King's sequel to the ever-popular Candy Crush Saga has been unleashed upon the world, with the developer pushing its new Soda Saga promotion video to 100 million people in seven countries on its launch day. Intrusitve, costly, but no doubt effective.
Elsewhere, UA platform NativeX put Santa Claus to shame by launching a brand new promotion, with the Minnesota-based mobile advertising outfit giving away a whopping $50,000 to its partners to spend on user acquisition. As long as you also put $50,000 into the pot too.
As always, there's plenty more news where that came from, so sit back, relax, and enjoy another disturbingly sensuous Week That Was.
Industry voices
- Indies need to be experiemental to survive and prosper, explained former EA and Sega man Byron Atkinson-Jones.
- We shone the spotlight on Glu CEO Niccolo de Masi in our most recent Hall of Fame.
- Stefan Abadzhiev, senior sales manager at EMEA, revealed why player support is a game changer for your bottom line.
- Our Indie Mavens discussed, In the app store world, what's the point of publishers?
- PocketGamer.biz veteran Keith Andrew said goodbye by looking back on the birth and death of mobile.
User acquisition, retention, and discovery
- Candy Crush Soda Saga bubbled up on 100 million Facebook feeds.
- Adways, Latis and Ncloud24 partnered up to provide a global launch pad for Korea devs.
Tools & Platforms
- UA platform NativeX embraced the holiday season by launching a brand new promotion, with the Minnesota-based mobile advertising company giving away a whopping $50,000 to its partners to spend on user acquisition.
- Ouya announced that its platform now has 1,000 games available on it.
- German eye tracking specialist SensoMotoric Instruments entered the VR realm by adding its technology to Oculus Rift DK2.
Funding, acquisitions, personnel and shuttering
- Community gaming app Palringo has opened its global headquarters in Shoreditch, London.
- YeahMobi signed a social media marketing deal with VKontakte.
- Shanda Games' NASDAQ buyout moved from the convoluted to the ridiculous.
- Zeotap raised $1.3 million to analyse carrier data.
- Digital insight outfit SimilarWeb raised $15 million for aggressive mobile expansion.
- Spanish social-powered mobile app discovery platform Geenapp received $250,000 after successfully closing its first funding round.
- Following its record FY14 Q3 financials, Korean publisher Gamevil announced the acqusition of local partner Waplesoft.