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
Fusion
Crytek teams up with PlayFusion to bring enhanced reality features into Cryengine
The addition will allow Cryengine licenses to tap into a new set of virtual reality development tools and features
Mobile Madness
Madfinger’s Shadowgun Legends launches globally on Android and iOS
The first-person shooter/ RPG hybrid was originally announced back in August of 2016
Video
Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2017 video highlights
With the next event just weeks away, we thought it was time to revisit some of our favourite presentations from last year
Testing
NetEase and Google partner up to bring automated testing software to Android
Google unveiled NetEase developed testing tech AirTest Project at GDC
Unreal
Epic Games to boost support for mobile developers with Unreal Engine 4
A host of improvements and features revealed at State of Unreal opening session at GDC
Chart Royale
Playerunknown’s Battleground Mobile grabs top spot on iOS free games chart in 17 countries
The battle royale title is also the second spot in Germany and the US
Gotta Go Fast
Games streaming service Hatch brings classic Sega titles Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis to Android
Other games like Sonic Jump, Sonic 4 Episode 2 and Sonic CD also heading to the platform courtesy of Hatch
Job News
Former staff at Telltale reveal a toxic working culture at The Walking Dead studio
Ex-employees complained of constant overwork, toxic management and creative stagnation
Polylingual
YoYo Games adds French, German and Spanish languages to GameMaker Studio 2
Development engine set to add more languages this year
Results Are In
Virtual Virtual Reality and Bury Me, My Love take the accolades at 14th annual IMGAs
Old Man’s Journey and Hidden Folks also receive awards
Augmented Reel-ality
Resolution Games set to give Bait! The AR treatment with Bait! Under the Surface on Android and iOS
The latest instalment of the franchise is expected to launch later this year
Phwoar
PlayFusion to give Warhammer the Pokemon Go treatment with new AR trading card game
The mobile games developer will also create additional content as a part of an IP partnership with Games Workshop
Like Nite And Day
Invitation-only Fornite Mobile nets more than $1 million in-game on iOS within three days
Epic Games’ battle royale is currently top of the iOS charts in over 40 different countries
Chickens On The Menu
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile launches in America and Canada on iOS and Android
Further release dates for other regions to be revealed soon
Will I’ll Be
The Sims creator Will Wright working on new mobile game Proxi
Competition to join project as 3D artist announced at GDC
Nested Prefabs
Unity's big roadmap for 2018 includes machine learning, IAP Promo and a new rendering pipeline
Technology firms shows signs of a busy year ahead
Game Dev Challenge
$250,000 Unity and Universal contest gives game devs access to IP such as Battlestar Galactica and Back to the Future
Other famous franchises to play with include Turok, Voltron and Jaws
All On Board
Armello launches on iOS and Android
Free-to-play digital board game offers players in-app-purchases and subscription options
Get The Message
Chat app gaming: The massive opportunity in mobile no one’s talking about
Facebook Instant Games presents an exciting future for mobile
Instant Gaming
Android Instant lets players quickly trial games like Clash Royale with tiny downloads
Service currently in closed beta
Friendly Competition
Amazon reveals cross-platform competitive gaming service GameOn that delivers real-world prizes
Developers can use it to implement leaderboards, leagues and multi-round competitions
High Tide
Subway Surfers becomes first game to hit 1 billion downloads on Google Play
The endless runner launched in 2012 and was downloaded 400 million times last year
Service Provider
Meet games services company MoGi Group at GDC 2018 in San Francisco
The team will be at booth 2103 in the South Hall of the Moscone Convention Centre
Mobile Evolved
Ark: Survival Evolved set to touch down on mobile as a free-to-play title this spring
Closed beta to also launching today
Touched Down
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile journeys West with Canada soft launch
Available for download from the Google Play store
Events
Blockchain Gamer Connects: The new conference for games and the blockchain heads to San Francisco May 14th to 15th
Two-day event revealed for May 14th and 15th
Reaching Out
Google Play reveals a slew of new mobile game advertising features
Rewarded video, playables and open bidding heading to Google Play and the company's services
Glorious
Super Evil Megacorp partners with Alibaba to bring Vainglory to World Electronic Sports Games
MOBA joins the likes of Blizzard’s Hearthstone and Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Cheers Guys
YoYo Games to hand out free licences for GameMaker Studio 2 during GDC
Games developers can use the suite at Train Jam, The Heart Jam and the Not Going to GDC Game Jam