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
Cancelled
Telltale’s The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us unlikely to see completion, claims voice actress
Clementine voice actress Melissa Hutchinson took to Twitter to share the news
Jobs
Games industry opens its doors to laid off Telltale employees with #telltalejobs
Online support and a California-based Meet the Dev event hope to transition stranded developers into new roles
Studio Closure
“I'm mostly saddened for the people who are losing their jobs”: Ousted Telltale CEO speaks out on studio closure
Kevin Bruner was originally ousted from the company last year by investors
Lay-off Woes
Game Workers Unite issues scathing response to Telltale Games layoffs
“The system for creating games is broken, and it will result in the collapse of many other beloved studios”
Woop
Tru Luv’s #SelfCare whips up over half a million downloads in seven weeks
The companion app has also broken the Top 50 for games in 20 countries
Hot Five
Disney shuts down Star Wars: Rivals, Honor of Kings takes $3.5bn in revenue and Tencent unveil Lego Cube
The past weeks hottest articles
Indie View
The Big Indie Pitch interviews: Former Blizzard and Riot developers talk defending cakes and winning pitches
We speak to the winner of The Very Big Indie Pitch at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Studio Woes
Telltale Games lays off majority of staff ahead of studio closure
A summary of last week's news: makers of episodic games trimmed to a skeleton staff
Big Indie Awards
Entries open for The Big Indie Awards 2018 in association with G-STAR
There's STILL time to enter this year's biggest competition for indie developers [update]
Job News Klaxon
Former Netflix publicity director joins Scopely as head of corporate communications
Geldmacher will be responsible for strategy and oversight of the company’s global brand and worldwide corporate narrative
Epic
Fortnite lands on 78.3m player count for August
Epic also admitted that this player figure revealed weaknesses in performance and spectating
Big Indie Awards 2018
The best of The Big Indie Pitch 2018 - What The Golf?
We take a look back at the winner of this year's Big Indie Pitch at GDC
Canada Expansion
Improbable opens new Edmonton office helmed by BioWare veteran Aaryn Flynn
"SpatialOS is going to transform how people make and play games, and with this new office we want to help that to happen"
Shutting Down
Dead Rising and Puzzle Fighter studio Capcom Vancouver closes
Around 158 job losses as a result
Social Asset
GetSocial partners with Unity to bring sharing tools to Asset Store
Company offers social analytics and publishing tools
Engage
Tilting Point extends Disruptor Beam deal with fresh $29m investment in Star Trek Timelines marketing
The publisher will help fund a new project as part of the deal and will handle marketing on Star Trek Timelines
Stuck The Landing
Tencent’s PUBG Mobile glides past the $75m mark in revenue despite China roadblocks
$25m of that has come in the last 31 days
Rip
YouTube Gaming is no more as company blames brand confusion for its demise
Gaming will still have a separate tab on the main YouTube site
Switching It Up
The good, the bad and the ugly of Nintendo’s Online Service
From cloud saves to NES games, we run the rule on some new features
Jobs News
Tencent's director if investments and biz dev in the West departs
Jonathan Lai’s new employer Coatue Management and is looking for new investments in games
Play Bigger
The surprising successes of PC-based Android gaming platform BlueStacks
Mobile games flourish on PC
Leadership Shuffle
HQ Trivia dev gets new CEO as it reveals latest game HQ Words
Colin Kroll takes the reins as Rus Yusupov named chief creative officer
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile game charts: Lion Studios rules the roost in China, UK and US
Google Play and App Store rankings in the US, Great Britain and Ireland, and China for the week of September 3rd to 9th
Tmi
Twitter erupts over Stormy Daniels claims Trump has a “dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart”
Unfortunate details of alleged affair surface
Skin In The Game
How real-money competition platform Skillz is riding the wave of mobile esports for all
Hits $400 million annualised run-rate
Home Comforts
Tencent’s Honor of Kings rakes in over $3.5 billion in global revenue
China makes up 96 per cent of the total
Of Kings And Valour
From esports to Nintendo Switch: Tencent on its ambitions to grow Arena of Valor in the West
“The console space is an exciting one for us, and there really hasn’t been a big mobile game on the Switch device yet”
Retired
Disney to shut down Star Wars: Rivals mobile game
The cover-based shooter had been in soft launch since June of last year
Hot Five
Supercell on why cell structure is super, Subway Surfers hits 52.5m downloads in June, and Mobile Strike grabs $1 billion
The past weeks hottest articles
Switch Up
Players will need to sign up to Nintendo Switch Online for cloud saves
Service will go live September 18th and will cost $3.99 a month, $7.99 for three months or $19.99 for 12
London Calling
Super Early Bird prices for Pocket Gamer Connects London end next week
Ticket prices now lowest they'll ever be for January event, to rise after next Friday
Off The Blockchain
Cocos-BCX raises $40m in funding to accelerate development of blockchain games platform
Funding led by Binance Labs, NEO Global Capital, 500 Startups, among others
Scrollin
Bethesda's Todd Howard shows off Elder Scrolls: Blades gameplay at Apple’s iPhone event
Elder Scrolls game set for a fall release this year
All The Range
iPhone XS, XS Max and XR unveiled at Apple keynote event
Previous ranges also discounted or discontinued
Pokemon Go
Pokemon Go saw a 35 per cent increase in activity over the last 4 months
Niantic also announced a scheme to tie Pokemon Go to civic engagement events
Super Cells
Supercell’s Ilkka Paananen explains why its cell structure puts developers before management
“The less the management had to do with their games, the better their chances of success”
Super
The first mobile Spider-man game almost made its creator bankrupt on day one of development
Indiagames reflects on creating the web-slinging mobile title on a low budget with four developers
China
It could take another four-to-six months for China to start approving new games again
Governmental restructure may see the region’s normally-booming market frozen for another half year.
Switch
Nintendo cites cheaters for the decision to restrict cloud saves on Switch
Switch Online cloud saves won’t be enabled on a number of titles
Spend
Report: Industry less reliant on "whales" than it used to be
Less stigma on in-game spending is creating a market less reliant on big-spenders.