Revenue Dropping Boys
Fortnite revenue declines 48% month-on-month in January
Peak month in december though
Warfare
Microsoft workers demand stricter ethics as HoloLens prepares to kill
Open letter calls for the cancellation of a recently-signed army IVAS contract
Event
Blockchain Games Next - Free Half-Day Mini-Summit During GDC - 19th March
Presented by Tron in association with Cocos BCX and brought to you by the team behind Blockchain Gamer Connects
Playable Demos
Delving under the hood of Synative's Try Now demo tech as it partners with Google Play
Synative gives us the lowdown
Enterprise Ar
Microsoft unveils $3,500 HoloLens 2 headset
Epic's Tim Sweeney praises tech giant's open approach to development
Dragalia Won
Dragalia Lost outpaces Super Mario Run and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp with $75m lifetime sales
Still a way off of Fire Emblem Heroes
Ka-ching
Activision Blizzard and EA bosses Kotick and Wilson appear on Top 100 Most Overpaid CEOs list for a second time
Third year that games industry execs have shown up in this ranking
Roundup
Games industry roundup: Wargroove recovers dev costs in three days, GDAC partners with Enjin, and the death of the MCN
15 articles from PCGamesInsider.biz, InfluencerUpdate.biz and BlockhainGamer.biz
Hot Five
Coin Master rakes in the cash, Brawl Stars a worldwide top grosser, and Activision Blizzard is stuck between a rock and a hard place
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Matchington Mansion a new US top 10 grosser as Fortnite and Dokkan Battle dominate
Charts from February 11th to 17th
Interview
How hard is it to bring a PC hit like Human: Fall Flat to smartphones anyway?
We speak to 505 Games’ Steve Woodward and Thomas Rosenthal to find out more about the wobbly platformer’s port
Imagination Has No Limit
Roblox players amass more than one billion hours worth of engagement each month
Platform engagement has increased by 20-times in six years
Where We Dancing Boys?
Fortnite’s DJ Marshmello concert surpasses game’s concurrent record with 10.7m players
Tilted Towers was rocking
Super Smash Brawl Stars
Brawl Stars becomes first new mobile game to break into top 10 worldwide revenue chart since June 2018
Fighter has generated $110 million in two months
Goodbye Reggie
Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime to retire
VP of sales and marketing Doug Bowser to succeed him in role
International
Chinese publisher East2West opens its USA branch in San Francisco
"Our current lineup, which will be announced shortly, is already impressive"
Life Finds A Way
Jurassic World Alive grosses $40 million in nine months
These scientists have not been preoccupied
Yes It Actually Folds
Samsung unveils first foldable phone Galaxy Fold
Unity also shown for new Galaxy S10
Cloud
Keywords’ latest acquisition is Dutch UA tools provider GetSocial
Social networking platform is expected to become profitable for Keywords Studios by 2020
Event
NBCUniversal Media, NCsoft, and NetEase confirmed to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle
First speakers announced for 2-day games industry conference, May 13th to 14th
Come Together
Report: Apple wants to combine Mac, iPad and iPhone development with new SDK
Codenamed Marzipan, could be about to make life much easier for software creators
Youtube X Games
Pocket.watch on how partnering with influencers gives it an edge in the mobile games market
Vice president of games Greg Hayes speaks to us about the new concept
Erfolg
Messenger games developer Softgames opens up larger headquarters in Germany
Can expand up to 130 employees
Tonk You Very Much
Ex-Disney and Pixar animators raised $2m for new Texas mobile studio Tonk Tonk Games
Funding led by BITKRAFT esports ventures
Google
Google to unveil a mystery gaming project at this year’s GDC
"Gather round" for the web giant's next step into gaming on March 19th
Stark Rabbid Mad
Ketchapp utilises Ubisoft IP for new Rocket Rabbids mobile game
Keep calm and Bwahhh
Financials
Netmarble profit tumbles 72% year-on-year in Q4 due to slowing sales and lack of new releases
Publisher appears to be struggling to fill the hole from fading Lineage 2 and Harry Potter revenue
Too Little, Too Late?
Why Activision Blizzard’s mobile strategy is between a rock and a hard place
The wrong IP at the wrong time
Time For Change
US labour organisation pens open-letter to games developers urging unionisation
AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler fronts message
Financials
Ubisoft mobile bookings soar 77.6 per cent over the first three quarters of the publisher’s FY2019
"Ubisoft delivered a solid performance in a quarter when, as expected, competition was particularly fierce.”
Mark Zuckerberg Likes This
Facebook top apps publisher for mobile downloads in Q4 2018
800 million downloads in three months
Funded
TinyBuild has big plans for its newly-acquired $15 million in Series-A investment
Large Series-A funding will be used to bring on new hires and push publishing project growth
Court Used Repel
Pokémon Go settlement could result in removal of certain Poké Stops and Gyms
Niantic will need to respond to 95 per cent of complaints in 15 days
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Coin Master overtakes Candy Crush Saga in Great Britain and Ireland for top grossing
Charts from February 4th to February 10th
Event
Save up to $500 on Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle with Super Early Bird prices this week
Ticket prices now lowest they'll ever be for May’s event, ends Thursday
Europe A Priority
Activision Blizzard shuts down King’s San Francisco studio as it focuses on European development
Mobile developer pulls out of US altogether
Big Deal
Report: Facebook wanted to buy Unity game engine to drive VR and AR business
Wants to be a key player in the next major computing platform after mobile
From This Moment On
Amazon launches new reward scheme Amazon Moments
Tailor-made discounts
Events
Pocket Gamer and Pixonic reunite for our second Party @ GDC 2019
Cap off your first day at GDC with free drinks, dance and networking
Lovin' It
AppLovin study reveals two-thirds of British people play mobile games
But only 64 per cent reckon they're a gamer
Let It Go
Disney collaborates with Kuato Studios for new storytelling app Disney Story Realms
The genie is out of the bottle
Not So Angry Now
Angry Birds 2 Q4 gross bookings up 77 per cent year-on-year as Rovio reports record quarter for games business
Finnish giant reveals it has 13 new games in development, anticipates big 2019 with new Angry Birds Movie sequel set to launch
Switch's Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake set for Nintendo Switch 2019 release
Classic gets new lick of paint
We're Serious
Nintendo reveals Tetris battle royale game for Nintendo Switch
...what?
Mario Maker
Nintendo reveals Super Mario Maker 2 for Nintendo Switch
Set to release in June 2019
No Filter
Pokemon Go update will add new AR camera functionality
Coming very soon
We Like Ike
Fire Emblem Heroes has grossed over $500 million in two years
More than all other release for mobile combined
Smart Move
Activision Blizzard: "Mobile is a top priority for us"
Expect more mobile games from the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher
Hail To The King
Candy Crush maker King's revenue up in 2018 to $2bn, touts $100m ads business
"The next phase about where the ad business heading is about continued scaling"
Studio Closure
Report: King's Seattle studio to close
Decision results in 78 job losses