Zynga acquires Gram Games, Jam City job losses, and Voodoo raises $200m
This week in the fair land of mobile games business Zynga made its third and largest acquisition in 14 months with an all-cash $250 million purchase of casual developer Gram Games.
That’s not all either, should Gram hit profitability milestones over the next three years the value of the deal will rise.
Second on our round-up of the hottest stories from the last week was the report that Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery developer Jam City has laid off a number of its employees, including those at subsidiary TinyCo.
Investments, downloads, advertising
Elsewhere, Casual mobile games publisher Voodoo has reportedly received a $200 million investment from Goldman Sachs' private equity fund.
Rounding off our Hot Five was the news that Subway Surfers sailed past the two billion downloads mark, and our report about the present and future of ads in the Mobile Games Advertising.
#5: Learn about the present and future of ads in the Mobile Games Advertising Report 2018
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Learn about the present and future of ads in the Mobile Games Advertising Report 2018 »If you’re one of our loyal readers at PocketGamer.Biz you may have seen some words about the growing trend of mobile games ads.
And with good reason! They’re becoming an increasingly significant source of revenue for developers and publishers.
Some use it as the main revenue driver to great success, while others use it to add another significant stream of earnings on top of IAPs.
So, to look further into the matter we released a report into the state of mobile games advertising.
#4: Subway Surfers sails past the two billion download mark
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Subway Surfers sails past the two billion download mark »Kiloo and Sybo Games’ free-to-play title Subway Surfers has sailed on past the two billion downloads mark.
News come Kiloo CEO Jacob Moller himself as he took to Twitter to reveal the feat earlier today. Apparently all of the downloads were organic to boot.
Subway Surfers was initially launched back in May 2012 and snagged more than 400 million downloads last year.
The tally of installations made it the most downloaded game of 2017 worldwide.
#3: Casual mobile games publisher Voodoo raises $200 million
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Casual mobile games publisher Voodoo raises $200 million »Gram Games wasn't the only casual games developer to be part of a big money deal last week.
French hypercasual games publisher Voodoo itself received a $200 million investment from Goldman Sachs' private equity fund.
Voodoo said it aims to use the new funds to grow the company, further develop its technology and create “new social and media apps”.
The company's founders remain majority owners following the deal.
#2: Report: Redundancies hit Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery dev Jam City
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Report: Redundancies hit Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery dev Jam City »Various reports emerged over the past week of a number of job losses at Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery developer Jam City and its subsidiary TinyCo.
An anonymous source told Gamasutra that layoffs had occurred during the past few weeks, although it was unclear how many jobs had been hit.
The source also claimed Jam City had been moving staff to focus on Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery in recent months. That title got off to a strong start in the grossing charts, despite some negative press attention.
Due to the layoffs and moving staff around, it was also claimed that only a skeleton crew remained on TinyCo’s mobile title Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow.
#1: Frank Gibeau on why Zynga’s $250 million acquisition of Gram Games adds up
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Frank Gibeau on why Zynga’s $250 million acquisition of Gram Games adds up »Three is the charm seemingly as Zynga has made its third acquisition its biggest with $250 million put down in an all-cash purchase of Gram Games.
That’s not all either, the value of the deal has the potential to rise should Gram hit profit milestones over the next three years.
Best known for hypercasual ad-funded mobile games such as 1010! and Merged!, the company has more recently been climbing the top grossing charts with its first IAP title Merge Dragons!
The game is currently a top 100 grossing game on iPhone in Germany, the UK and the US.