Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: We talk Street Fighter meets Scrabble with Built Games
We talk to Built Games who took won our E3 Big Indie Pitch
Funding Bytes
Chile dev TinyBytes Games picks up $1.4m investment
CEO Andres Constantinidis on why Initial Capital and London Venture Partners have made their first foray into Latin America games funding
Tale Continued?
Telltale wants another company to hire ex-staff and finish The Walking Dead: The Final Season
The third episode is reportedly nearly finished
Jobs News
Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder Mike Morhaime steps down
World of Warcraft executive producer employee J. Allen Brack replaces him in top job
Get Up And Vote
Games publisher Jam City wants to get US voters mobilised for the midterm elections
Happy or unhappy with the state of the country? Then you need to vote
New Motto, New Tech
Applift rebrands to focus on UA and retargeting
Company launches new toolset Mobile Journey Advertising, along with new website, slogan and logo
Enough Is Enough?
Studio employees campaign against poor working conditions with #AsAGamesWorker hashtag
Developers let out their frustrations over industry working conditions
Mobile Mavens
Is Telltale's closure part of a wider industry trend or a cautionary tale?
The mobile mavens offer their opinions
Report
Facebook dominates AppsFlyer Performance Index rankings, but Google is catching up
Apple Search Ads establishes itself as a mainstream player
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: Cameron Roberson talks about developing their idle RPG indie title Clicker Knight
We chat to the recipient of the 3rd place prize from The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Revenue Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost generates $3.5 million in five days
Picks up over 800,000 downloads
Stream On
Google tests games streaming tech in Chrome with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Odyssey
A select number of consumers can play the game in this way for free
Stellar
Hugo Games picks up Dawn of the Dragons dev 5th Planet for $737,000
An extra $160,000 will go towards funding a sequel to the studio's Dawn of the Dragons sequel.
Jobs
Sega of America’s Ian Curran and Tatsuyuki Miyazaki take on additional roles as COO and CEO of Atlus USA
Former CEO Naoto Hiraoka bcomes brand owner to promote company's titles worldwide
Indie View
The Big Indie Interviews: We talk AR escape rooms with The Pixel Crushers
We talk to The Pixel Crushers who took third place at our E3 Big Indie Pitch
Gearing Up
Amazon partners with Eden for $20k GameOn Masters: Gear.Club esports tournament
Competition gets sports car manufacturer Pagani as sponsor
Expert Advice
IGDA launches Virtual Mentor Cafe in support of recently laid off devs at Telltale, Capcom Vancouver, Big Fish and more
People affected can seek advice from industry experts
Market Data
Analytics firm Appfigures unveils new mobile market intelligence platform
Explorer offers insights into app performance
Nostalgic Deal
Liquid Media snaps up 65 retro game IPs from Throwback for $1 million
Titles include All Star Baseball, NFL Quarterback Club, NHL Breakaway and College Slam
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Snake Vs Colors cracks top spot on US App Store while China's top grossing gets a shakeup
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 17th to 23rd
Funding Round
Blockchain outfit ClanPlay secures $2 million for its gamer rewards platform
Company aims to build “the world’s first marketplace for in-game actions"
Blockchain Assemble
Fig, Ubisoft, Alto and more form Blockchain Game Alliance
“Blockchain has all the potential to change the gaming ecosystem, creating one that everyone can benefit from”
Revenue Estimates
The Sims Mobile takes home $20 million
Title said to have made $3.17 million in August alone
Hot Five
Scopely eyes M&A activity, Candy Crush Friends Saga launch closes in, and Big Fish layoffs
The past weeks hottest articles
Charity
Words With Friends 2 launches tile styles alongside breast cancer charity event
Zynga will donate up to $100,000 to Susan G Komen as part of breast cancer awareness month
Vr Versus Switch
Carmack on the Oculus Quest: "Realistically, we're going to end up competing with the Nintendo Switch"
The veteran engineer sees the standalone VR headset as a secondary device for console or PC owners
Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost hits top download spots in four countries and is a top 30 grosser in the US
Those countries being Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
Closure
Disney Canada layoffs as Club Penguin Island closes
The web version of the social game had shut down the year prior
Indie Mavens
Should indie developers release their games in Asia?
Our Indie mavens weigh in
Trivial
Etermax reveals Trivia Crack 2 launch date as original quiz app passes 500 million downloads
Trivia Crack 2 will launch on iOS and Android devices on October 25th
Data
Tencent maintains a firm grasp on SuperData’s top 10 grossing mobile games chart in August
Publisher dominates a chart virtually unchanged over the last two months
Remote Discovery
Oculus mobile app adds Rift Support so users can find and install VR games remotely
App also lets users find events and connect with friends
Console Switch
Nintendo Switch Online companion app hits five million downloads
The total is 25 per cent of the console’s install base
Lost And Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost launches after racking up over one million pre-registrations
Players will get 2,500 for hitting the milestone should they log into Dragaila Lost
Standalone
Oculus Quest offers all-in-one wireless virtual reality headset for $399
No PC or smartphone required
Potter
Jam City launches Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery in South Korea
Move could prove a lucrative venture in the RPG-friendly market
Drop In
PUBG Mobile’s first Star Challenge Champions series launches with a $600,000 prize pool
Mobile esports series kicks off with a focus on putting big names centre-stage
Legal
Former employee hits Telltale Games with a class action lawsuit
Redundancies made “without cause” may have broken state and federal labour laws
Cross-platform Royale
Sony relents to enable PS4 cross-play with rival platforms
Starting with an open beta for Fortnite players
More Tales To Tell
AMC and Smilegate backed out of Telltale financing talks day before closure
Source says management painted AMC deal as done
Fine Catch
Pokemon Go captures over $2bn through player spending
The location-based AR game hit the milestone after 811 days following hitting 1 billion in 302 days
Cut
Big Fish Games cut 15% of workforce eight months after $1 billion takeover
Company out to restructure around social casino and casual games as executive roles also cut
Universal Auction
Chocolate's Unified Auction resolves in-app header bidding conundrum
How Universal Auction can help developers make more money from ads by surfacing higher bids
Big Indie Awards 2018
The best of The Big Indie Pitch 2018 - Spellfast
We take a look back at the winner of our 2018 Big Indie Pitch in LA, which took place during E3 week
Telltale Signs
Failure to finalise new funding round the catalyst for mass Telltale Games layoffs
Sources claim Lionsgate stopped funding Telltale to refocus on its own business
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Voodoo and Lion Studios battle it out for top spots
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 10th to 16th
Cliffhanger
Telltale moves to quell fan fears over The Walking Dead amid pressure to offer ex-employees severance
The developer offered the update on Twitter
Tales To Tell
Netflix evaluates options for Stranger Things game while Minecraft: Story Mode moves forward amid Telltale closure
The streaming service confirmed the news in a written statement
Big Indie Awards 2018
The best of The Big Indie Pitch 2018 - Defend The Cake
We take a look back at the winner of our 2018 Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Road To Investments
Scopely swoops for Glu’s Rob Ricca to lead M&A activity
Rob Ricca previously led M&A at Glu Mobile, during which time it purchased Crowdstaf and Plain Vanilla