Meta quietly soft launches Pocket, its take on an AI-powered ‘TikTok for games’
Meta inherited the app when it acquired the Gizmo team earlier this year.
Rumble Arcade maker Tribo Games is closing
"Building and running Rumble Arcade cost many times more than the game brought in," said the studio, which was formed as a web3-based 'play-to-earn' studio but pivoted to become an 'agentic distribution platform'.
Niantic’s games team has rebranded as Scopely Explore
The teams behind games like Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now have the new name a year after Scopely bought Niantic's games teams for $3.5bn.
Xbox axes 3,200 jobs; King and Mojang to report directly to boss Asha Sharma
1,600 jobs will be cut today, while four console game studios will be spun out. On King and Mojang, Xbox boss Sharma said they “have increasingly become platforms” and are the largest studios by monthly active players.
Scopely helps fund the new studio from the mind behind Umamusume: Pretty Derby
The Monopoly Go maker says the funding “demonstrates Scopely's long-term commitment to the Japanese market".
The soft launch games you need to know about from EA, Hoyoverse, Playrix, Zynga and more
Take a peek at the games in testing from the mobile games industry’s top publishers.
New game digest: Monster Hunter, Dave the Diver, CookieRun, Tiny Bookshop, Farlight’s next title, more
There's also Com2us' Genshin-like RPG, another Block Blast-like contender, a timely political satire and plenty more.
MTG taps Supercell exec to lead marketing at ‘Europe’s largest collection of midcore studios’
The Swedish roll-up group has hired former Supercell and Burger King marketeer Iwo Zakowski to lead marketing for Plarium, InnoGames, Snowprint, Hutch, Ninja Kiwi and more.
The top 20 Apple Arcade games (by player reviews)
GameDiscoverCo’s tracking of player reviews is a proxy of sorts for lifetime downloads on Apple Arcade. So let's have a good look at the data, shall we?
Data digest: Pokémon Champions, the top US earners, funding news, Sensor Tower’s big ad report, more
There's also Tiles Survive stats and a report on webgames in this week's round-up.
Stillfront seeks new CEO as Alexis Bonte steps aside
Bonte will stay on as CEO until a successor is found.
Konami’s eFootball is racing ahead of EA FC Mobile
eFootball dominates in Japan, so Konami's next challenge is to crack the west. We spoke to the game's producer Junichi Taya to find out more.
UK regulators could force Apple and Google to remove steering restrictions by the end of the year
The Competition and Markets Authority says the new measures could bring down prices for consumers and encourage innovation.
Are developers actually making money on third-party app stores?
The minds behind AltStore and Skich aren't telling – but with Epic Games Store underperforming and the closure of alt app store Setapp, they're still confident that there's a future for non-Apple and Google-run stores.
Jobs digest: moves at Scopely, Metacore, EA, Roblox, Apple, Zynga, Outfit7, Fateless, more
There's also recruitment news from Miniclip, Google, Blizzard, Peak, Unity, King and elsewhere in our latest round-up.
The new studio from two former King execs, Queen Digital Entertainment, has closed
Update: Knutsson has now confirmed the closure to business publication Breakit. His statement, translated from Swedish, reads: "We are currently planning to close the business. We do not see the economics of scaling mobile gaming in today's market..."
