Level Up
Facebook's Level Up program gives game streamers new ways to build their brand
A new program from Facebook can help up and coming creators
Redefining Mobile Gaming?
Fortnite Battle Royale is redefining what's possible in mobile gaming - so what?
AppLovin's Johannes Heinze looks at what the success of Epic's hit battle royale title really means
Bad Robot Good Deal
J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot launches new games division with backing from Tencent
Warner Bros is also a minority investor in the new venture
Tekkerz
Rovio and Everton kick off new YouTube series with social influencer Tekkerz Kid for World Cup
New animated series will also feature Wayne Rooney and Cenk Tosun
Leak Before E3 Klaxon
Battle royale hit Fortnite appears on Nintendo Switch following eShop update
A hacker found a text mention of the game along with a home screen icon
Cash Royale
Supercell invests $5 million in US mobile developer Redemption Games
Deal marks first M&A activity outside of Europe
Connected
Apple launches App Store Connect for developers as it transitions from iTunes Connect
The apps portal has a website and an app and comes with an analytics suite
Nice
Mail.Ru teams up with Unity to invest in games developers
Devs will also receive technological, marketing and analytical support
Investment
Ludia co-founder Marcoux’s VC White Star Capital raises $180m in second fund
The company will use the fund to help start-ups for international
Dominating The Charts
Word Domination hits top 10 in word game category across 116 countries on iOS
MAG Interactive’s word-based game launched May 31st on iOS and Android
Allied Forces
Spirit AI reveals slew of updates to social behaviour tool Ally
Software uses AI and natural language science to keep the trolls at bay
Tournament
Tencent makes E3 debut, partners with ESL and Razer to host Arena of Valor tournament
The Valor Series playoffs will take place at the E3 ESL Arena from June 12th to 13th in Los Angeles
Ported
Apple to make iOS apps portable to MacOS in 2019
The tech giant showed off MacOS 10.14 at WWDC 2018
Job Klaxon
Glu brings back former VP of analytics as senior vice president of company’s revenue platform
Chuck Elberti will help the company drive growth through an increased focus on technology and data science
Hit That Subscribe Button
Developers can now set up trials for non-subscription apps on the iOS App Store
The latest update also tackles rules around multi-platform apps such as Steam Link
Pog Champ
90s fad POGs set for comeback with new AR Mobile game in the works
POGs AR pencilled in for a September launch for both iOS and Android
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Zach Gage on reinventing old classics and beating the clones
“I think it’s nice for the kind of people I'm going after, people who are not hardcore gamers but actually play a lot of games in their lives, but don’t think of themselves like that”
Ads Business
Apple has eyes on new mobile ad network
Looks to partner with Snapchat, Pinterest and others
Congrats
Florence, Alto's Odyssey and Inside named Apple Design Awards winners
Other recognised games include puzzle title Frost and action-adventure platformer Oddmar
Augmented Reality
Apple unveils ARKit 2 with shared experiences and persistent AR
Persistent AR lets users continue where they left off with a virtual world
Taking Back Control
iOS 12 Screen Time lets parents set daily gameplay limits on their children's devices
Apple surprisingly brings in features to restrict phone usage
Big Numbers
App Store receives 500 million visitors per week
500 million visitors per week
Microhub
Microsoft acquires GitHub for $7.5 billion
Announcement could be made as early as Monday, June 4th
Zoned Out
MZ CEO Gabe Leydon leaves Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire developer
COO Kristen Dumont takes the reins
Destined To Be Partners
Destiny developer Bungie could be set for mobile push following $100m investment from NetEase
US studio could be set to explore the mobile games market
Hot Five
Zynga acquires Gram Games, Jam City job losses, and Voodoo raises $200m
Last week's hottest articles
Live Ops
Codename recruits Wizards of the Coast producer to oversee Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms
Chris Dupuis appointed live services manager
Switching It Up
Reports: Battle royale sensation Fortnite set to parachute onto Nintendo Switch
A classification for the game appeared on the Korean Games Ratings Board
That Was Onix-pected
Pokemon Quest catches one million downloads on Nintendo Switch within two days of launch
The title is currently out on Switch but will find its way to mobile in June
Nation Of Domination
DomiNations hits $150 million mark in time for third anniversary
The strategy game has also racked up more than 37 million downloads
Opinion
PUBG Corp's lawsuit against Epic's Fortnite could set an uncomfortable precedent
This market has been built on a cycle of iteration and improvement which could end if the Playerunknown's Battlegrounds firm wins this case
Data Klaxon
75% of spending in the iOS App Store came from games over the past 10 years
In terms of downloads games took 31 per cent
Premium No Go
Square Enix Montreal no longer working on the Go series
Studio head says it's becoming increasingly difficult to make a game with a premium business model on mobile
Switch Up
Bethesda swaps The Elder Scrolls: Legends developer Dire Wolf with Sparkypants
Dire Wolf is out; Sparkypants is in
Job Losses
Report: Redundancies hit Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery dev Jam City
Some claims suggest layoffs were ‘sizable’
Indie Mavens
Indie games developer tips for making the most out of industry events
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
No Troll
Spil Games' Troll Face Quest series breaks 100 million downloads
90 per cent of downloads are organic
Batman Royale
Batman joins Arena of Valor in new update
Update also includes new deathmatch game mode and complete UI overhaul
Unreal
Interactive Gaming Ventures and Epic Games out to invest in indies using Unreal Engine 4
IGV plan to invest $1 to $5 Million in one to three indie teams per year
The Magic Number
Frank Gibeau on why Zynga’s $250 million acquisition of Gram Games adds up
Riding Merge Dragons! to success
Going Up
Pokemon Go captures 800 million downloads
Niantic is ramping up activity ahead of the summer
I Choose You
Slate of new pokemon games set for Nintendo Switch and mobile
Pokémon: Let’s Go duo to come out late next year while Pokémon Quest is out now
There Can Be Only One
PUBG Corp sues Epic over Fortnite Battle Royale
Follows threats last September and a lawsuit against NetEase
Mobile Advertising
Learn about the present and future of ads in the Mobile Games Advertising Report 2018
In association with Mintegral, the report looks at how publishers are creating significant revenue streams from ads
Investment Magic
Casual mobile games publisher Voodoo raises $200 million
Publisher has more than 150 million monthly active users; plots further growth
Hot Five
App stores to disappear, mobile industry’s GDPR woes, and Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery tops charts
The hottest articles of the last week
Aso
Drive mobile app traffic with app store optimisation
How good ASO can boost your downloads and revenue
Co-development
Canada’s Throwback Entertainment inks co-development deal with South Korea’s Leanup
Two titles set for release by the end of the year
Not So Essential?
Android creator considers sale of Essential phone maker
At least one potential buyer already said to be interested
Not Bad
Tencent's Honour of Kings made $185 million in April 2018
Fortnite meanwhile generates $296 million across platforms