On the podcast: A lot of App Store news, NC’s $300m mobile push, Overwatch, Metacore, Yahoo and more
This week’s inside view of the mobile game business.
Data digest: CookieRun, NYT and Valorant milestones, more Skillz-Papaya drama plus China, Japan and D2C stats
There's also a look at which RPGs dominated China's livestreaming charts in July.
Overwatch Rush enters soft launch in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia
Blizzard's mobile-exclusive hero shooter began testing on 31 August.
Korean giant NC has spent $300m on four studios and isn’t stopping there
Former Tripledot exec Anel Ceman says NC is looking to buy established studios making $50-100m across all genres and business models.
Eddy Cue to take over the App Store as Phil Schiller steps down
Carson Oliver stays as App Store lead, with Ann Thai and Alex Rofman moving to report into him.
Supercell’s acquisition of Merge Mansion maker Metacore to be finalised this month
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. It follows ~160 staff cuts at Metacore and the closure of its offices in Sweden and Germany.
Yahoo is quietly building a games business, and it’s starting with daily webgames
Yahoo's head of games Andrew Pedersen says that since it relaunched its games portal in January, daily active users are up more than 60% and gameplay clicks nearly 25%.
Call of Duty: Black Ops designer turns to mobile after months of funding rejections
Ex-Treyarch level designer Brian Douglas went ahead and built Rift Raider Extraction in seven weeks, without using AI.
The soft launch games you need to know about from Supercell, EA, Tencent, Moon Active, Zynga, Meta and more
Take a peek at the games in testing from the mobile games industry’s top publishers.
Apple reportedly saw US App Store spending fall for the first time in a decade, and Tim Sweeney has thoughts
Sensor Tower data reported by the FT suggests Apple is making less money from its App Store – likely because players can now use outside payments.
New game digest: PUBG Mobile Light, Aniimo, Petit Planet, Wobbly Life, Monster Hunter and more
The latest global releases, game dates, new soft launches and everything in between from the last week, all in one place.
Apple’s App Store team reveal their tips and tricks for getting featured
The tech giant offered a rare glimpse into how it all works behind the scenes at Gamescom Dev earlier this week. They have some thoughts on how to market premium games, too.
Who spent the most money on their Gamescom booth?
We’d bet it’s probably Tencent, but the likes of NetEase, Hoyoverse, Gryphline and Infold also have huge stands, while Western companies have been mostly drowned out.
Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcases major new NetEase, Hoyoverse and Tencent titles
Several of this week's reveals also come with fresh beta and pre-registration windows to watch.
Rovio Copenhagen to close after Sonic Blitz cancellation
The number of staff affected is not yet confirmed, but Rovio has said that around 20 people worked on Sonic Blitz. Sega West COO and Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand told us that retention wasn’t meeting expectations.
Google says survival sim Colony, from blockchain studio Parallel, is the AI game to watch
The tech giant's cloud gaming boss also countered claims AI is taking people's jobs, citing Capcom, Plarium, Nexon and Square Enix as examples.
“How did we misjudge this so badly…?” What Supercell learned from upsetting Clash Royale players
Game design lead James Back and community manager Emilia Russell talked through Clash Royale player drama and how to deal with it at Gamescom Dev.
Who’s spending money on booths at Gamescom Dev?
Supercell, Tencent Games and a load of tools and payment companies are out there promoting their wares at this small, but growing, industry-facing part of Gamescom.
Jobs digest: moves and promotions at Supercell, Scopely, EA, Mattel, Tripledot, Zynga, Tencent and more
There's also job news at Playamp, Moon Active, BoomBit, Loom and Testronic in our latest round-up.
