Apple Arcade game development and Stadia set to shift gaming industry
Wednesday, May 1, 2019 by Richard Harris
In the last few months, the gaming industry has witnessed major shifts as new emerging services begin to take shape across various platforms. Drilling down into mobile gaming, the recent launches of Google Stadia and Apple Arcade have presented gamers with two new mediums to flex their gaming skills. However, these emerging platforms have presented new implications, cha...
The Game of the Year winner is God of War announced at GDC 19
Friday, March 22, 2019 by Brittany Harris
Sony Santa Monica & Sony Interactive Entertainment’s epic reimagining of the intense action/adventure series, God of War, was honored with the prize for Game of the Year at the 19th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) ceremony during the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Sony’s God of War tel...
Everything Unity said at GDC 19
Thursday, March 21, 2019 by Brittany Harris
Unity Technologie's keynote at GDC 19 was filled with new technological breakthroughs and partner announcements that showcased everything that developers need to create, operate and monetize for today and tomorrow. Key partners and customers from Tencent, Activision, Glu Mobile, and NVIDIA joined Unity to set the stage for a week filled with hands-on experiences, op...
Publishing mobile games with Gismart now possible
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 by Richard Harris
Gismart has added an investment program for mobile app startups to its already established publishing unit. In addition to developing and publishing its own titles, Gismart also acts as a strategic partner for aspiring indie developers. The newly launched investment program highlights Gismart’s commitment to helping independent developers bring their titles to mar...
Female gamers are an untapped market for developers
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 by Richard Harris
Here are some fun facts. Women gamers make up 65% of all active gamers and they also play mobile games at a higher rate than men. What's even better for app developers and publishers, is that 79% of those females are more likely to make in-app purchases.
Brands want to reach this highly engaged audience, and yet, a large part of the gaming app industry's outp...
New mobile ads SDK lands from Verizon Media to replace Flurry Ads
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 by Brittany Harris
Verizon Media launched Verizon Ads recently, a new mobile SDK that is a single and modular SDK for app developers that aims to bring together the best monetization assets of AOL and Yahoo, and can provide access to complete mobile demand across Oath Ad Platforms. The SDK integrated with the IAB Tech Lab Open Measurement SDK. It will replace the Flurry Monetization ...
Gaming on mobile data says you are probably a gamer but don't admit it
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 by Richard Harris
Who’s a gamer? Chances are, it’s you. Most smartphone owners in the U.S. need look no further than their own mobile phone home screen for evidence that new categories of games are changing the face of modern video game players. From the early days of arcade games to the rise of Fortnite, mobile gaming - and the rise of casual games - has democratized gaming ...
Data science and the currency of the future
Wednesday, February 6, 2019 by Richard Harris
A recent study performed by IDC and Seagate forecasted that by 2025, global data will grow to 163 zettabytes. For scale, that’s approximately 1 trillion gigabytes per zettabyte. As the amount of available data grows, businesses are clamoring for larger and larger pieces of the pie. However, when it comes to leveraging data, success doesn’t rest on the quanti...
Dapps compared to apps
Monday, February 4, 2019 by Richard Harris
Dapps, or "decentralized app" development is still in the gestational stage, but one company has seen growth spurts in the number of active dapps throughout 2018. Dapp.com recently compiled their latest quarterly report providing a snapshot of what's happening in the market
Some key takeaways from their report included:
Over 900 dapps had la...
Old school banner ads outperforming video
Monday, February 4, 2019 by Richard Harris
Liftoff has unveiled its first Creative Ad Index report of the year. Released the same year when mobile is projected to eclipse television in consumer attention, effective mobile advertising has never been more important. Key findings that could change the way mobile advertisers allocate their spend in 2019 include: the one major mistake marketers make when it comes to ...
Hothead games wants to make your mobile game a hit too
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Richard Harris
Hothead Games announced that it has launched a new publishing division to help third-party game developers turn their mobile games into hits. The company is currently accepting submissions and offering financial assistance for games in various stages of development that will benefit from Hothead’s expertise in analytics, marketing, monetization, and gameplay mecha...
Game developer tips and insight for 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019 by Richard Harris
2019 offers promising new opportunities for game developers to reach new markets. But how can developers best capture diverse users’ attention and loyalty? Webpals Mobile, a performance-driven mobile-app user acquisition company, recently conducted a study comparing advertising driving gaming app downloads in the United States and Asia. Drawing on insights from th...
How the US Government shutdown could effect your app
Friday, January 11, 2019 by Richard Harris
The impacts of the US Government being offline are obvious to the daily operations of the National parks, security agencies, and other federally funded offices. But it doesn't stop there. Techcrunch recently reported how this shutdown (close to the longest running in history), is affecting IPO ready companies, and Karen Hao, a reporter for MIT Technology Review rece...
5 rules of monetizing like a mobile game developer
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 by Sean Webster
Mobile game developers are some of the most successful monetizers and marketers in recent history. Need proof? Mobile gaming revenue accounted for nearly 82% of all app revenue in 2017 and will surpass $100 billion by 2021.
The formula for success for mobile game developers is simple: easy payments, a finely-tuned monetization strategy, and great customer support. Bu...
What game developers can learn from Fortnite's rise
Friday, December 28, 2018 by Richard Harris
Fortnite took over the video game world in 2018 and reached over $1 billion in sales, reaching every gaming fan with experiences on all the major consoles, mobile operating systems and even streaming platforms like Twitch. However, Fortnite seems to have reached a plateau with a recent study by StreamElements revealing viewership of the game has steadily declined since ...
Blockchain remakes of popular Atari games in the works
Monday, December 24, 2018 by Richard Harris
Atari, an iconic consumer brand and interactive entertainment producer, announces that it has entered into a license agreement with Animoca Brands Limited, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (listed on ASX: "AB1"). The Agreement grants Animoca Brands the rights to produce and publish blockchain versions of the popular Atari mobile game titles R...
Lineage 2: Revolution update features new holiday in-game content
Saturday, December 22, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Netmarble Corp. has released a fun, festive holiday update to the popular mobile massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Lineage 2: Revolution, including new Christmas-themed content and special in-game events featuring free item giveaways for players.
Core Holiday Updates
In celebration of the holiday season, the massive city of Magnadin featured i...
Mobile app ad spending predicted to hit $64B by 2020
Thursday, December 20, 2018 by Richard Harris
The app advertising market is poised to grow at a rapid pace over the coming years, surging 136% from $27.1 billion in 2017 to $64.1 billion in 2020, according to a new market research study by AppsFlyer, the leading mobile attribution company.
The new report projects that mobile app marketing spend will grow at an average year-over-year rate of 34%. Growth is foreca...
WordPress MarfeelPress plugin gives power to the publisher
Thursday, November 29, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Marfeel announced that it has launched MarfeelPress, their first all-in-one plugin that enables publishers of all sizes using the WordPress content management system (CMS) to enhance the mobile version of their content while boosting engagement and ad revenue. In the first stage of its official launch, Marfeel will be releasing the plugin to select publishers by invitat...
The best Thanksgiving 2018 game that makes you look busy
Thursday, November 22, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Want some Thanksgiving fun this year? The Turkey plucker game seems like a completely useless game where you pluck the feathers from a turkey as fast as you can, and you keep plucking until your fingers bleed - or you simply give up! But under the hood is an addictive and unique gameplay style, that keeps you hooked - plucking turkey for hours it seems.
The turke...
The subscription based app model is working and here's proof
Monday, November 5, 2018 by Richard Harris
Liftoff released its annual Mobile App Engagement Index, describing trends in consumer app engagement and ways mobile marketers can adapt to thrive in the changing landscape. Specifically, the report reveals that mobile users are head over heels for the subscription model, with considerable momentum gained from last year. Additionally, the Index highlights a shift in ge...
Ghost Tappers game lands just in time for Halloween
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Wild River, the game publishing label of EuroVideo Medien has announced that the idle game Ghost Tappers will be released this week for iOS and Android; this is the publisher’s second mobile game after Pretzel Land. This ambitious and expansive game for smartphones and tablets was developed by Munich based studio Diviad and will be distributed ...
Unity Ads SDK 3.0 come to game developers
Wednesday, October 24, 2018 by Richard Harris
Unity has just launched the latest version of their Ads SDK, and it’s a doozy. The new Unity Ads SDK 3.0 introduces personalized placements, as well as two new ad formats: Augmented reality and Banner ads.
Personalized placements are particularly noteworthy. Now in open beta, personalized placements tie ads and in-app purchases into the same auction, serving th...
Mobile app success rate in question
Wednesday, October 3, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Nearly 90% of app developers and marketers (88%) say their app has made money and is a financial success, according to a new survey from The Manifest, a business news and how-to site. Meanwhile, only 10% of businesses say their app has not been a financial success, and 2% do not know if their app has made a profit. Experts, however, doubt the validity of this high succe...
Star Trek Timelines developer Disruptor Beam teams with Tilting Point
Monday, September 24, 2018 by Richard Harris
Disruptor Beam and Tilting Point announced an expanded partnership between the two companies that will enable additional growth of Disruptor Beam's hit free-to-play game, Star Trek Timelines, as well as the co-development of another IP-based character-collection RPG (CCRPG).
The deal has an initial value of at least $29 million and follows on the success of an ag...
Making apps by collaborating and sharing the profits
Monday, September 24, 2018 by Richard Harris
Everyone has a project idea but most of them never go anywhere because getting all of the resources together to pull it off seems monumental. You might be a developer, but your not a designer. Or you might be a good marketer, but you have no sense of business.
For the past 12 months Crowdsourcer.io has been working on a web platform where people can collaborate on pr...
Netmarble Corp releases Lineage 2: Revolution updates
Wednesday, September 19, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Netmarble Corp. announced several updates to the massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), Lineage 2: Revolution, including class transfers part 1, the anticipated collaboration feature, and the additional updates to Academy Clan.
Launched worldwide in November 2017, Lineage 2: Revolution continues to be one of the most popular MMORPGs due to its innovat...
Pretzel Land arrives for iOS and Android
Tuesday, September 18, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
The new mobile game Pretzel Land, published by Wild River, the gaming label of Bavarian company Eurovideo Medien GmbH, has been given an official release date. From Tuesday, 18th September, the funny simulation with Bavarian atmosphere is available to download for iOS and Android. Fans of Bavarian culture can get in the mood for the Munich Oktoberfest a few days before ...
Game developers get new matchmaking platform called Open Match
Monday, September 10, 2018 by Richard Harris
Google Cloud and Unity are jointly announcing the availability of Open Match, an open source matchmaking solution offering game creators a common matchmaker framework.
Designed to allow game creators to reuse a common matchmaker framework, Open Match includes three core components:
A frontend API for game clients;
A backend API for game servers; and
A...
Mobile game spending is dominated by women says Liftoff
Wednesday, August 22, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Liftoff released a data report exploring the booming world of mobile gaming. Since last year, Liftoff has detected a golden age of mobile game marketing with acquisition costs at all stages of the funnel decreasing and post-install conversion rates increasing. And as multi-platform gaming sensations like Fortnite bring high-quality play experiences to smartphones, more ...
Looney Tunes is back in a fun mobile format
Monday, August 20, 2018 by Richard Harris
Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem development has been announced by Scopely. The new mobile multiplayer role-playing game, with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, that brings an entire world of Looney Tunes characters together to do battle on your mobile screen with anvils, boulders and other ACME devices of destruction. Packed with player vs. player insanity, the mayh...
Mobile game developers get another playable ads platform choice
Thursday, August 16, 2018 by Richard Harris
A playable ads solution has been launched by Synative, which is now available to all game developers. The Synative playable ad platform allows users to design and create their own ads, eliminating the expensive and time-intensive process of working with outside designers and web coders.
“Synative is reinventing the way mobile game developers design and create p...
Mobile game developer help is coming to Barcelona
Thursday, August 16, 2018 by Christian Hargrave
Tilting Point has opened a studio in Barcelona to better serve Europe’s robust mobile game development community, "as part of its mission to help quality games reach their potential scale." The move builds on the company’s momentum on the heels of its recent commitment to invest $132M annually to help developers scale great games to success. The Ba...
Flaregames partners with MeeWow to publish Tap Empire
Friday, August 10, 2018 by Richard Harris
Mobile gaming publisher Flaregames announced the next imminent global launch in its Q3/Q4 line-up with hyper-casual idle game Tap Empire releasing 11th October on iOS and Android devices. This debut game from San Francisco studio MeeWow Games will be the third title from the Flaregames Accelerator and the second to launch in the next two months, with Super Spell Heroes,...
Integrate video into apps easier using new tech from Cloudflare
Thursday, August 9, 2018 by Richard Harris
Cloudflare announced the general availability of Cloudflare Stream, a new way for content owners and app developers to integrate video into any application or website.
Prior to Cloudflare Stream, if businesses wanted to move beyond just uploading videos to a consumer service like YouTube, they had to use at least three different services: one to encode video into a s...
