PG.biz week that was: UDID confusion, 360m downloads not enough for Nabergoj, and RIM's walking a razor's edge
The past 7 days' news compressed bite-sized
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Jon Jordan
Job Title
Contributing Editor
Contact jon@pocketgamer.co.uk
About A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Articles by Jon Jordan
We are 'fully committed to the consumer market', states RIM
Not dead or buried
Angry Birds Space does 20 million downloads in first week
Stratospheric sales
RIM sees FY12 sales drop 7% to $18.4 billion, also posts a Q4 loss of $125 million
CEO Heins triggers review of strategic opportunities
King.com's Tommy Palm on how the casual giant plans to become a mobile gaming player
Established brands, new expertise
Kontagent, Chartboost, Playhaven and MdotM offer new MATA alliance and Open API as solution to fragmented monetisation metrics
But Mobile Acquisition Transparency Alliance won't solve UDIDs
DeNA and Disney bring three co-developed social mobile games to worldwide Mobage platforms
Leveraging the power of licences
DeNA continues to trim ngmoco as Plus+ chief Simon Jeffrey leaves
No role left
Apple clarifies its UDID position: no rejections yet for use, only for lack of user opt-in
Ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it
InMobi will update SDK, replacing UDIDs 'primarily' with ODIN1
And the beat goes on
Inneractive replaces UDIDs with hashed MAC addresses, but Itay Gadot says we should expect more solutions
Looking to device fingerprinting
Rovio announces plan to set up Stockholm, Sweden office
Looking for a GM to manage recruitment of 20-30 staff
'Leaderboards are so 2008. Gamers want competition,' says Yaniv Presler, CEO of platform start up PlayerDuel
Claims it will help fix discovery and monetisation
Adobe announces 9% revenue share for Flash Player 11.2 web games, while mobile developers go free
Building a platform so taxing as a platform
Appsfire's Ouriel Ohayon says replacing UDIDs with MAC addresses would be the wrong approach
Offers OpenUDID as a better solution
Competition will ensure industry standard UDID replacement will provide best solution, hopes Applifier's Jussi Laakkonen
Solution must and will be found
There's going to be constant tug-o-war over between Apple and the industry over UDID replacement, says Kiip's Eamonn Carey
Privacy versus information battle will be ongoing
There is too much revenue at stake for Apple not to address the UDID gap, reckons MoPub's Jim Payne
OpenUDID fallback option isn't a longterm solution
UDID deprecation is a short term distraction prior to emergence of new industry standard, reckons AdColony's Will Kassoy
All will be well
Tapjoy releases SDK 8.1 to provide 'high quality alternative' to UDIDs
MAC address part of a workable solution
Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer in Tampere, Finland voted a knockout success
We thought, drunk and connected
Andrej Nabergoj on why he left Talking Tom Cat behind to create the next great app distribution channel
Discovery around deals is a very powerful mechanic
The PG.biz Hot Five: Did Zynga overpay for OMGPOP? Grand Cru's $2M, plus Americans love their Lumia 710s
Last week's top five stories
RIM to give out 2,000 BB10 reference devices at BlackBerry Jam
Part of May's BlackBerry World event
Mountain Sheep's Bike Baron does 2 million downloads on iOS
Over 100,000 custom levels created
Tapjoy strongly refutes The Binary Family's hacking allegations; 'It was using a very outdated version of our library'
Developers have to keep code up-to-date
Playdek's Joel Goodman on the challenges of bringing physical card and board games to mobile
Cutting the pack
Kwalee starts new recruitment drive as it preps debut iOS release
Ex-Codemasters start up accelerates
Opinion: Why Zynga's $210 million acquisition of OMGPOP's is the right deal at the right price
Running the PG.biz slide rule over the numbers
Boasting 35 million players a month, Gameloft announces all its future games will include in-app purchases
Even bringing free-to-play to Java
Gameloft sees 2011 profits up 34% to 18.2 million euros
Has 36.9 million euros in cash
TIGA CEO Richard Wilson says UK tax relief for games could be worth more than £50 million
Scheme is uncapped, £50M is 'indicative' figure
Up to £50 million made available for UK creative industries, including game developers
Tax relief starting from April 2013
Tribal City's Flip the Switch wins best casual game award at Irish Games Fleadh
PufferFish Games wins best mobile game
PlayJam gains new investment and adds GameStop, ex-Media Molecule and ex-Red Octane execs as advisors
Focused on developers, plus music and fitness IP
Sony Pictures highlights marketing importance of Gameloft's freemium Men in Black 3 title
Coming to iOS and Android
Finnish super developer Grand Cru announces The Supernauts and $2 million seed funding round
Idinvest and Rick Thompson part of the cash crew
Don't ignore core gamers says Machineworks' Vahsen as 3D Hunting: Alaskan Hunt weapons pack boosts sales 400%
Take down a grizzly with a RPG
Zynga plugs into GetJar Gold giving away Android versions of Drop 7 and enhanced Zynga Poker for free
Total value of $8
6L lays off 80% of its Facebook development staff to focus on mobile publishing
Going where the action is
Biodroid on finding gaming success with brands such as Billabong, MegaRamp, Mourinho and Ronaldo
Be the special one
Apple to spend $45 billion over three years on dividends and share repurchases
Making investors and staff even happier
The PG.biz Hot Five: iPad launch queue down, Google's February payments missing, and 21 GDC gaming changing trends
Last week's top five stories
OMGPOP's Dan Porter on how his 'outsider' game design style helped boost Draw Something to 25 million downloads
Via experiments with Facebook and teen dating services
Velti sees FY11 revenue up 63% to $189 million
GAAP net loss was $15.4 million
21 game changing biz trends from GDC 2012 you need to know
#gdc From fun to platforms and user acquisition
Eros Resmini on how GREE will compete in the winner takes all platform battle with DeNA, Facebook and Zynga
Going social, going global
CrowdStar's Suren Markosian on why the numbers for female social games on iOS add up
Better than Facebook
User acquisition costs of $2 for mobile games are unsustainable, says Applifier's Jussi Laakkonen
Big boys with deep pockets are strangling the industry
GDC 2012: There's the opportunity for a billion dollar core free-to-play games company, argues Benchmark's Mitch Lasky
#gdc Ignore casual, core monetises better