Industry Insights
From CPI to LTV: How player motivations are powering hybridcasual’s big wins
Giacomo Maragliulo explains how player motivations are reshaping UA strategy and stronger hybridcasual performance
Fortnite Comeback
Fortnite set to return to Google Play on March 19th
The return follows a long legal battle with Google that saw the title originally removed from the Google Play Store in 2020
Payout
Melon Sandbox surpasses $1m payouts in 2025
Melon Sandbox has accumulated 150m downloads across platforms
State Of Gdc
GDC 2026 rips off the band-aid
A look at the challenges facing one of the industry's largest annual gatherings of developers
New Offerings
Apple cuts App Store fees in China after regulator talks
Developers in the Small Business Program and Mini Apps Partner Program will see fees drop from 15% to 12%
Layoff News
Meta planning layoffs that could affect 20% of workforce
The potential cuts would be the company’s largest since its 2022–2023 “year of efficiency” restructuring
Gdc 2026
GDC Festival of Gaming draws 20,000 attendees as industry gathers in San Francisco
GDC took place in San Francisco from March 9th to March 13th, 2026
Nominations Named
No mobile games nominated for Best Game at BAFTA Games Awards 2026
Nominations are now public, and mobile’s appearance is sparse
Funding News
Quicksave Interactive secures HyperScope Ventures investment for Playables.ai
Playables.ai enables advertisers to create playable ads using simple prompts rather than traditional development workflows
Industry Insights
How the role of the marketing analyst is changing in the age of AI
Iaroslav Kobozev discusses how AI is reshaping the skills and workflows for marketing analysts
Strategic Move
Nodwin Gaming appoints MTG gaming executive Arnd Benninghoff as board member
The company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round to support global expansion and strategic acquisitions
Tencent Tech
Tencent showcases AI lighting tech MagicDawn at GDC
Open-world MMO Roco Kingdom: World was used as a demonstration of new capabilities
Building Accessible Social Worlds
From e-commerce to social ecosystems: Hardy World Studios on building for the mobile-first frontier
Khaleem Solomon, the founder of Hardy World Studios discusses how culturally grounded design and low-code accessibility are reshaping player retention across both VR and mobile
Hot Five
Hot Five: Loom Games' $1bn exit, Scopely’s 15th anniversary, and Kingshot’s $800m first year
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Week In Views
PEGI revises ratings with loot boxes among key changes, and Angry Birds marketing strategies | Week in Views
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
New Offerings
Google Play rolls out Game Trials so players can try full paid games before purchasing
New “buy once, play anywhere” model lets players access supported games on both mobile and PC
Company Growth
Mobvista reports $2.05bn revenue for 2025 as Mintegral drives growth
Mintegral generated $1.96bn in revenue, remaining Mobvista’s primary growth driver
Market Report
Study shows 77% of mobile gamers spend $100 or more per month on online purchases
92% of gamers who bought a product after seeing an ad said they were satisfied with the purchase
New Offerings
Razer reveals AI tools to speed up game development pipelines
The company’s “Future of Play” showcase introduced tools designed to accelerate game development pipelines
Leadership Change
Stillfront announces change to Nomination Committee ahead of AGM
Roger Storm of Handelsbanken Fonder has stepped down from the Nomination Committee with immediate effect
Expansions
Sega Sammy plans to expand transmedia strategy as mobile and live service titles take centre stage
The company is using games as the starting point for broader entertainment expansions across multiple platforms
New Games
New release roundup: Nova Drift, Subnautica: Below Zero, Overcooked! All You Can Eat, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Six Fabulous Fireside Chats
From large language models to learning languages - Seven more fabulous fireside chats from PGC London 2026
HyprMX spoke to many of the pioneers and business leaders at PGC London 2026. Here are seven more of the very best conversations from the event
New Offerings
Google Cloud unveils autonomous AI agents as next phase of game development
The company said the games industry is entering its biggest shift since the move from 2D to 3D graphics
Rating System
PEGI expands age ratings to cover loot boxes and in-game spending
Games containing paid random items such as loot boxes will now default to a PEGI 16 rating
Online Safety
UK government votes against blanket social media ban for under-16s
The government is consulting on whether games, AI chatbots and social media should face stricter controls
Kingshot Crown
Kingshot’s first year: $800m, 11 months of growth, but backlash from whales
Century Games’ Kingshot was the most lucrative new mobile release of 2025
Monetisation In Africa
Africa’s monetisation debate: founders weigh in on mobile, PC, and the realities of game revenue
Several founders warn that treating Africa as a single gaming market ignores the continent’s diverse economic and payment realities
Jobs Roundup
March 2026's Movers and Shakers: Pokémon’s product marketing manager, multiple King promotions, founding Rocket Game Talent, and more
Our regular roundup of the mobile games industry's movers and shakers
Market Report
Vietnam’s mobile games market reached $825m in revenue in 2025
The country now has around 54m gamers, placing it among the world’s top seven markets by mobile game downloads
Developer Support
Tenjin joins Turkish government incentives programme for game developers
Eligible Turkish studios can now receive government reimbursement when using Tenjin’s services
Event Report
Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco smashed expectations
Mobile-focused business event sets the tone for GDC week, bringing together leading games companies from around the world
Generate Identify & Scale Playables
Beyond the guesswork: introducing Playable Factory’s AI-generated playables
How Playable Factory is using over 50 billion playable sessions to move beyond the ‘guess and check’ era
Bossfight Comeback
Squid Game: Unleashed dev Boss Fight Entertainment relaunches as indie studio Bossfight
The original studio was shuttered under Netflix due to a change in course at the streaming giant
New Offerings
Epic Games cuts V-Bucks bundles as Fortnite pricing update rolls out
Players will receive fewer V-Bucks across most purchase tiers under the new pricing structure
Mobile Mavens
“Finally, real evolution in the app store”: The Mobile Mavens weigh in on Google Play changes
Our Mobile Mavens share their insights on the latest Google Play changes and what they could mean for developers and the mobile games industry
Compatibility Test
Rovio’s Beacon tech "indispensable" to its own games but less compatible with Sega’s
Sega has yet to achieve "the level of results that had been expected" prior to Rovio’s acquisition
Industry Insights
How Azur Games increased retention and doubled revenue with Hidden Objects 2
Daria Korbyleva explains how structural design and live ops helped Hidden Objects 2 outperform its predecessor
Friends And Features
Discord expands its Social SDK with native mobile linking and focus on friends
Discord users will now see a linked friend’s status in-game, such as competing or watching
Layoff News
Electronic Arts lays off an undisclosed number of employees across multiple Battlefield studios
The cuts impact teams at Criterion Games, DICE, Ripple Effect Studios and Motive Studio
New Office
Maysalward opens new headquarters in Amman
The new office will host The Capsule, a programme designed to expand the studio’s capacity-building efforts
Market Report
Around 70% of UK adults are gaming with increasing focus on social connections
One in four UK players expect to spend less time on social media to make room for gaming
Portugal's Game Dev Scene
Redcatpig’s Marco Bettencourt on making games in The Azores
Redcatpig released its first vehicular combat game, KEO, in Early Access in 2021 and is in the process of developing its second title, Hovershock
Data Insights
5 takeaways from the ThinkingData Summit: AI, drowning in data, and Habby's secret sauce
Insights from speakers at Blizzard, Habby, Mavis Games, Reality Games and ThinkingData
Acquisition
NCSoft acquires 70% of JustPlay in $205m deal to expand its games portfolio
The South Korean publisher will strengthen its European presence through the acquisition
Scopely Celebration
Scopely celebrates 15 years with more than $15bn in lifetime revenue
The publisher has achieved over 150bn hours of playtime across its portfolio
Apple Troubles
German publishers urge antitrust fine against Apple ATT
Industry groups say Apple’s proposed ATT changes fail to resolve competition concerns
New Partnerships
Sumo Digital partners with Arm to explore AI-powered "PC-class" graphics for mobile games
Arm’s neural technology adds AI accelerators to GPUs to push mobile visuals closer to PC quality
Ai And Leadership
ZiMAD’s Anastasia Zaiceva on AI adoption, sustainable growth and advancing diversity in games
Zaiceva discusses how AI is reshaping mobile game development and how the industry can continue improving gender diversity in senior roles
Rainbow Six Start
Rainbow Six Mobile snaps up $1.6m in first 14 days
Player spending has been led by the US since global launch, already surpassing any country with soft launch access