Social
Former Zynga director Kate Gorman's Fort Mason Games reveals first project
The women-led startup hopes to make a name in casino gaming through better representation of women
Rawr
Ludia’s Jurassic World Alive takes home over $25m in four months
The location-based title averaged $1.2 million per week in revenue for August
Ballin'
Outerminds taps up YouTubers Ethan and Hila Klein for mobile game
Ball Riders is available to grab on the Google Play store and Apple App Store
Open For Business
Unity and Google Cloud launch open-source matchmaking project
Open Source is games engine agnostic to allow game creators to reuse a common matchmaker framework
Fold
Tencent axes poker game as China tightens the leash on gaming
Servers for “Everyday Texas Hold’Em” will go offline on September 25th
Pubg
Tencent is holding its first PUBG Mobile tournament in India
PUBG Mobile Campus Championship 2018 will pit teams from 1000 colleges against each other
China
A third of the Chinese population is playing mobile games
China’s 459 million large mobile audience rivals the total population of Japan and the US combined
Jumping The Shark
How does Hungry Dragon engage, retain and monetise?
Analysing Ubisoft’s franchise spin-off
New Digs
Nexon swaps up US offices in California to reflect company culture
New Hawaii Street HQ is two floors and 49,307 square feet
Giant
Speaker Spotlight: Netmarble EMEA president Barış Özistek on the rise of artificial intelligence and accessibility
Barış Özistek will be giving a talk called Going Global - Bringing giant games from Korea to the west at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Not Too Shabby
Mobile Strike racks up over $1 billion in revenue for Machine Zone
Lion’s share of income hails from the US with 55 per cent
Camp
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp reaches $50 million in worldwide revenue
But the mobile life-sim is still the slowest-growing of Nintendo’s three mobile titles
Come Together
NantWorks invests in H1Z1 developer Daybreak and forms new publishing division
Mobile versions of H1Z1 coming
To Absent Friends
Square Enix COO Mike Sherlock passes away
"Mike was a principled and charismatic leader who led by example. He was extremely proud of the progress and success we have shared over the years"
Bought
AppLovin acquires in-app header bidding company MAX Inc
Discoverability platform expands services to include the new header bidding solution
Indie Mavens
Why is the Nintendo Switch so popular among indie mobile devs?
Our Indie Mavens weigh in
Contact!
The A-Z (and a bit!) of who’ll be at next month’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki (UPDATE)
Who would you like to meet at Europe’s biggest B2B mobile games industry conference and expo?
Super Purchase
Nielsen snaps up market research outfit SuperData
No figure put on the deal
Investment Round
Roblox picks up $150 million investment to fuel global expansion
New translations and support for currencies expected as company continues to grow
Amazon
Amazon quickly follows in Apple's footsteps and hits $1 trillion valuation
The online store joins Apple as the second public US firm to pass the threshold
Dead Cells
Speaker Spotlight: Motion Twin games developer Sebastien Bernard
Sebastien Bernard will be talking at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki about the making of Dead Cells
One Hundred Million Dollars
Streaming platform Caffeine nets $100m investment from 21st Century Fox
Two companies form new joint venture called Caffeine Studios
Charity
Angry Birds Match and Imagine Dragons team up to take down paediatric cancer
Rovio collaborates with the band for a special event during childhood cancer awareness month
Unleash
Speaker Spotlight: Bango VP of product marketing Guy Singh discusses Far East and Latin American markets
Guy Singh will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki titled Unleash The Power Of Operator Data To Convert 9X More Paying Users
Suspended
Tencent suspends Arena of Valor global CM following sexual harassment accusations
Nick Zasowski to undergo full investigation following claims of inappropriate messages being sent to women
Keys
Speaker spotlight: Quicksave Interactive CEO Elina Arponen on the past and future of chat games
Elina Arponen will be part of a panel discussing the Keys for Success in Hypercasual and Messenger Games at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Rollback
Speaker Spotlight: Exit Games senior engineer Erick Passos
Erick Passos will be giving a talk titled How Rollback Networking will Revolutionize Game Development at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Parrot
Speaker Spotlight: Nitro Games head of community Ida-Emilia Kaukonen on keeping with mobile games trends
Ida-Emilia Kaukonen will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Shit on the Floor: Parrot Cage of Game Community
Fiend
Speaker spotlight: Seriously VP of games design Reko Ukko
Reko Ukko will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki titled Telling Your Brand's Narrative Across Mediums: A Case Study on Seriously's Best Fiends
Structure
Speaker Spotlight: Oktagon Games lead game designer Pedro Rauiz Estigarribia Gestal
Pedro Rauiz Estigarribia Gestal will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Discipline-based team structures vs. Lifecycle-based team structures
Sharp
Razer is taking a second shot at developing a gaming phone
Earnings report confirms the development of a second-generation Razer Phone is underway
Cloud
Speaker spotlight: Polystream CEO Bruce Grove
Bruce Grove will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Cloud Gaming - Leaving the lag behind
License
Speaker Spotlight: RocketJump Games CEO Louis René Auclair
Louis René Auclair will be talking about Working With Licenses at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Adult
Speaker Spotlight: Nutaku business development manager Jean-Francois Tremblay
Jean-Francois “Jeff” Tremblay will be talking about the rise of the adult gaming market at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Quantum
Speaker spotlight: Quantum Shake CEO Luai Mahjneh
Luai Mahjneh will be part of a panel discussing Growing as a Developer in Finland at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Develop
Speaker Spotlight: Futureplay Games CEO Jami Laes on the past and future of the battle royale genre
Jami Laes will be giving a talk called Battlelands Royale - Inside View Into The Process And Development Of Futureplay’s Hit Game at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Revenue
King of Avalon ventures abroad to bring in $380 million outside of China in two years
Online strategy is the third-highest grossing Chinese game in the USA
Riding No More
Apple orders Coinbase to remove War Riders
Tech giant continues tough stance on blockchain games
Social
Speaker Spotlight: Flaregames head of product Antubel Moreda on the growth of hardcore and hypercasual games
Antubel Moreda will be part of a panel discussing Social Gaming Trends - From Casino to Casual at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Apple
Apple set to show off new iPhones on September 12th
Three new iPhone X devices are scheduled to headline the Cupertino event this month
Retain
Speaker Spotlight: Libring Technologies CEO Marcelo Ballestiero on the changing ad landscape
Marcelo Ballestiero will be part of a panel at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki discussing gold standards for acquisition and retention
Excel
Speaker Spotlight: Zeptolab head of publishing Dylan Tredrea
Dylan Tredrea will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki called Revenue Projections: or How I Learned to Love Excel
Hot Five
Supercell on what it takes to make a great game, Wilhelm That joins Dodreams, and the making of Donut County
The past weeks hottest articles
Success
Speaker Spotlight: Gamee CEO Bozena Rezab
Bozena Rezab will be part of a panel at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki discussing the keys for success in hypercasual and messenger games
Maximise
Speaker spotlight: Wappier CEO Alex Moukas on how to maximise revenue from your existing players
Alex Moukas will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki titled Users Acquired… Now What? Maximising Revenue from Existing Players
Company Shake-up
Service provider Pole To Win drafts up new regional structure after strong growth
Services provider divides itself into three new regions with three new presidents
Cloud
Candy Crush dev King moves core data infrastructure and AI platform to Google Cloud
Partnership could also see collaboration on machine learning efforts
Video
Speaker Spotlight: Traplight marketing, PR and influencer manager Veera Rouvinen on how to make a game YouTubeable
At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki Veera Rouvinen will be giving a talk called What makes a Game YouTubable - Top 10 Analysis and Tips for Developers
Together
Speaker Spotlight: Redlynx live ops manager Roland Peters shares how to run in-game events alongside TV shows
Roland Peters will be giving a talk at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki about running in-game events alongside weekly TV show episodes
Direct
Dragalia Lost set for launch on September 27th in US, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau
The company's first original mobile IP is launching in Japan, The US and various territories next month