Education
Chinese developer NetDragon buys online learning community Edmodo for $138 million
Deal paid via a combination of cash and shares of an affiliated education company
New Digs
Netmarble to set up shop in Los Angeles with new US office
The move will put the studio closer to partner Walt Disney and its Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm subsidiaries
Investment News
New VC fund Altered Ventures plots $36 million investment focusing on emerging markets
Fund works by revenue share, rather than equity stake
Rad
The Witness developer Thekla puts up $100k for underrepresented developers
RAD Game Tools' Jeff Roberts matched the initial $50k to double the prize pool
Developer Survey
Mobile Games Developer Trends Spring 2018: Augmented reality and real-time strategy a focus for devs
What's hot and what's not in the mobile games industry
Event
Refereum, Reality Clash, Lucid Sight and more to speak at Blockchain Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018
Hear the latest trends, technology and techniques from the people that are driving blockchain tech forwards
M&a
Keywords expands audio services with three acquisitions
Spending spree continues
Job Losses
AdColony cuts senior staff as it eyes profitability
Further redundancies at mobile ads firm
Partners In Education
Tencent partners with Age of Learning to bring ABCmouse English curriculum to China
Consists of more than 5,000 learning activities, including games, puzzles and books
Mixed Picture
2018 so far for mobile game company stock
Winners and the losers
Acquisition News
AppScatter to acquire mobile app intelligence platform Priori Data in $19m deal
Purchase expected to be completed by May 15th 2018
Hot Five
Gender pay gap revealed, moving on from Sparcade to WorldWinner, and Gameloft's ads strategy
The hottest articles of the last week
Pg Connects
Niantic Superstar Session at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Ross Finman will reveal the company’s plans for AR and how it will build on breakout hit Pokemon GO
Sky’s The Limit
The Walking Dead’s Skybound launches games publishing division
Skybound Games will debut with The Long Dark and Slime Rancher in September 2018
Skilled
Mobile esports company Skillz doubles revenue to $200 million run-rate in less than nine months
Revenue run-rate up by 125 per cent thanks in-part to player involvement in over one million tournaments per day
Cash Royale
Fortnite Mobile pulled in over $15 million in 20 days
The battle royale games daily revenue tripled after the game was made launched fully on iOS
Clone Dinner
PUBG developer sues NetEase over mobile 'clones' Rules of Survival and Knives Out
Lawsuit demands removal of titles
Big Screen To Small Screen
Dame Maggie Smith, Warwick Davis and Michael Gambon star in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
Game set for April 25th launch
Shrinking Marketplace
Google Play continues to grow while number of App Store releases shrinks for the first time
There were 755,000 titles released on iOS in 2017, a drop of 29 per cent
Job Losses
Twitch lays off staff as company restructures
But firm claims it still wants to grow its headcount overall
State Of Mobile Fraud
Mobile app fraud reached up to $800 million in Q1 2018
New AppsFlyer report claims $103 million of games earnings exposed during quarter
Partnership
PerBlue tapped for Disney Heroes: Battle Mode mobile RPG
Title part of Disney's new mobile strategy
Money Pot
Makers Fund raises $200 million to invest in interactive entertainment industry
Group has already invested in Bossa, SuperData, TinyBuild, Genvid and more
Something Of Value
Big Fish Casino constitutes “illegal gambling”, rules US federal appeals court
Case set to rumble on after victory for the plaintiff
Wing A Wager
How a real-money version of Angry Birds has WorldWinner flying high
Jeremy Shea on the success of Angry Birds Champions
Settlement Reality
Niantic settles Pokemon Go Fest class action lawsuit for $1.6 million
Attendees can claim for airfares, hotel expenses, parking fees and more
Esports Royale
World's top esports teams flock to Supercell's Clash Royale League
$1 million World Finals takes place at the end of the year
Hot Five
Snapchat snaps up PlayCanvas, PUBG and Fortnite mobile games face off, and Marvel Strike Force launches
The hottest articles of the last week
Deep Data
Increasing user LTV by 45% with automated loyalty and dynamic pricing
Wappier CEO guides developers through automated revenue management
Kitted Out
ARKit-powered apps break 13 million downloads in six months
Games count for almost half of AR apps
Bigger Than Ever
GDC 2018 attracts record 28,000 attendees
Rise of 2,000 industry professionals year-on-year
New Kid’s New Toy
FoxNext hits the ground running with Marvel Strike Force release
Debut from Fox’s new game division
Hitting The Mark
Hitman Sniper racks up 10 million players
Players can play the game for free from March 28th to April 4th on Android and iOS
Stats Royale
NetEase’s Knives Out pulled in more than 50 million monthly active users in January
According to Newzoo, the battle royale genre may just have something going for it
Virtually Unmissable
Second Life founder Philip Rosedale to keynote PG Connects San Francisco 2018
High Fidelity's influential entrepreneur will kick off conference's Superstar Sessions with his unique industry perspective
Enter Oasis
A breakthrough moment for virtual reality? Ready Player One hits cinemas
Biggest thing to happen to VR since the launch of the headsets
Job Losses
Hero Academy 2 developer Robot Entertainment lays off over 30 employees
The studio will continue to operate its current games as well as reveal a new title in due course
Building Revenue
Invitation-only Fortnite Mobile rakes in $5.3 million in its first 10 days
The battle royale title previously managed to snag $1 million within its first three days
Business News
ALAX signs blockchain games distribution deal with OEM Gionee
The deal will also see the ALAX app store available as an update for older Gionee phones
Smart Career
Jobs in games: Understanding creative opportunities in mobile
Devs share what it's like working in the mobile games industry
Pop Quiz
HQ Trivia lands ad sponsorship from Nike and Warner Bros for themed quiz nights
The trivia app launched its first sponsored show earlier this week for Nike’s Air Max Day
The Charticle
PUBG Mobile versus Fortnite Mobile: Which is performing better?
The battle royale commences
Special Offer
Save up to $400 on tickets to Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco
Early Bird offer ends Thursday. Book now and treat yo’self!
User Interface
Tech talk: Can Coherent Labs rise as the new standard for game UI?
We take a peek at the mobile-friendly Hummingbird
Good Mews
Niantic set to bring research and story-driven quest systems to Pokemon Go
Players will also be able to capture Mew when the update goes live later this week
Trail Of Destruction
Warner Bros taps mixed reality developer Trigger for Rampage mobile game
Movie tie-in launches ahead of film release
Under The Hood
Unity publishes reference-only C# source code on GitHub
Developers can now take a deeper look into the popular game engine and tool suite
New Games Platform?
Snapchat snaps up UK cloud-based HTML5 game engine PlayCanvas
Could it be eyeing up instant games for the platform?
X-powered
Superhero hot: The making of Marvel Strike Force
FoxNext’s Amir Rahimi provides the lowdown
Change The Game
Google Play challenges female teens to change the game with new design challenge
Students could win college scholarship of $10,000 and $15,000 school pledge, plus all-expenses paid trip to E3