Jobs
IGDA names new chairman and vice chair as David Seltzer steps back from leadership role
Vesa Raudasoja succeeds Seltzer as chairman while Emily Greer takes on the vice chair position
Paradise Palms
Fortnite now has 200 million players
Rise of 60 per cent in the last five months
Oh I Wish It Could Be...
Ogury, Tripledot, Lockwood, Jagex and Gram Games on the panel at the PG Christmas Mixer
Join us for an evening of talks, networking and drinks in London next week
On Tap
Tapjoy on Tapdaq acquisition: “We hadn't found the right combination of great team and differentiated tech until now”
Tapjoy SVP of strategy, corporate and business development fills us in on the decision to acquire mediation platform Tapdaq
Legal Battle
Apple heads to Supreme Court over App Store 'monopoly'
Is Apple's dominance over its closed-off iOS ecosystem inflating prices?
On The Move
Marvel: Contest of Champions dev Kabam secures office move in Vancouver
Studio has signed a lease for 105,000 square feet of office space
Mobile Stars
Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2019 finalists revealed
Ceremony takes place on the evening of Tuesday, January 22nd at the prestigious BAFTA 195 Piccadilly, London
Black Friday
From Unity assets to Udemy courses: some of the best Black Friday deals for games developers
Deals also involve discounts on GameMaker Studio 2 and RPG Maker MV
Special Offer
Pocket Gamer Connects London Black Friday offer - 23% off!
One-day only discount doubles down with Early Bird prices for up to 43% saving
Game On
Discord experiments with games detection on Android
The feature shows others what a user is playing or listening to on Spotify
All Go
Blizzard reportedly working on a Pokemon Go-styled World of Warcraft spin-off for mobile
The game reportedly has single-player mechanics
Big Indie Awards
The Big Indie Awards 2018 Top 20 Countdown Part 2 - 10 to 1
We check out the top 10 games from the 2018 Big Indie Awards in association with G-STAR and sponsored by Jagex Partners
Gone
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee shifts three million copies on Nintendo Switch in first week
The haul is the highest first-week sales figure for a Switch title
Tough Times
“It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times": IGDA exec Jen MacLean on being a games developer in 2018
"We also know that the games industry is cyclical, and I suspect that some of the things that we see with studio closures are only the beginning"
Eastern Promise
Blizzard devs claim Diablo Immortal designed with China in mind
But Blizzard denies this
Chill
$1 million is on the line in Fortnite’s Winter Royale Online Tournament
Star players will be chosen to take part in the Fortnite World Cup in 2019
A Magneton Of Bad Reviews
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee struck by review-bombing for deviating from main-series formula
Amazon Japan appears to have purged its review section in response
Event
Tencent, Unity, Jumpship, NetEase, FunPlus and Makers Fund to speak at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
It’s business first with these speakers covering investment, strategy and the global market
Charted
Weekly global mobile game charts: Pokemon Go enjoys grossing spike in the West following Pokemon Let's Go launch
The charts from November 5th to 11th
Funding
Super.com will support Unreal Engine projects with a new $50 million investment fund
Funding site is looking for independent Unreal developers of all levels of expertise
A Well Honed Blade
How does Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion monetise?
Ubisoft’s got (F2P) game
Sweet
Candy Crush games have made King a sweet $1.3 billion in 2018 so far
$128m of that came in October
Tap Tap
Tapjoy acquires ad mediation and app monetisation platform Tapdaq
Tapdaq by Tapjoy will team up with its new owner’s London office to work on its Maximum Impact Platform
Resurrected
Development on Telltale’s The Walking Dead starts up again
Former developers to return to complete the project
Kingly
Game of Thrones: Conquest grosses $125 million in just over a year
Fantasy strategy saw a 500 per cent year-over-year increase in growth this October
Funding News
Activision Blizzard vets raise $16m for item-based blockchain gaming platform
Mythical Games aims to deploy platform using the EOS blockchain
Hot Five
The Diablo Immortal debate rages on, Flaregames lays off 45 staff, and Brawl Stars gets a global release
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the last week
Job Losses
Tekken Mobile developer Bandai Namco Vancouver closes
Senior vice president claims all but a "small skeleton crew" have been laid off at the Canada office
Leap
Magic Leap offering indie AR developers up to $500,000 through new Independent Creator Program
Augmented reality firm hopes to kickstart its marketplace offerings by supporting independent creators
Not Quite Noble
Tencent’s Arena of Valor takes $5m from the US as year anniversary approaches
The Chinese version, Honor of Kings, has made $3.7 billion in comparison since late-2015
Faustian Bargain
Why Diablo Immortal’s detractors won that battle but have lost the war
Blizzard’s difficult decision
On Call
Bunch raises $3.8 million to develop its mobile video call app
Funds will be used to expand user acquisition and developer platform efforts
Roar
Jurassic World Alive developer Ludia teams up with Universal on How to Train Your Dragon puzzler
Long-standing relationship continues with match-three RPG
Keys To The Kingdom
“We can’t wait to bring Disney stories and characters to life on mobile”: Jam City on its big new partnership
We caught up with Jam City president and COO Josh Yguado following yesterday’s partnership reveal
China
Narrative games specialist Telltale begins liquidation proceedings
Some of its earlier games have been removed from Steam
Excite
Pokemon Go developer Niantic teases new mobile game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite for 2019 release
Had been slated for 2018 launch
Harvest
Stardew Valley reaps a $1 million harvest on iOS after making its mobile debut
Faming life-sim finds early success after only three weeks on mobile
Close The Gates
Mobile RTS Age of Empires: Castle Siege will go offline in May 2019
Developer Smoking Gun will use the Castle Siege technology to develop a new, unannounced RTS
Is That Safe?
Voice-based games developer Drivetime raises $4m in funds to make games for drivers
Funding includes Zynga co-founders Mark Pincus, Eric Schiermeyer and Justin Waldron along with Applovin founder Adam Foroughi
Not Appy
US Senators urge FTC to investigate ‘manipulative marketing practices by apps designed for children’
Also described as “unfair and deceptive”
Monetisation Design
A guide to barebones monetisation in mobile games
Oscar Clark walks developers through key considerations when designing effective ways to get players to invest their time and money in your game
Jamming
Disney taps Jam City for multi-year mobile games development partnership
The Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery developer will create a slate of new games based on Disney IP
Helsinki 2018
Jam City's Jeremy Horn: If retention is below 20% on day seven "I would advise to go back to soft launch"
Jam City VP also shared insights into a maturing mobile market
A Marvel
Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee passes away at the age of 95
Lee was one of the creative forces behind popular characters Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and The Hulk
Indie Spotlight
How an Oscar-nominated animator went from working on The Breadwinner to creating mobile games
“I wouldn’t trade the indie experience for the world"
Watch 'em All
Warner Bros drops first live-action Detective Pikachu trailer ahead of May 10th 2019 release date
Film stars co-leads Ryan Reynolds as the voice of pikachu and Justice Smith as Tim Goodman
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Old School RuneScape racks up the downloads as Football Manager 2019 strikes gold
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of October 29th to November 4th
Hot Five
Diablo Immortal shows mobile remains a dirty word in triple-A, My Talking Tom 2 launches, and Rovio's Sophie Vo on the user experience
The hottest stories from the mobile games industry over the past week
Girl Power
Google’s Change the Game winners are now available on the Play Store
$10,000 Grand Prize goes to Washington student for her game, Mazu
Come Again
Activision Blizzard labels Diablo Immortal fan reception as "muted"
The games giant also reiterated that Mobile remains the largest and fastest growing platform for gaming in the world