Unity enters the DTC race and HoYoverse's next big game | Week in Views
The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can't let go of…
So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we've created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.
Craig Chapple
Unity gets into DTC with cross-platform "unified digital stores"
One of this year’s biggest industry trends has been regulation and direct-to-consumer. I previously wrote about just how much revenue publishers have already been making from web stores here.
To cap things off, and just ahead of the US Google Play store opening up to alternative payments (unless the Supreme Court grants a stay), Unity has got into the DTC game. Though as Aaron pointed out on the Week in Mobile Games podcast, surprisingly Unity didn’t mention the magic phrased “direct-to-consumer” in its press release.
What I find particularly interesting about the move - which is powered by Unity’s partnership with Stripe - is whether there’s potential to fit into the company’s ads strategy through Vector.
CEO Matthew Bromberg spoke earlier this year about how it could use engine data to feed into its new ads platform. Perhaps a DTC platform will give Unity more user data on who’s playing, who’s paying, and when.
Unity is pinning a lot of its hopes on Vector to grow its revenue and compete with AppLovin in the ads space. Perhaps the DTC payments game can help it achieve both.
Aaron Astle
HoYoverse’s Petit Planet entering closed beta on November 7th
HoYoverse’s next game is soon entering closed beta. Now officially known as Petite Planet, the title will be made available on PC and iOS on November 7th, granting those who sign up access to "the Coziness Test" while Android owners watch and wait.
We’ve known about the game as a work-in-progress for some time, first as XinBuGuDi when the trademark was registered in China back in February 2024, later as Astaweave Haven, and now as Petite Planet.
And, after more than 1.5 years between the trademark and the official announcement, HoYoverse has finally confirmed this title is departing from the RPG genre to test something cosier.
With Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero already on the market, it makes sense HoYoverse would opt to experiment with another genre, potentially dodging cannibalisation between Petite Planet and those pre-established hits. At the same time, the intersection between RPG fans and cosy game enjoyers may not be so clear cut.
The closed beta is likely to give more insight into exactly what the full game may entail, but HoYoverse has already confirmed planting, fishing, mining and crafting in what sounds like an Animal Crossing-esque game built with mobile in mind.
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