Struck A Chord
Games chat platform Discord raises $150 million at $2bn valuation
Funding round led by Greenoaks Capital
Media Meets
Developers: book your appointment to meet journalists at Pocket Gamer Connects now
A chance to demo your game one-on-one with our consumer writers
Data
App Annie reports game and app downloads pushed 113 billion this year
The figure represents a 10 per cent year-over-year increase in mobile app downloads
Cash Cows
Pokemon Go world's top grossing mobile game in November
SuperData top 10 grossers includes Puzzle & D
More Is More
Despite spending over $1 billion Zynga’s M&A activity isn’t over yet
CEO Frank Gibeau is unsated
Christmas Gift?
App Store users could soon gift in-app purchases
But functionality is not yet in place
Prime Competition
Pokemon Go dev Niantic opens $1m Beyond Reality Developer Contest for AR games
10 teams will get the chance to bring their projects to life using the Real World Platform
It’s Always Sunny
Keywords acquires marketing services outfit Sunny Side Up for $4.3m
Clients for Quebec City outfit include Ubisoft, EA and Eidos
Bold Buy
Zynga buys Empires & Puzzles dev Small Giant Games in deal worth over $700 million
Finnish indie snapped up
Family
Consumer group complains to FTC over 'inappropriate' kids apps
Children's games and apps were found to breach federal privacy laws in the United States
Event
Bigger, better, newer: Meet Steel Media's 2019 event line-up
Which of the 45 events across 11 nations will you come to?
Unity Icon Collective
Unity Icon Collective aims to offer ready-made triple-A assets on the Asset Store
First pack is free for Unity Pro users
Fresh Deal
Gameloft acquires SongPop trivia game maker FreshPlanet
CEO Mathieu Nouzareth will continue on in role
Bad Game
Esports organisations could be in trouble as experts fear market correction due to over-evaluation
There is a reported disparity between the valuation of esports organisations and their revenue
Game On
Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing mobile game on the US app stores in November
Supercell’s Clash of Clans and Roblox also featured
Advertising
Developer survey shows in-game ads are an increasingly lucrative monetisation option
The number of games making a majority of revenue through in-game adverts has increased 29 per cent
Court Battle
Qualcomm insists Apple is in breach of Chinese court order it claims prohibits iPhone sales
“Apple’s statements have been deliberate attempts to obfuscate and misdirect”
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
Sell
Nintendo Switch is this generation’s fastest-selling console in the US
The Nintendo Switch has sold over 8.7 million units in the country over the last 21 months
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Lion Studios' Popular Wars lives up to its name around the world
Rankings for the week of December 3rd to 9th
In An Instant
CrossInstall’s Instant Playables tech powers Google Play app demos
Latest ad tech firm to support Google Play Instant
Calm Down
Honor of Kings skips past $4 billion in lifetime revenue
278 million downloads to date
Fund 'em All
Report: Pokemon Go developer Niantic eyes new $200m funding round
Would raise company valuation to $3.9 billion
Rest In Peace
HQ Trivia CEO Colin Kroll dies aged 34
"It's with deep sadness that we say goodbye"
Hot Five
Hot Five: Supercell and Brawl Stars dominate in our most-read stories roundup
The hottest mobile games industry stories from the last week
Time To Recalculate
Why the 70:30 App Store revenue split is doomed
The old order is passing
Royale
Knives Out out-earns both PUBG Mobile and Fortnite in November revenue results
NetEase’s battle royale is propelled to No.9 this November with over $52 million in player spending
Report
Report: There's been an 80 per cent rise in Western game installs in East Asia
Research from Appsflyer shows a market dominated by midcore and strategy games
Legal
iPhone XS and XR could be banned in China amid Apple-Qualcomm battle
Though Apple maintains that its handsets are still for sale in the People's Republic
Oh No
Mobile ad intelligence platform SafeDK finds ‘thousands’ of in-app ads auto-direct users to porn sites
Firm claims to have used its User Ad Journey tech to track the ads and find their origin
Video
Shipyard Games’ Teemu Harju provides pointers on making location-based mobile games
“We really believe in location-based games, and we truly believe there’s an opportunity for way more cooler gaming.”
Huge!
Epic is sharing Fortnite's cross-platform system with developers for free
"We have put huge efforts into building services for Fortnite that reach 200 million players across seven platforms"
Insight
Execution Labs’ Jason Della Rocca: “No one is in the business of solving your lack of money problem”
Investment expert advises on the common pitfalls and best practices to acquire funding for your games
Walking The Line
The delicate balancing act behind midcore match-three Sega Heroes
Finding core-casual sweetspot
Funded
Analytics platform AppOnboard eyes up London and Seoul offices following $30m funding drive
Los Angeles-based company claim $15m will come in off the bat from Breakaway Growth
Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Kabam’s Marvel Contest of Champions enjoys Western surge in player spending
This week's charts cover the period from November 26th to December 2nd
Hot Five
Playtika snaps up Wooga, who is buying Zynga, and Jam City layoffs
The past weeks hottest articles
Event
Gaming Istanbul 2019 announces PlayStation and HP OMEN as exhibitors
Turkish B2B and B2C expo set for January return
Moba
NetEase is bringing Super Evil Megacorp’s flagship MOBA Vainglory to China
Mobile-exclusive MOBA is also coming to PC and consoles in 2019
Zoned
MZ picks up Wells Fargo exec for chief financial officer role
Has experience with IPOs and M&A activity
Winner Winner
Mountains takes home Best Mobile Game prize from The Game Awards 2018
Matt Makes Games’ Celeste also took home prizes for Best Indie Game and Games for Impact Award
Indie Mavens
Where do indies and innovative ideas fit in the current mobile games market?
Our indie Mavens weigh in
Investment
Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 launches Investor Connector
Making it easier than ever to get one-on-one time with investors that are ready to spend
Halo Effect
Why the Epic Games Store could reposition Android as the gamers’ mobile ecosystem
The power of open
Jobs
A new mobile Pokemon game may be in the works
The Pokemon Company is looking for a principal game designer on an unnamed mobile game
Labo
Nintendo Labo named one of Time Magazine’s inventions of the year
Top 50 inventions list praises Nintendo's cardboard controls for "helping gamers create their own fun"
Oh Dear
Apple removes strategy game from the iOS App Store for featuring the Taliban
The development director at the studio who published the game shared the news on Twitter
Breaking Out
Patents, platforms and IPO: How mobile-first esports platform Skillz is planning for bigger things
CEO Andrew Paradise explains
Check
Mobile acquisition and management firm Maple Media snaps up Banana & Co’s mobile games portfolio
Games include Checkers, Hearts, Mahjong Match! and Sudoku