A Good Deed
Playtika's Bingo Blitz is donating meals to Feeding America
10 meals for every virtual meal made by players
Streaming Competition
Facebook is launching a mobile gaming app to compete with Twitch and YouTube
Coming to Android devices first
Milestone
Devolver Digital confirms Gris has exceeded one million sales
Originally launched on mobile in August 2019
Welcome Aboard
Niantic hires Megan Quinn as its new COO
She has a background in leadership and investment
Digital Conference
Meet and learn from companies like Wargaming, Pokémon, Paradox, Gameloft and more - here’s what you can expect from Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #2
The leading mobile B2B games industry event goes online-only again for a week-long event of talks, pitches and networking
Time's Up
Sega Heroes and Crazy Taxi Idle Tycoon shutting down following Demiurge split from Sega
Servers close May 21st
Kick Your Bot
Adjust's new survey finds that 41 per cent of mobile gamers have used bots
Bot spending is $65 on average
Heating Up
Planet Entertainments hits back amongst Cooking Mama drama
"By contract Planet is fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama: Cookstar"
Digital Conference
Don’t miss your second chance to do business online at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital
Cancel all other plans for June 8-12. The essential B2B games conference will return for another week after its amazing 2020 debut
Farewell
Indie Megabooth shuts down for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic
Will still be running a Steam sale in May
Four Of A Kind
Indie Spotlight: How Foursaken Media upped the ante for War Tortoise 2
"Knowing where to draw the line between polished enough to be great and over-polished is one of the most important things"
Slapping Downloads
Slap Kings racked up the most mobile downloads in March 2020
Voodoo had three entries
Independence
Demiurge becomes an independent studio after its co-founder buys it back from Sega
It will continue to run Marvel Puzzle Quest and Sega Heroes
Tv Show
TinyBuild reveals an animated Hello Neighbor TV show
A six-minute pilot is available for free on YouTube
Bad Liar
Pop star Selena Gomez files lawsuit against Clothes Forever developer LoveCrunch
Suing for damages, profits, and for the game to stop using her likeness.
Nifty Moves
Nifty Games closes $12 million series A funding round as it reveals NFL licensing agreement
NFL Clash will be the studio's first game
Call Me Maybe
Activision Blizzard CEO gives out personal number to employees amid pandemic
Bobby Kotick also confirms all games are on track
10 Years On
Opinion: How iPad's launch confused game developers
Next generation proving much like the old one
Event Latest
First Pocket Gamer Connects Digital smashes expectations with over 1,100 attendees from 60 countries
Representatives from almost 650 companies witnessed over 160 expert speakers and organised 2,600 digital meetings throughout the week!
Jobs In Games
Remote Working: How Dan Sturman went from researcher to Roblox CTO
"The biggest challenge for me has been being new to the team and not yet knowing who is who"
Surprise Mechanics
ESRB to flag random loot mechanics in games
Follows the introduction of in-game purchases more than two years ago
Collaboration Spree
Kabam soft-launches action-RPG Disney Mirrorverse in the Philippines
Set to feature familiar faces from the world of Disney and Pixar
Take Two
GDC Summer registrations are now open
It is being held between August 4th and 6th
Making Of
Making Of: How Shantae and the Seven Sirens found its way to being an Apple Arcade launch title
"This was our shortest dev cycle for a Shantae game"
Family & Friends
Words With Friends booms in troubled times
Crunching the data with App Annie
Will Mama Fix It?
Cooking Mama: Cookstar launch spoiled by cryptocurrency mining rumours and potential lawsuits
Game still available in physical form
Missing Gravity
World of Tanks Blitz gives players chance to win a piece of the moon in new Gravity Force game mode
"This is one small step for man, but one giant leap for Tank-kind."
Jetfuel
N3twork launches $50 million growth fund to scale tomorrow’s hit mobile games
Get 10,000 ad campaign for free
Sky Soaring
Indie Spotlight: How thatgamecompany transitioned from console to mobile with Sky: Children of Light
"We wanted to make the essence of Journey accessible to a broader audience"
What A Shame
ESA confirms that E3 2020 digital event won't be taking place
But trade body says it will be supporting companies who were meant to be at the show
Helping Out
EA will donate up to $2m to support coronavirus relief efforts
Publishing giant to match funds raised by staff
Grab A Patty
SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off surpasses 14 million pre-registrations
Due out this Spring
Data Driven
Five Chinese and Japanese mobile gaming myths investigated
GameRefinery gets out its magnifying glass
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Tips for creating a diverse narrative
"Bring darkness out"
Soft Launch Benefits
PGC Digital: "Platform featuring is not as strong as it used to be," says former Disney and Zynga PM
As part of a panel on 'Learning from Mistakes – What Should we Have Done Before we Launched?'
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Interactive streaming will be the future of gaming
"Viewers are able to contribute monetarily and experientially"
New Opportunity
In-game ads firm Anzu hires Jeremy Taylor as its new Vice President of EMEA
Taylor joins from DOOH.com
Word Up
Scrabble Go experiences the best launch ever for a mobile word game
Two million people play daily
Competitive Connection
Facebook Gaming Tournaments launches worldwide for all users
Another way to stay connected
Emergency Rescue
Vainglory’s surprise shutdown averted by Super Evil Megacorp
Rogue Games was pulling the plug
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Learn key strategies from Mixi for creating a successful game
"Thinking about your target audience in terms of user behaviour"
Pgc Digital
PGC Digital: Indie survival in a digital landscape
Rebind.io's Emily Rose discusses ways that indies can thrive in an increasingly online world
Quibi
New 'mobile-first' streaming app Quibi launches in US
The app is led by Hollywood's Jeffrey Katzenberg and Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1 starts in less than an hour!
Games industry online-only conference feat 24-hour networking, 750+ attendees, 7 conference tracks, roundtables, fringe events and more...
Bonus Content
Bonus day of content at Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
Fourth day of next week’s online-only conference dedicated to roundtable discussions and webinars
The Spy Who Jinxed Me
Epic Games reveals details of J.J. Abrams' mobile game Spyjinx, launches beta
Beta launched on iOS in Malaysia
App Annie
Mobile games just experienced its biggest week for downloads ever
1.2 billion across the week of March 22nd, 2020
"unprecedented Challenges"
Sony sets up $100 million Covid-19 global relief fund
Fund will go towards medical workers, first responders and more.
So Much Money
Mobile apps will generate $171 billion through consumer spending in 2024
The App Store will be responsible for 67 per cent
Talking Heads
Square Enix Montreal, Bandai Namco, ESL and Lockwood Publishing join the roster for Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #1
The speaker lineup is set for next week’s online-only conference to make a spectacular debut