Data Leak
E3 organiser ESA leaks contact details of journalists, influencers and analysts
US trade body has apologised for the, er, "inconvenience" that this has caused attendees
Hot Five
Apex Legends heading to mobile, EA Mobile's declining revenue, and Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Actor Playing Games
Zynga brings in Alec Baldwin to celebrate Words With Friends 10th anniversary.
The game launched in 2009
Going 5g
Tencent and Qualcomm team up to work on various mobile technologies
Other projects include the Qualcomm Snapdragon elite gaming enhancements
Event
Speakers revealed for free mini-summit near Gamescom
Explore the Chinese territory’s potential with Mintegral, Huawei, Xiaomi, iDreamSky, Leiting Games, and Habby Games. PLUS: WIN A SMARTPHONE!
Remember To Subscribe
Google testing new Apple Arcade-like Android subscription service Play Pass
Monthly cost of $4.99
Twinkies Sold Separately
Sony Pictures and Tilting Point 'nut up' for new Zombieland RPG on mobile
Company partners with Tilting Point and Metagame Studio on project
Live Ops
A Thinking Ape on inclusivity in live ops content
We’ve spent the last couple of years exploring the impacts and developing our process for creating effective inclusive content.
Financials
Zynga’s strong portfolio gives firm best-ever revenue and bookings for Q2
Empires & Puzzles and Merge Dragons contributed $70 million
Gotta Catch 'em All
Pokemon Go catches one billion downloads
Half of those were picked up in the game's first two months back in September 2016
Sensor Tower
India tops worldwide mobile downloads for Q2 2019 with 5.4 billion
13 per cent increase from Q1 2019
Job News
Xbox co-creator Nat Brown joins Apple
“I’m looking forward to continuing to work on my obsessions by focusing on all applications of graphics”
Mobile Here
EA confirms Apex Legends is on track for mobile
Battle royale on course to arrive in China too
Financial Results
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes nears 80 million players but EA’s mobile revenue drops by 16%
The company earned net revenue of $1.21 billion for this fiscal year
Frenemies
Epic Games “one of our best partners” says PUBG Corp
“We talk all the time”
Cloud Partnership
Cloud partnership is driven by Sony according to Microsoft CEO
Historically Sony and Microsoft are rivals in the games industry
Bytephone
TikTok owner Bytedance confirms plans to develop a smartphone
Rumours about a Bytedance phone circulated back in May
$$$
Sega Sammy Holdings sees a 246.6 per cent increase in operating income this quarter
Games, animation and arcade continue to be the company’s biggest earner
Augmented Reality
PuzzlAR: World Tour is the first game released from Magic Leap’s independent creator programme
More apps and games are set for release in the coming weeks
Event
Top 10 things to do in Jordan while at Pocket Gamer Connects
Why not make November’s two-day mobile games industry conference a working holiday?
Mobile Up
Nintendo Switch sales continue to be strong as hardware reaches 36.87 million
Software builds to 210.13 million with Mario Maker 2 selling 2.42 in three days
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
Nintendo offers free Joy Con repairs as firm is struck with class action lawsuit
“We are aware of recent reports that some Joy-Con controllers are not responding correctly”
Be Connected Be Discovered
Facebook tops mobile app publishers worldwide for Q2 2019
Google dominates the App Store however
Event
We're heading to Cologne during Gamescom week with four events
Mini-Summit, Games Mixer and Big Indie Pitches all in the same action packed week next month
New Deal
Intel sells its smartphone modem business to Apple
Around 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple
Dragalia Found
Dragalia Lost becomes Nintendo’s second most successful mobile title grossing $100 million worldwide
Fire Emblem has grossed $591 million worldwide
Tax Credits
Rockstar North hasn’t paid corporation tax in the UK for 10 years
Grand Theft Auto V earned $800 million in its first 24 hours of release
Event
Cheer on your champions in next month’s Big Indie Pitch
Watch the indie showcase competition in person at a venue near Gamescom
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Tencent’s Game for Peace reclaims top spot from Honor of Kings in China
Rankings from July 15th to 21st
Winner Winner
Fortnite World Cup drops $30 million in prize money
A teenager won the solo competition taking home $3 million
Hot Five
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger, Zynga taps classic major IP and whatever happened to Wizards Unite?
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Seed Funding
Strafe gets $3 million in seed funding for esports companion app
The app currently covers eight games
Magic Number
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite generates $12 million in revenue in its first month
Pokemon Go was downloaded 182m times in its launch month
New Investments
Unity Technologies makes a tender offer of up to $525m to shareholders
The company recently signed agreement investments
I'll Be Back
Three month Facebook Instant Games review pause coming to an end
Social network giant implements new application process
Chat App Gaming Blow
Facebook pulls Instant Games from Messenger
Move comes as the company claims it wants to make the chat app "faster, lighter and simpler"
To Boldly Go
Scopely’s Star Trek Fleet Command beams up $100m in eight months
Publisher's fastest-growing game to date
Meow
Tilting Point invests $30m in UA for Cat Game
The title has launched globally following successful Canada and New Zealand soft launch
The Other One
Whatever happened to Harry Potter: Wizards Unite?
Monetizer Mavens opine
Licensing Deal
Animoca Brands’ Pixowl is making an Addams Family mobile game
Mystery Mansion will be based on the upcoming animated film
Blending In
Ubisoft joins Blender Development Fund as corporate gold member
French publishing giant will assign developers to contribute to the foundations open source projects
Flying High
Thatgamecompany’s Sky soars past one million downloads
Title estimated to have generated $175,000
New Studio
NetEase opens Montreal studio
CEO says city offers “clear advantages and favourable conditions” for international games companies
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle strikes up US top grossing spot
Rankings from July 8th to 14th
Jobs News
Rogue Games swoops for trio of marketing, UA and design hires
Publisher appoints new UA marketing manager, game designer and marketing art manager
Deja Moo
Zynga taps classic major IP for newly soft-launched FarmVille 3 - Animals
Farming simulator has made its way to Android in the Philippines and Thailand
Job News
Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce stepping down
"Words cannot express the gratitude I feel to have been involved with Blizzard, our games, our employees, and most importantly our community"
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Id Software vet Tim Willits to depart, Google Stadia's Reddit AMA, and Facebook slapped with $5bn fine
The hottest stories of the last week from the PC, mobile and blockchain spaces
Hot Five
One dev's journey from police constable to level designer, PlayStation vet heads to Disney, and the Yogscast CEO steps down
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
All Time High
Increase in subscription revenue offsets Fortnite decline for Microsoft as Xbox Live hits 65 million MAUs
Games cash drops 10 per cent year-on-year