleStory and Dungeon & Fighter beyond games
About An Acquisition
Uncapped acquires gaming finance provider Sugar for undisclosed amount
New brand name "Sugar powered by Uncapped"
Prediction Positivity
McKinsey & Company report predicts $5 trillion in metaverse earnings by 2030
Between $2 trillion and $2.6 trillion could come from e-commerce
Investment With Intent
MSA Novo invests in Tamatem Games' Chinese expansion
New partnership forged between companies to bring "top-tier" mobile games to the Arabic-speaking market
Bringing The Beats
A mobile games and music industries first: Beatstar releases early exclusive of Black Eyed Peas, Shakira new single
Space Ape's Simon Hade speaks with PocketGamer.biz on how the new single became available to play through Beatstar two days ahead of global release
Spending On Subscriptions
Liftoff and AppsFlyer report considers untapped potential in subscription-model mobile games
11% of subscription-model apps are games
European Expansion
Wargaming opens new studios in Poland and Serbia
Officially pulled out of Russia and Belarus
Predicting And Projecting
Sensor Tower: player spending on mobile games reaching $117 billion by 2026
Apps to outpace games in terms of spending, but gaming predicted to remain the largest individual category.
Browser Bash
Google and Apple’s mobile browser dominance investigated by UK regulator
UK competition regulator announces plans to take action against the tech giants' hold over browsers and cloud gaming
Financial Findings
Netmarble’s Q1 2022 results show 43% fall in EBITDA year-over-year
Casual games found to be Netmarble’s most lucrative genre
Next Netflix Games
The Queen’s Gambit mobile game and more announced during Netflix’s Geeked Week
Working with developers such as Ripstone, Nanobit, and Chimera Entertainment
New To Netflix
Desta: The Memories Between announced in Netflix partnership
A new title in partnership between ustwo and Netflix
Subscription Success
GameRefinery: creative battle pass implementation found in 60% of the top grossing mobile games
Gacha and battle pass elements are integrating into many genres
Eclipsing Events
E3 rivalled as Geoff Keighley confirms physical Summer Game Fest for 2023
Next Summer Game Fest announced to be digital and in-person
Going Global
Honor of Kings global mobile launch confirmed for 2022
Honor of Kings is confirmed to be coming to launching globally later this year on mobile.
Polish Expansion
Amber to open Polish studio following 56% revenue growth
Studio to be headed by game designer Greg Ciach
Stakes And Shares
Saudi Arabia acquires 8.1% of Embracer Group with $1 billion stake
Via subsidiary Savvy Gaming Group
Growing Into Germany
iCandy sets sights on the metaverse with a 60% stake in Flying Sheep Studios
Total consideration for the stake is $2.14 million
Developer Deals
Keywords Studios enters conditional $32.5 million acquisition of Forgotten Empires
Maximum value of the acquisition, with initial cash consideration of $15.75 million
May Merriment
Apex Legends Mobile and Ni No Kuni boost US mobile performance in May, GameRefinery finds
Report analyses mobile sectors in US, Japan, and China
Environmental Events
MAG hosts reforestation initiative in third consecutive Playing for the Planet appearance
In-game events themed around reforestation developed at Green Game Jam
A Wealth Of Winners
Apple Design Awards 2022 crown six mobile game winners from inclusivity to innovation
Marvel Future Revolution, Star Wars: Castaways, Overboard!, Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, Wylde Flowers, and A Musical Story awarded at the annual celebration of design
Director Deluge
Annapurna Interactive makes multiple hires to internal development studio
Helmed by game director Chelsea Hash, the new additions – Brett Lajzer, Evan Hembacher, and Cosimo Galluzzi – will push forward with an unannounced project
Prospering Pikachu
Pokémon GO celebrates lifetime player spending of $6 billion
Sensor Tower data reveals the game has averaged $1 billion per year since launch
Co-development Deal
Mighty Kingdom and Lion Studios partner to develop unnamed title
Partnering for 12 months of co-development
Apple And Apps
68% of mobile games devs find marketing more difficult following Apple ATT
Tenjin and Growth FullStack speak to PocketGamer.biz on their latest report which states 99% of developers plan to use alternative Android stores this year
Player Power
Sky Mavis reveals player-generated games using Axie Infinity IP
Selected games from the Builders Program granted a minimum of $10,000 in AXS
Blockchain Breakthrough
Square Enix is creating an NFT ecosystem with Animoca Brands
Partnering with Animoca Brands to develop Web3 plans
Locational Layoffs
Playtika to lay off 250 employees as it closes three development studios
London, Los Angeles, and Montreal studios are closing, Helsinki studio considered
Metaverse Motoring
Infinite Drive is steering towards the metaverse
The Tiny Digital Factory has revealed its next racing game with Web3 and NFTs
Heaps Of Holiday
tinyBuild is trailing limitless paid time off until end of year
Mandatory minimum of two weeks remains in place
Subscription Service
3 Network operator, CK Hutchison, and Gameloft to launch "All You Can Play" service
Titles like Asphalt Nitro 2 and Sonic Runners Adventure included
Alternative App Stores
Android games make $50 million through alternative app stores, states Flexion
“Essentially a bonus for games that already do great in Google Play,” claims CEO Jens Lauritzson
Latest Lawsuit
Apple loses bid to dismiss app store lawsuit
Alternative app store Cydia originally accused Apple of continuing an unlawful monopoly in January 2020
Gaming And Golfing
New PGA golf game utilises Niantic Lightship AR tech
Developer by Trigger as an educational, utility game
Readjusting To Remote
Gismart is shifting to remote-first working as of June 2022
Flexibility to work from anywhere in the world
An Apex App
Apex Legends Mobile player spend reached $4.8 million in first week
The most downloaded game in 60 countries following initial launch
Mobile Manoeuvre
20% of all first-party releases will be mobile by 2025, says Sony
Playstation CEO Jim Ryan also stated that 10% of first-party releases will be mobile within 2022
Making Of
Square Valley dev Ryan Becijos: "It definitely was challenging to stay motivated working on a project part-time"
Rycekube founder Ryan Becijos shares the tabletop inspirations for his first title and former PocketGamer.biz Game of the Week, Square Valley