Ad Analysis
37 second video ads are most effective for hypercasual games
So claims Liftoff Vungle
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
Unite Highlight
Pokémon Unite wins best game at Google Play’s Best of 2021
Wild Rift, Overboard, and My Friend Pedro pick up two awards each
Ads With Audio
AudioMob partners with AWS to create in-game audio ads
Advertisers can reach users through multiple demographics, including location and language
New State Numbers
PUBG: New State made $2.6 million in its first week
Downloaded over 40 million times
The Joker Joins In
FunPlus and Warner Bros. bring The Joker to State of Survival
Follows the title's successful The Walking Dead collaboration
Boardgame Boost
Marmalade saw UK sales increase 144% during lockdowns
Downloads climbed 678% during third UK lockdown
Bitcoin Battling
Niantic partners with Fold to create AR Bitcoin metaverse experience
Gameplay involves finding and protecting your Bitcoin from other players
Hutch Hires
Hutch appoints three senior hires to further expand operations
Bringing experience from Sony, Fuse, Codemasters and more
Financial Findings
Ten Square Games saw an increase in installs in Q3 2021
Fishing Clash launched in China
Adding Api Ads
My.Games partners with PlayerWon to bring mobile-style rewarded ads for free-to-play PC developers
Starting with Guild of Heroes and Hustle Castle
Icelandic Expansion
Icelandic studio 1939 Games has opened a mobile games unit in Helsinki
Making the mobile version of KARDS
Where's The Hype?
Frogmind rebrands to HypeHype, Supercell invests $15 million
User-generated content platform optimised for touchscreens
Sweet Scaling
iCandy acquires Lemon Sky Studios for $32.4 million, raises $29.1 million
Backed by Animoca Brands
Make Some Moves
Nike brings Nikeland to the Roblox metaverse
Encourages players to get active using phones
Incentivised Shopping
Tapjoy launches in-app marketplace Tapjoy Shopping
Users are rewarded with in-app currencies for mobile games
Synergy Specialist
Stillfront appoints Disney and Blizzard veteran Amy Lee as SVP of synergies and operations
Coming from Blizzard Entertainment
Building Bases
PGC Digital: How to supercharge your player community
Neon Doctrine co-founder talks the benefits of social channels
Metasports
Dubit raises $8 million for esports in Roblox
Metaventures’ Jean-Charles Capelli leads the round
Pgc Digital Next
PGC Digital: How to make a top performing ad creative for any game
Adside VP of data and growth Sergei Riabov talks scaling ad creatives
Lock And Load
Free Fire Pro Series in US enters second stage, $50,000 up for grabs
More than 300 teams registered for the qualifiers
A-o-k
Tai Verdes and Roblox announce an exclusive avatar-led concert
Performance will include new single Let’s go to Hell
Winner?
Pokémon Go is the only mobile game shortlisted for Golden Joystick’s Ultimate Game
Other shortlisted games include Minecraft and Zelda: Breath of the Wild
New Boss
Saad Choudri appointed as Miniclip CEO
The role has been taken over from Jurgen Post
Tale Of Two Oses
UA cost for core games are rising, especially on iOS
But casual games are getting cheaper to advertise
Eyes On China
Swrve now gives Western mobile game devs a full picture of their performance in China
Swrve is fully operational in China on AWS
News
Playtertainment announces $5 million funding round
Previous seed funding round raised £3 million
Key Period
Tapjoy’s report highlights the importance of advertising to mobile gamers during the holidays
Two-thirds of users will play mobile games at least three times per day
On The Up
Roblox sees Q3 FY21 revenue rise 102% to $509 million
Roblox was played for more than 11 billion hours this quarter
Open All Hours
App Store developer submissions to remain open during Christmas
Previously Apple would close down for the holidays
Nfts Everywhere
Ready Games goes live with NFTs in Icon: Avatar Fashion Metaverse
Epik is the exclusive NFT technology provider
Easy Play
Zynga announces TikTok-exclusive music dance game Disco Loco 3D
Now entering soft launch
Vroom
Nascar’s crossover with Roblox sees the addition of next gen race car
Follows a contest held on Reddit
Steady Ship
G5's Q3 FY21 sales up 1% to $38 million
Gross margin up to 64%
Delayed Kickoff
Mobile release of Konami's eFootball 2022 postponed until spring 2022
The Premium Player Pack has been removed from sale
Lowered
Google Play Store tweaks payment terms in South Korea
Follows a new law passed in August
News
FarmVille 3 launches worldwide with special bonuses on offer for the first two weeks
Debuting on mobile and MacOS
Cash Up
Skillz sees sales jump 70% to $102 million
This is its 23rd consecutive quarter of revenue outperformance
Now Live
AppLovin partner studio Belka Games launches Bermuda Adventures
From the creators of Clockmaker
Mash Up
PUBG Mobile to add Arcane characters from Riot Games
In celebration of new League of Legends animated series
New Toys
The global rollout of Netflix Games begins
Starting on Android, it will come to iOS later
Booster
PUBG Mobile announces partnership with Koenigsegg
Two of Koenigsegg’s most innovative models now available in-game
Job News
Frauke Grabow joins FunPlus as Europe’s Head of HR
FunPlus continues to hire top talent
Bye-bye
China version of Fortnite is being shuttered
Playable test version had previously been live for almost three years
Growing Pains
Roblox servers are back online following three-day outage
Reportedly not due to external intrusion
On The Move
Nintendo is closing offices in California and Toronto
This is Nintendo's largest layoff since 2014
Rising
Rovio puts Darkfire Heroes into maintenance mode as it announces Q3 2021 sales of $83 million
Q3 2021 was Rovio’s best-performing period since 2019
Dungeonin'
Diablo Immortal closed beta now playable in Canada and Australia
And so it continues
Coming Soon
Arena of Valor offers $1 million in prize money at international championships
The event will be online and streamed on multiple platforms
25 Every Month
Pokémon Masters EX adds new in-app bundles
The recent dev letter outlines upcoming plans for the game
More Catching
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have a nostalgic early-purchase bonus
Pokémon Legends: Arceus has gifts for early purchasers too