Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: RiseAngle's Kaveh Vahdat talks VR, AR and evolving immersive gaming
Kaveh Vahdat will be talking about publishing on VR/AR platforms from a business perspective at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Marketing Memes
7 best practices for using memes in your marketing campaign
Fanbytes offers top tips
Speaker Spotlight
Speaker Spotlight: AppAgent CEO Peter Fodor on creating media plans for mobile games
We catch up with Fodor ahead of his talk at Pocket Gamer Connect Helsinki
Indie Spotlight
"I had way too much confidence": Ben Esposito on Donut County's six year journey through development
“One of the biggest challenges was the decision to make it by myself"
Lydia
Speaker spotlight: Jussi Loukiainen, Platonic Partnership
Jussi Loukiainen will be talking about the development of the award-winning Lydia at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Headsets
Speaker spotlight: Marcus Pullen, Blue Donut Studios
Marcus Pullen will be running a panel discussing the future of AR and VR at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Mistakes
Miyamoto: Regrettable choices were made during the development of Super Mario Run
Difficulty curve and fixed-price model could’ve been improved, claims the legendary designer
Gold
Speaker spotlight: Mihai Sfrijan, Amber
Mihai Sfrijan will be talking about the gold standard for Live Ops at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Report
Report: 34 per cent of American gamers are playing on mobile alone
EEDAR report also shows over a quarter of players are considered “incidental players”
Pocketgamer Connects Helsinki
Speaker Spotlight: Veikkaus game producer Karoliina Korppoo on taking a bet on gambling games
"To me the most interesting trend recently is how people who play gambling games are moving from buying physical scratchcards and playing on physical slot machines to play on mobile"
Console
Speaker spotlight: Kristoffer Benjaminsson, Fast Travel Games
At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki, Kristoffer Benjaminsson will be talking about Achieving Console-Like Experiences on Mobile
Best Of 2018
Fortnite developer Epic Games named the world’s top mobile games company in the PocketGamer.biz Top 50 Developer list
The full list of the 50 hottest mobile game developers! [UPDATE: exclusive video]
Soft
Speaker spotlight: Teemu Mäki-Patola, Frogmind
Teemu Mäki-Patola will be giving a talk about soft launching real-time PvP games at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Events
G-STAR Games Mixer presented by Pocket Gamer at Gamescom 2018 attracted more than 600 industry professionals
Event sees huge success in Koln!
Compete
Speaker spotlight: Arne Peters, eSports.com
Arne Peters will be giving an overview on the stare of eSports and competitive gaming at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
South Africa
Emerge counts Arcade X platform a success in South Africa with over 500,000 games played
Esports company’s hybrid platform has served over 60,000 users in the country since launch
Lively
Speaker spotlight: Petri Ikonen, EA tracktwenty
Petri Ikonen will be talking about Live Service Game Design at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12
Catch Em All
Pokemon Go sees daily revenue increase grow 39 per cent following trading update
Pokemon trainers are now spending an average of $2.5 million per day
Block By Block
Why Pixowl thinks The Sandbox’s potential can be fulfilled by going blockchain
Pixowl CEO Arthur Madrid explains
Optimised
Lab Cave’s Fernando Garcia: “Our goal is to become the best ASO agency in the world"
App Store Optimisation agency celebrates 200 million organic downloads
Job News
Ex-Rovio EVP Wilhelm Taht joins Dodreams board of directors
Drive Ahead! Developer appoints Taht as a member of the board and investor
Rivals
Speaker spotlight: Jukka Laakso, Rival Games
Jukka Laakso will give a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12 titled Narrative Meets Gameplay - Thief of Thieves: Season One
Hyper
Speaker spotlight: Carlos Estigarribia, Gazeus Games
Carlos Estigarribia will be part of a panel discussing eSports in Brazil and casual games in eSports at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12
Oh No
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney dubs Google ‘irresponsible’ over Android bug row on Fortnite
Google had made it public knowledge that hackers could hijack the game's installation software and load it with malware
Triple
Speaker spotlight: Pablo Fraile, Arm
Pablo Fraile will be talking about bringing AAA-console quality to mobile at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12
Influence
Speaker spotlight: David Kim, nevaly
David Kim will be speaking about influencer marketing in the games industry at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12
Publish
Speaker spotlight: Oliver Kern, Lockwood Publishing
At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12, Oliver Kern will be part of a panel discussion about the gold standard for Live Ops
Building A Blockchain Strategy
Animoca Brands acquires The Sandbox dev Pixowl for $5 million
Betting on blockchain user generated content
High Reward, Higher Risk
The dangerous allure of F2P mobile Star Wars games
Playing Russian Roulette with a poisoned chalice?
Diamond
Speaker spotlight: Tim Shepherd, Wooga
Tim Shepherd will be talking about seven years of lessons learned and mistakes made with Diamond Dash at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Fishing
Speaker spotlight: Kimmo KARI, FakeFish
Kimmo KARI will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11-12
China
Speaker spotlight: Mikael Leinonen, MyGamez Ltd
Mikael Leinonen will be part of a panel discussion with leading Chinese Android game platforms Oppo and Vivo at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Learn
Speaker spotlight: Mikael Haveri, Housemarque
Mikael Haveri from Housemarque will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Alive
Speaker spotlight: Rose Thomas, King
Rose Thomas will be giving a talk called 5 Years and Counting: Keeping Our Pet Alive at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Test
Speaker spotlight: Vera Rabkina, Gismart
Vera Rabkina will be talking about playtesting for indies at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Traffic
Crossy Road celebrates over 200 million downloads
Hipster Whale’s classic continues to break records five years post-launch
Pitch
Speaker spotlight: Walid O. El Cheikh, Aalto University Executive Education
Walid O. El Cheikh will be hosting a Pitching and Networking workshop at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Movie
Monument Valley has landed a film adaptation
Paramount Pictures and Weed Road Pictures will be producing a movie tie-in to the mobile puzzler
Expansion
Jam City to set up shop in a new studio in Culver City
The new location is double the size of Jam City’s existing space, setting it up for expansion
Speak Up!
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki conference schedule revealed
Amazing roster of talent on show as Europe’s biggest B2B mobile games industry event unveils its full speaker schedule for September
Jobs Jobs Jobs
Hutch bolsters work force with new senior designer and client engineer
Mark Bridle and Martin Pane join from Marmalade Games and ALPixel Games respectively
Tindered
HBO and Nerial partner for Games of Thrones Reigns spin-off
Reigns: Game of Thrones will land in October for mobile and PC
Star Wars
Zynga stock soars 11 per cent after securing a deal to create licensed Star Wars titles
Farmville creator partners with Disney for a mobile title, with potential for a second in future.
Revenue
Game of War’s spoils surpass $2.8 billion revenue worldwide
MZ’s flagship hits the milestone just after its fifth anniversary
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Jam City's Brooke Costa on how to get a job as a lead engineer
"Everyone makes mistakes, but being able to take responsibility for them and learn from them is not a universal skill"
Merges And Acquisitions
RuneScape firm Jagex on eye out for mobile games acquisitions
CEO Mansell says the historically PC-focused company is looking to expand its PC expertise.
Live And Kicking
Three years on: Bandai Namco on the evolution of Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle
"That pure fanboy spirit is something I believe I share with our users and something I take into my work on the game"
Bloody
Bloodstained cans Vita port as Sony “plans to discontinue” the handheld
Sony’s handheld has stopped producing physical copies and the end of crucial store features
Report
Liftoff reports women are buying in-app purchases 79 per cent more than men
The report also finds iOS users are harder to acquire but more valuable to get on board
Indie Spotlight
From assassins to companions: Brie Code on travelling, stress and #SelfCare
“Let’s create deep, heartening connections that we all deserve”