Flight To Five Billion
Rovio surpasses five billion lifetime mobile game downloads
Angry Birds creator continues to soar
Experienced Hires
Social First makes three key hires for dev ops, design, and new technology including blockchain
Marco Sandrini, Aki Raula, and Jari Ravantti join the team
Making Of
Supercell talks breaking the mould of puzzle games with Clash Quest
Supercell's Touko Tahkokallio talks us through the journey of Clash Quest, from prototype to its current stage
Finnish Funding
Return Entertainment raises €5.3 million in funding to create cloud-native games
Funding led by Bitkraft Ventures
Birds Boost
Rovio 2021 revenues increase 5.1% to $326.6 million, boosted by Angry Birds titles
Record high fourth quarter results
Take A Crack
CrazyLabs and Carry1st partner for hypercasual game jam
Open to developers and novices in South Africa and Finland
Racing Rivalry
Supremacy Games to bring real car NFTs to upcoming P2E mobile racing game
Number of car NFTs will equal real world production figure
Social Distance
Kim Soares on the launch of Finnish social gaming studio Social First
PocketGamer.biz speaks with Kim Soares on forming a new social games studio, disruptive trends, and the return to live events
Out Of Hiding
Social First launches with $2.5 million backing to create cross-platform, social games
Founded by industry veterans Kim Soares and Mikko Kähärä
Metaverse Making Together
Yahaha Studios secures $50 million to build "no-code" UGC metaverse
Aimed at users with all levels of skill to create games
Merging Media
Dodreams invests $1.4 million to merge games with online videos
Aiming to create grassroots marketers from its playerbase
Gamer's Guerdon
StageZero raises $1.8 million to reward mobile gamers for training AI
Will include labelling tasks which can help train virtual assistants
What's Next?
Next Games signs $16.5 million co-development agreement for new mobile game
To be paid over the next five years
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
Live And Kicking
Why Boom Beach is still booming 8 years on
Supercell game lead Laura Gilliland talks suiting the players' needs
Carry On Clashing
Clash Mini begins soft launch in Canada and Nordics
Supercell reveals more details about upcoming Clash titles
Get Job
Nordic Game Talents aims to help game dev recruitment in Nordic region
Three day event starts 27 October
Cutesy
Rovio and Billebeino launch limited-edition Angry Birds capsule collection
There’s even a dancing plushie
Heading To The Frontlines
Space Ape Games launches Boom Beach: Frontlines in Canada
Will launch gradually worldwide on iOS and Android
Not Dead Yet
6 years on The Walking Dead: No Man's Land does 23 million downloads, $151 million revenue
Will host in-game anniversary events
Going Going Gone
Habbo pixel art NFTs sell out, generating $14 million of trading in 24 hours
Over 2,500 collectors participated in auction
Nextgen
Next Games' second Game Developer Academy kicks off 4 October
Learning with hands-on experience
Top Table
Joakim Achrén appointed Fingersoft's board
Finnish entrepreneur adds status
Looking Good
Sulake launching 12,500 Habbo avatar NFTs
Auction for 10,000 will take place this week
Poc In Mobile
"I’m a double minority - I’m a woman, and I’m black. You definitely see it and feel it."
Supercell's Sheila Ndungu discusses the importance of representation
80% For 90%
Fingersoft offers employees 80% work for 90% pay
Part of a six-month trial to boost work-life balance
Entering New Markets
Playtika snap up Redecor dev Reworks for up to $600 million
Expanding into the growing design category
Supercell Subterfuge
Everdale was initially soft-launched as Valleys & Villages through a fake company
Game has actually been in testing since September 2020
It's A Peaceful Life
Supercell reveals new co-op builder Everdale, launches beta
Marks the first new IP from Supercell for four years
Royale Figures
Clash Royale generates highest monthly revenue for two years
The game has also seen a recent boost in downloads over the past few months
Hardheaded Decision
Rovio scraps casual strategy title Hardhead Squad
The servers will be shut down mid-November
140 Million Players
Plarium acquires Finnish mobile studio Futureplay to grow casual presence
"We are eager to grow and learn from Plarium’s expertise…"
Super Hire
10 Supercell jobs to apply for this week
Job vacancies from several of Supercell’s offices
Social Expansion
SciPlay acquires Om Nom: Run developer Koukoi Games
"Together, we can build impactful evergreen games..."
Climbing That Ladder
Fingersoft name Jaakko Kylmäoja as permanent CEO
"We want to remain the best place to work…"
Back From Bird Heaven
Rovio looking to reintroduce classic Angry Birds games to storefronts
"We will find a way to bring these classic experiences…"
Six Year Deal
Rovio gains exclusive rights for Moomin mobile games
Also invests in Gutsy Animations
3,600 New Hires
Finnish games industry grows by 9% to nearly $3 billion in revenue
46 studios made a turnover of more than $1 million dollars
Growing Space
Quicksave Interactive raises $1.3 million to scale its HTML5 games
Konvoy Ventures led the round
Discord+
Taking social networks multiplayer: How Noice raised $5 million for its vision
Jussi Laakkonen is back
Promoting Within
Rovio appoints VP of marketing Kieran O'Leary to COO
CTO Petri Hyökyranta also moves to leadership team
Ua Expansion
Supercell lends Metacore $180 million to scale Merge Mansion
Mobile puzzle game aiming for the big league
Pgc Digital #6
PGC Digital: Fingersoft's Markus Vahtola on what it means to be a CFO in games
"We love high velocity and enjoy our relaxed yet professional culture"
Clash(ic)
Supercell soft-launches Clash Quest in Scandinavia
First of three Clash spinoff games in development
Clash Bang Wallop
Supercell announces trio of new Clash games - Clash Mini, Clash Quest and Clash Heroes
Three new Clash games from the maker of Clash of Clans
Poc In Mobile
"To improve diversity across all industries I implore each and every individual to care"
Rovio senior game designer Harshal Karvande on how people need to push diversity
Poc In Mobile
Hatch Entertainment Cloud Engineer Khoa Mai on why "diversity enables companies to reach the masses"
"Becoming well known and popular is usually the goal for lots of firms."
Rebrand, Relaunch
Angry Birds Journey soft launch takes flight
New title is a reinvention of previously tested Angry Birds Casual
Remote Working
Habbo product manager Jorge García on balancing family life and work under lockdown
"Make sure to take some time for rest or being with your family, doing exercise, cooking healthy food, etcetera."