Crime
NBCUniversal gangs up with Starbreeze on a Payday mobile game
Payday: Crime War will be a mobile spin-off of the PC and console FPS
Hot News
Hothead Games takes a step into the third-party publishing business
"We know what it’s like to be in their shoes, and we are just as committed to their success as they are”
Publishing Initiative
Tencent wants to support your game through its Game Without Borders initiative
The games giant's new global publishing scheme explained
Voodoo Development Magic
Voodoo Development Magic: Lighting the spark for Fire Balls 3D’s hyper-casual success
This special series focuses on how developers have built mobile's biggest hits, with help from publisher Voodoo
Block In The Chain
Atari makes strategic investment in blockchain specialist and mobile publisher Animoca Brands
Hong Kong-floated publisher set to bring Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch and Good Squad to the blockchain
Branching Out
Reigns publisher Devolver getting ‘more serious’ about mobile, F2P and China
Hires ex-Appler Mark Hickey
Spellbound
Voodoo Development Magic: Transforming labyrinth puzzler Tenkyu into a globe-trotting hit through simplicity
Over 30 million players have downloaded Tenkyu since its launch in July 2018
Funding Round
New US publisher Nifty Games raises $3m for mobile-first sports games
Early investors include aXiomatic Gaming and venture capital firms March Capital Partners and Defy.VC
Ocean
Sea Entertainment seals a five-year deal to publish Tencent games in Southeast Asia
Games will be published by Sea's entertainment division, Garena
Helsinki 2018
Jam City's Jeremy Horn: If retention is below 20% on day seven "I would advise to go back to soft launch"
Jam City VP also shared insights into a maturing mobile market
Job Losses
Flaregames restructure leads to 45 layoffs as CEO Klaas Kersting steps down
Todd English takes over as CEO
Partnership News
DENA partners with Tencent to launch mutli-billion dollar hit Arena of Valor in Japan
Will Japan prove a successful venture for the hit MOBA?
To Boldly Go
Scopely taps Star Trek IP for 4X strategy game Fleet Command
Set for global release on November 29th
Globe Trotting
Yoozoo VP on finding the next great games market and the importance of localisation
“It’s down to them because games publishing and making there will be very different to how they are in China”
Voodoo Magic
Voodoo Development Magic: How H8 Games launched Helix Jump, one of the hottest games of 2018
This special series focuses on how developers have built mobile's biggest hits, with help from publisher Voodoo
Breaking In
Can Snowprint’s Legend of Solgard break King’s midcore curse?
Studio CEO Alexander Ekvall discusses working with the Candy Crush maker as part of the latter’s new publishing initiative
Zombie
FTX Games to publish new The Walking Dead match-three and social casino mobile games
Publisher seals deal with AMC to create multiple flesh-eating licensed titles
Yo-yoing Between
Why GameMaker Studio's YoYo Games is getting into indie publishing
"This comes from something that is an extension of what GameMaker has been trying to do for years, which is making the next generation of games developers"
Draw
Flaregames resurrects Games Workshop’s Citadel Combat Cards with Well Played Games
The 1990s Warhammer 40,000 card came to be brought to mobile on November 22nd
Acquisition News
UK publisher PlayStack acquires Finnish developer Hisome
Studio renamed PlayStack Oy and will be responsible for development and finding new partners
Publishing Deal
Mobile internet giant Cheetah Mobile secures publishing rights for Ministry of Games' Trade Town
Cheetah Mobile beat multiple publishers to win the deal
Listed
Chinese mobile games publisher CMGE looking to raise $500 million through Hong Kong IPO
The company originally delisted from Nasdaq in 2015 in the US
Raw Investment
Indie publisher Raw Fury gets $5.5m boost from Nordisk Film Games
The label is behind upcoming mobile and switch game Bad North
Co-op
Jagex launches third-party publishing label Partners as RuneScape revenue crosses $1bn
Will offer up live game publishing and operational services to third-party studios
Unity
67% of Unity developers are choosing to publish independently
Unity reports on the development habits of 1,445 small to medium Indies
Don’t You Mean Football?
Sociable Soccer dev Tower Studios snags China publishing deal with China Mobile
Arcade football game is will land in China first and is pencilled in for launch in Autumn 2018
Hyper-publishing
Why AppLovin is getting into the mobile publishing game with Lion Studios
Division has already racked up hundreds of millions of downloads for its portfolio
Super Publishing
Flaregames partners with Hamburg dev Sviper to publish Super Spell Heroes
Real-time puzzle duel game
Deal
Beijing Bosi Interactive secures exclusive $740k deal with Animoca Brands to distribute Crazy Kings in China
BBI wins rights to distribute Android and HTML5 ports of the iOS strategy title, due next year
On Tap
Huuuge Games launches hyper-casual publishing label Tap Tap Games
Social casino company makes a move into publishing one-finger casual titles
Lovin It
AppLovin launches publishing division Lion Studios
The developer is also putting up $300K in prizes for the four best mobile gaming apps submitted
Collaboration
Playgendary teams up with ad platform Appodeal to publish casual games
Appodeal to lend its expertise and exclusive monetisation tools to the publisher's titles going forwards
Handy Deal
THQ Nordic picks up German developer HandyGames
Giebelstadt-based studio to act as international publisher for small to mid-sized projects and devs
Cloned
Indie dev lambasts recently flush publisher Voodoo for ‘clone’ Hole.io
Hole.io is currently sitting at the top of the free-to-play charts on iOS
Taking The Reins
German games distributor Libredia launches publishing business
Outfit plans to release half a dozen titles by the end of this year
Partner Up
War Robots developer Pixonic enters China’s Android market with iDreamsky
Director of business development Mike Fei discusses the publisher's distribution model
Wired
Killing Floor dev Tripwire launches new publishing division at E3 2018
Reveals inaugural titles Maneater and Road Redemption
Publishing Support
Fingersoft's Round Zero on its data-driven approach to mobile games publishing
CEO Daniel Rantala dishes the details on how it aims to help developers release on the global stage
Co-development
Canada’s Throwback Entertainment inks co-development deal with South Korea’s Leanup
Two titles set for release by the end of the year
Indie Backing
GameMaker creator YoYo Games spins up indie games publishing division
Ex-Outplay senior producer Chris Trewartha heads up new team
Publishing Partnership
India's Nazara partners with Indonesia's Touchten to publish mobile games in the Middle East
"Emerging markets are not a mere afterthought for us," says Touchten founder
Rising Confidence
CEO Nick Earl on how Design Home’s success has kickstarted Glu’s wider revival
Mobile game publisher now on the up
International Expansion
Kongregate gets first international expansion with Montreal office
“Expanding our resources and time zones allows us as a company to be closer to our Canadian and European partners," says CEO Emily Greer
Art Of The Deal
“Don’t sign a bad deal, there are plenty of publishers out there”
Jon Hare offers some tips on signing contracts with publishers
Top Tips
8 tips for mobile games publishing success in China
Mobvista lays out some key advice from its ‘Looking East: How to launch mobile games in China 2018’ report
Rediscovering Value
Why mobile game consultancy group DOD Media is moving into legacy publishing
Leveraging app store muscle
Lift Off
Game Insight taps up Tamatem to publish Airport City in the Middle East and North Africa
The Arabic version of the game will be released on iOS and Android
China Gathering
Tencent to publish new Magic: The Gathering games in China
Deal also includes Southeast Asia territories
Mobile & Conquer
Tencent revives Red Alert game series for mobile
Red Alert Online set for China release
Heading East
Tencent backs Fortnite China release with $15 million investment
Chinese publisher plans esports push