Job News
ZBD appoints Nicole Diaz as senior vice president of product
She will lead strategy for ZBD’s global payments and multi-currency solutions
Staff
Isa Muhammad
Job Title
MENA Reporter
About Isa Muhammad is the Lead MENA Reporter at PocketGamer.biz, spearheading the team's Middle East & Africa games coverage. He's been in games media for over seven years and is steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism. If he's not reading, playing games or catching up on his favorite TV shows, he's probably writing about them.
Articles by Isa Muhammad
New Partnerships
UMX Studio partners with Audiomob for in-game audio ads
Collaboration aims to enhance player experience while opening new revenue streams
New Game Launch
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor set to launch on mobile this November
The mobile version promises the same hardcore action as PC
New Offerings
Google Play launches raft of new games features
Rolls out includes other features like the You tab and Play Games Leagues
New Partnerships
Niantic Spatial partners with Kojima Productions to merge storytelling with geospatial AI
The collaboration showcases AI’s potential to transform how people interact with the physical world
Milestone
Fateless completes Alpha Wave cycle with 36k players for upcoming RPG Godforge
Alpha Wave 3 drew 36,000 players, logging over 355,000 hours of gameplay
New Offerings
UK creative organisations call for a new Digital Creativity GCSE
The move aims to serve not just games, but healthcare, finance, media, and education
Acqusitions
Swoove Studios sells to undisclosed buyer
Under new ownership, Swoove is expected to continue innovating and scaling globally
Game Jam
Saudi Arabia launches the second edition of the Saudi Game Champions Program
Each startup will receive $53,000, mentorship from global experts, and training support
Online Safety
Kuwait temporarily blocks Roblox over child safety concerns
The country joins Turkey, Oman, China, and Qatar in restricting the platform
New Partnerships
Savvy Games Group signs MoU with Alinma Bank to deliver tailored banking solutions for Saudi gamers
The partnership aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Gaming and Esports Strategy
Clampdown
Trump imposes a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B visa applications
US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick claims big companies are on board with the plan despite millions of dollars in extra costs
Online Safety
US Congress calls on Twitch, Steam, Reddit, and Discord CEOs to testify on online radicalisation
The hearing is scheduled for October 8th 2025
Expansions
Supercell plots new office in Helsinki’s Maria area to support expansion
CEO Ilkka Paananen says the new space will help Supercell attract talent and sustain global growth
Adaptations
MrBeast joins the cast of Angry Birds 3
The film will hit cinemas a month earlier on December 23rd, 2026
Job News
Supercell taps King's Sabrina Carmona as new Clash of Clans GM
She will work alongside a team to spearhead the future of the title
Growth
Playstack revenue surged 52% in H1 2025 to £30.7m
Balatro and Abiotic Factor sold over 3m units in the first half of the year
Scholarships
BAFTA awards over £277,000 in grants through its 2025 scholarship programmes
The fund provides up to $2,700 each for training, equipment, and other essential costs
Legal Proceedings
Tencent rejects Sony’s claim that Light of Motiram is a “slavish clone” of Horizon
The Level Infinite parent company argues Sony is trying to monopolise common genre elements
Global Launch
Pocketpair confirms Palworld will exit Early Access in 2026 with a major 1.0 update
The studio says that the cleanup work in 2025 will prepare the game for a stronger full release
New Offerings
Fortnite creators will be able to sell in-game items directly from their islands starting in December
Epic says creators will earn 50% of V-Bucks value from sales, rising to 100% through late 2026
Market Growth
Cross-industry game engine adoption surges, led by Unreal, Unity and Godot
Unreal Engine remains dominant at 65% adoption, with Unity growing to 53% as the second most popular engine
New Partnerships
Flexion partners with Microfun to bring Seaside Escape to alternative app stores
Seaside Escape earned $6m net revenue in August
Acquisition
Verve acquires Captify in $30.3m deal to boost data and sales reach
Captify CEO Mike Welch to step down moving into a strategic advisor role
Milestone
Metacore celebrates fifth anniversary alongside Merge Mansion’s five-year milestone
The mobile title has surpassed 60m downloads and $700m in lifetime revenue
New Offerings
Epic Games launches new open content marketplace Fab
Developers can now access Fab’s full asset library and manage acquisitions
Trade Body
Ukie launches Interactive Entertainment Scotland to champion games sector
IES will represent Scottish studios in government and policy discussions to support industry growth
Industry Outlook
UK games industry generates £12bn annually and supports 73,000 jobs
Despite this growth, TIGA warns the UK lags behind global rivals with its 20.4% tax relief
Marvellous Mena
Saudi-based Superbullet Studios aims to let anyone build Roblox games in three days
Founder Erickson Talaue and team are developing EvoLife as both a flagship Roblox game and proof of its AI workflow
Investment News
Lingokids raises $120m to invest in AI and scale learning content
The funding will also help expand partnerships with popular IPs
Milestone
Fable Town celebrates first anniversary after generating $9m in lifetime revenue since launch
A special three-week Anniversary of Magic event runs until October 2nd to mark the milestone
New Offerings
Apple debuts dedicated Games app in iOS 26
Apple Games app now serves as a central hub for App Store titles
Tiktok Sale
US and China reach framework agreement for TikTok sale
Follows years of political disputes over ByteDance’s ownership
Delayed Release
LocalThunk delays Balatro update to avoid crunch and burnout
Despite the delay, Balatro 1.1 will still release as a free update across all platforms when it’s ready
Job News
Roblox recruits Unity's Mike Schoelch as new head of agency partnerships
Schoelch will lead agency development within the company's global brand partnerships and advertising division
Epic Grant
Cascadeur receives $50,000 Epic MegaGrant to develop dedicated Unreal Engine Live Link plugin
Over 40% of Cascadeur users rely on Unreal Engine
Esports Tournament
NetEase Games launches Dunk City Dynasty Global Championship 2025
Teams from seven regions will compete for the $100,000 prize pool in the offline finals
Funding For Games
AppQuantum launches $10m strategic fund to back mobile game studios
The fund targets pre-seed and seed rounds with investments ranging from $250,000 to $1.5m
New Offerings
Hungry Studio partners with Govee to bring Block Blast designs into home spaces
Since its 2021 launch, the game has reached over 200m players worldwide
Super Mario Movie
Nintendo releases first trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
The sequel is set to release on April 3rd, 2026
New Offerings
Roblox launches The Takeover event to showcase genre diversity
The Takeover spans 48 games, from survival titles like Pressure to roleplay experiences such as Dress to Impress
Investment News
Square Enix invests in Brazil's Nuuvem to build web-based games platform
The platform soft-launched with 12 titles and plans to onboard over 100 games by year’s end
Funding News
LocusX raises $2.1m for AI-powered bug-fixing tools
“We built LocusX to solve debugging, one of the most frustrating and expensive parts of the process,” said LocusX CEO Francois Pelland
Licencing
Steer Studios secures Warner Bros license for new Tom and Jerry mobile game
The title marks the soft launch of Steer's second release
Esports Tournament
The Battle of Polytopia launches 2025 World Championship with a $10,000 prize pool
The champion will receive $4,000, with prizes for all six finalists
Funding News
AI-powered Pengu app maker Born raises $15m
Funding will support a new US office in New York and a new social AI product
Investment News
Testronic secures “significant" investment to fuel global growth and expansion
The company will refocus on core regions in the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia
New Patent
Nintendo secures a new patent for summoning sub-characters in games
Games using similar mechanics could now face copyright risks
Company Growth
AppLovin shares jump as it joins S&P 500
Move comes as the ads firm's share price surges
Job News
Blizzard names Walter Kong as SVP and head of live games and mobile development
Before rejoining Blizzard, Kong led product management and operations at Epic Games