Sound clever in meetings with this snapshot of the new games you need to know about.
Here every Friday you’ll find big games gone global, new announcements, fresh soft launches and everything in between.
This column is sponsored by AppsFlyer, which can empower you with the latest mobile game solutions, insights and trends. Contact Adam Smart and his team for expert analysis and advice.
Star Wars: Hunters
There were signs of movement on this long-awaited arena shooter last week with a new update that added a new character and various feature tweaks. While there’s still no word on a global release, its soft launch was expanded to a handful of new EU countries in March.
Made by Zynga’s NaturalMotion team, Hunters has already been delayed twice, slipping from 2021 into 2022, then last summer it slipped again into this year.
Plants Vs. Zombies: Match (EA)
Something’s brewing with this one, which appears to be in testing and was spotted by YouTuber Hey1mJay, whose gameplay footage video is above.
Its Google Play store listing seems to have disappeared since we grabbed these screens:
It’s EA’s second attempt to make a Plants Vs Zombies matching game after it soft launched another game with the IP called Zombie Match. There has been no official announcement of a soft launch just yet.
Arena Breakout (Tencent)
Developed by Tencent subsidiary MoreFun Studios, this tactical arena shooter is going global on July 14 across Android and iOS. Tencent says the game already has 10m players pre-registered.
Motorsport Rivals (Playsport Games)
The new game from the folks behind Motorsport Manager is, as the title suggests, a multiplayer spin on the series, and is out globally now.
Daisho: Survival of a Samurai (Colossi Games)
A new action RPG from Colossi Games went global yesterday, a new release from the studio that recently grabbed headlines by making its grievances with app review public.
Fun fact – Colossi boss Manuel Prueter said on LinkedIn that Daisho took just 156 days from internal greenlight to global launch. Speedy.
Cat Quest II (Gentlebros)
This is the latest former Apple Arcade game to arrive on the ‘real’ App Store, a cutesy adventure from Singaporean studio The Gentlebros, which said on Twitter this week that now Cat Quest 2 is not on Apple Arcade, it’ll be coming to Android at some point.
Bloons TD6 (Ninja Kiwi)
This one has made the jump to Netflix as the streaming giant continues to snap up old favourites.
It means that there are now three different versions of this game on the iOS App Store: the original premium game, the Apple Arcade edition and now the Netflix iteration. Kudos to Ninja Kiwi for getting bonus money off the platforms for the same game several times.
Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon was also added to Netflix earlier this month, in case you missed it.
Jet Dragon (Grezzo)
Last week’s new original Apple Arcade release was Jet Dragon, a sort of racing-RPG. It’s an original title from Japanese studio Grezzo, which has in the past worked with Nintendo on various remakes and remasters. Neither Apple or Grezzo even bothered to put out a YouTube trailer about the game, so let’s assume expectations are low for this one.
Retro Goal+ and Retro Bowl+ (New Star)
Also on Apple Arcade today: two retro sports games from UK developer New Star, both repurposed free-to-play games with the studio’s trademark pixel art and mix of management and arcade action.
Skate Fish (Whitethorn Games)
Finally, the skateboarding-meets-fishing game you’ve all been waiting for…publisher Whitethorn Games and developer Sudden Event Studios announced that this is coming to mobile platforms this year.
