Author: Pocket Gamer

A rise in app installs and in-app purchases in the December-January holiday season, unofficially known as Q5, could signify a coming boom in M&A activity, reports Digiday.The period often sees a significant boost in mobile gaming revenue, as consumers worldwide take advantage of the rise in free time to spend more time gaming. The mobile gaming industry has seen a significant bump for three years running, and in Q5 2022 installs increased 5% compared to the average for H2 2022. January saw a further boost of 22%.January also saw a significant increase in in-app purchases, which stood at 12% above…

Mobile RPG Echoes of Mana will be seeing its service end in 2023, after less than a year since its initial release in April 2022.“Since Echoes of Mana’s launch on April 27, 2022, we’ve strived to provide an incredible and enjoyable gaming experience for our players every day that could exceed the day before. However, we’ve come to the conclusion that it would be difficult to continue maintaining the app experience, and to therefore end the app service.”The announcement was made on the game’s official social media channels as well as Square Enix Bridge, the company’s official account system. The…

Korean mobile game developer Netmarble saw a dip into the red this year as it reported EBITDA profits down by 57.6% compared to the year before.It’s regulatory filing reported a net loss of 906.4 billion won ($716.9 million) for 2022, a major downward turn from the net profit of 249.2 billion reported just a year earlier.In 2021, Netmarble reported its EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) at 302bn Korean Won ($236m). While in 2022 it slid down to 128bn ($100m), this is despite a slim increase of 6.6% in overall revenue.Netmarble had ended 2021 in a good position,…

While playing mobile games on your browser seems like a contradiction, Trail.gg makes a convincing argument for why it’s a good business decison.We caught up with Trail’s CCO, Shawn Adamek, to find out more about Trail.gg, what they offer and the story behind the company. Adamek spoke from Trail’s new offices in Stockholm, Sweden having outgrown their previous digs, bringing them closer to the likes of Paradox Interactive and Fatshark as neighbours.How it worksIt’s simple. Trail.gg brings mobile games to the browser. These aren’t streaming or even emulation, but actually run natively within the browser itself. Currently, Trail.gg is working to…

Hotta Studio, makers of Tower of Fantasy are set to celebrate the game’s six-month anniversary after the game’s release late in 2022.Hotta are set to celebrate the game’s “Half Anniversary” with in-game rewards including a popularity vote for player’s favourite ‘simulacra’, the player characters within the world. The studio is also fielding player-created cosmetics with rewards for contributors. The anniversary has been accompanied by a trailer commemorating in-game achievements by players throughout the game’s lifespan so far. Players will also be able to check their stats using the game’s “Time Capsule” functionality.An open world action-RPG in the vein of games like…

PUBG developers Krafton are working hard behind the scenes on getting BGMI, the bespoke Indian version of PUBG Mobile, unbanned in the country, after their bottom line was hit by the game’s banning.The company reported that their year-on-year revenue for the mobile battle royale genre, including PUBG Mobile and BGMI, had fallen by 11.6%. This was despite what they called “strong performance” in the first-half of the year. BGMI was purposely developed for the Indian market, after PUBG Mobile was first banned from the country due to tensions between India and China, as PUBG Corporation who are responsible for the…

The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of…So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we’ve created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week. The Horizon franchise is reportedly eyeing a mobile debutWell, well, well. What goes around comes around. Consoles and hi-spec PCs have had it too good for too long. All that…

Music metaverse platform PIXELYNX, founded by musicians deadmau5 and Plastikman, has announced a new partnership with Vita Motus on its debut game ELYNXIR.Vita Motus’s new VitaVerse platform lets users teleport their real selves into live-streamed virtual worlds in real time. The platform contains live music venues where concertgoers can watch streams, talk, and dance as authentic representations of themselves via a mobile app, offering a low entry barrier for digital home experiences. Through the partnership, the companies aim to create an experience that brings players and their favorite artists closer together than ever before.“Vita Motus shares our vision that metaverse…

According to reporting from eSports.net, PUBG owners Tencent are set to introduce a new franchised eSports tournament to South-east Asia. The information came via now-deleted post by the PUBG Mobile Esports Vietnam Facebook account in which Tencent apparently confirmed that the PUBG Mobile Super League (PMSL) will supersede the previous PMPL (PUBG Mobile Pro-league) SEA Championship.The new franchise arrangement would allow teams that compete to receive a share of revenue rather than simply receiving a set amount from prizes won or outside sources.eSports observer Mark Cai commented on the plans by Tencent, comparing them to the turbulent times other companies have…

Hyper Hippo is an award-winning mobile game studio dedicated to making entertainment that has a positive impact on the world. Founded in 2012, in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, Hyper Hippo became a trailblazer in the idle game genre scoring over 80 million installs of their biggest hits, AdVenture Capitalist, AdVenture Communist, and AdVenture Ages globally. “Hyper Hippo’s main areas of business are in new games and live operations,” explains their CEO Sam Fisher. “We’re developing and publishing new games that innovate and shape the idle genre; maintaining and continually improving upon live operations for five world-class games on multiple platforms…