Mobile Games Awards
Game Insight returns as headline sponsor of the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards
Event takes place on the evening of January 22nd after Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019
Hot Five
AppsFlyer's $100m annual recurring revenue, PGC London reveals first speakers, and Com2uS on following up a $1bn hit
The hottest stories from the last week
Play
Google Play improves support for app bundles and subscriptions
It has also launched Academy for App Success interactive courses for developers
Going Up
Marketing analytics firm AppsFlyer soars past $100 million in annual recurring revenue
Mobile attribution and analytics company is reporting 100 per cent growth every 12 months
Esports
Arena of Valor 2018 International Championship sports a $600,000 prize pool
Grand finals will take place in Thailand on December 15th to 16th
Putting The U In Union
Ex-Telltale dev: "Developers deserve a lot better than what this industry is giving us right now"
Former Telltale Games narrative designer Grace Buck gave the illuminating talk at the Sweden Games Conference
Oh
Tencent’s Westernised Arena of Valor takes $15m a year after launch
The US proved to be its most popular region
Nope-mon
Former US president Barack Obama doesn't care for Pokemon
I’d honestly always figured him more of a Digimon fan anyway
Crunch
Minit developer encourages developers to share games made without crunch
Indies take to Twitter to share games developed without excessive overtime
Narrative Games
Universal is the latest contender in the mobile interactive fiction space with Series Your Story Universe
Game set to tap film and TV IP such as Vanderpump Rules, Saved By The Bell, The Breakfast Club and Law & Order
Mobile's Millions
Popular kids MMO Roblox generates nearly $500m on mobile
UGC-based MMO picked up $92 million in Q3 2018 alone
Ask Me Anything
Skybound Games CEO talks finishing The Walking Dead: The Final Season, bringing back Telltale staff and crunch
"I can say that I would never expect or ask anyone to work what would be considered inhumane hours"
Apponboard’s Tech Is Taking Off
Google Play’s Try Now demos are boosting retention and monetisation by more than 29%
AppOnboard’s tech is taking off
Play Together
Instant Games comes to Facebook’s 270k Gaming Groups
Groups attract combined 90 million active users each month
Winner Winner
PUBG Mobile has scored over 100m downloads on Google Play
Tencent's mobile battle royale reaches Android milestone two months after hitting it across platforms
Meewow
How a Plants vs. Zombies producer and a former NFL team tech lead are shaking up idle games
The bold philosophy of MeeWow Games
Dead On
Chinese outfit GAEA snaps up 20% stake in Fallout Shelter dev Behaviour Interactive
The pair are currently co-developing a Game of Thrones game for mobile
Legal Rift
John Carmack's legal dispute with Zenimax Media ends
But the fight for Oculus isn’t over yet
Going Mobile
Facebook tests fb.gg app for Android
The app is currently being tested with a 'limited set of features'
Space Odyssey
Toys-to-space: The making of Ubisoft's Starlink: Battle for Atlas
"It was something that none of us had ever done before"
Open Sesame
Fortnite Android beta now open
Title has already grossed more than $60 million, according to Sensor Tower estimates
On Cloud 9
Esports outfit Cloud9 scoops up $50m Series B funding round
Valor Equity Partners leads investment
Social
At Game Closure the future of gaming is social
The studio's Battle Cats Galaxy and Fishing Star QUICK are currently on the LINE QUICK GAME platform
Breach
Facebook confirms 30 million users had their login details stolen last month
The company is working alongside the FBI to find the attacker
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: South Korea's Line Puzzle tops downloads as Clash Royale makes a comeback
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of October 1st to 7th
Summoning A Hit
Com2uS on Summoners War's rapid expansion and applying lessons learnt to Skylanders: Ring of Heroes
"I think that gaming is a hits-driven business in the same way that publishing is a hits-driven business"
Hot Five
Puzzle & Dragons to go offline in Europe, Subway Surfers gets SYBO TV, and Brawls Stars' Eastern future
Rounding up the hottest stories from the last week
Seasoned Veteran
Former EA Mobile senior VP Mike Verdu joins advisory board at Boss Fight Entertainment
Developer aims to up its publishing game
Finding A Sweet Spot
Etermax on balancing the fresh with the familiar in Trivia Crack 2
Back for another spin
Found
Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost finds $16m in revenue after two weeks
$13.5m of which, comes from the US and Japan
Building Blox
Roblox acquires app performance start-up PacketZoom to boost output on mobile
PacketZoom Co-founder and CTO Chetan Ahuja will join Roblox at part of the deal
Perfecto
Perforce snaps up Cloud-based software developer Perfecto Mobile
The acquisition is expected to close this year
Insert Details Here
Skybound keeps details on The Walking Dead: The Final Season's future vague
“We are doing our best to take care of the people. Our intent is to work with the original team but there are a lot of moving parts"
Catching Season
Niantic’s Pokemon Go catches $84.8m in revenue for September
The location-based AR game also added 8.86m new trainers to its ranks
Acquisitions With Friends?
Report: Zynga attracts takeover interest
Developer has received preliminary approaches but no formal talks have taken place, sources claim
Big Indie Pitch
Enter the Big Indie Pitch at next month’s Jordan Gaming Summit
Indie developer contest lands in Amman for November
Deal
Advance snaps up majority stake in games analytics firm Newzoo
The media company will make a significant capital investment in Newzoo as part of the deal
Hay Maker
Indie darling Stardew Valley launching on App Store later this month
Eric Barone’s tranquil farming RPG hybrid will drop first on the iOS, Android release TBC
Event
Pocket Gamer Connects London to feature an amazing 21 conference tracks
Covering everything from the basics to the future across mobile, PC and blockchain gaming
Event
What's on at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019?
Two-day event features 21-track conference schedule, Big Indie Pitches, investor panels, networking and more across mobile, PC, VR/AR and blockchain
Fore
Playdemic’s Golf Clash gets new clans feature
The new feature allows groups of up to 50 golf clash players to chat, share replays and work together to earn in-game rewards
Ar
Truly Social Games acquires Vancouver AR studio Cooper’s New Reality Garage
Augmented reality specialist will rebrand as Truly Social Games Vancouver
Audio
Gismart’s Piano Crush becomes No.1 music App on the US App Store
Virtual keyboard beat out Spotify to top charts in multiple regions worldwide
Blast Off
Rovio soft-launches Angry Birds Dream Blast in Finland and the UK
The bubble popper is available on iOS and Android
Offline
Marmalade SDK shuts down citing increased pressure from Unity and Unreal
Unpredictable iOS changes are also stated as causing Marmalade’s developers to close up shop
Service
Epic Games acquires security and service provider Kamu
Kamu brings its speciality in game security and community building to Fortnite and Unreal developers
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Supercell's Clash of Clans shuffles up the top grossing rankings
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 24th to 30th
Support A Creator
Fortnite's 'support-a-creator' initiative lets players back their favourite influencers
The event allows players to support their favourite creators when making in-game purchases
Big Deal
Advantage Solutions acquires HyprMX owner Jun Group in deal that brings brands and mobile games closer together
HyprMX general manager and senior vice president Dan Laughlin tells us what the deal means for the company and the mobile games industry at large
Jobs News
ESA president Mike Gallagher steps down
SVP and general counsel Stanley Pierre-Louis will fill this spot until a successor is found