[Last week in games] Apple's App Store boss quits amid major reorg, Black Myth Wukong peaks at 2.2M players on Steam on first day, and more news!
News in games that caught our eyes in the last week [19th to 25th August 2024]
INDUSTRY NEWS
Playrix founders put mobile on top of The Sunday Times' first ever Gaming Rich List (pocketgamer.biz)
Game job seekers: Here's updated data on where the 14,162 game jobs are open globally (venturebeat.com)
Finding Genre Success: the Case of Gossip Harbor (deconstructoroffun.com)
Devcom opens with indie game awards and survey results from 300 speakers (venturebeat.com)
Devcom’s mobile track: digested highlights (mobilegamer.biz)
Tencent wins Gamescom's 2024 sustainability award (gamesindustry.biz)
UK Competitions and Market Authority is shutting down its Apple investigation (gamesindustry.biz)
INVESTOR
Soulbound raises $4M for Web3 social gaming ecosystem (venturebeat.com)
Gate Ventures and The Blockchain Center in Abu Dhabi launch $100M Falcon Gate Ventures (venturebeat.com)
Sporty Group moves into games as it acquires Sociable Soccer (venturebeat.com)
Mudstack raises $4M to manage assets for game devs (venturebeat.com)
Reforged Labs secures $3.9 million for gaming ads with GenAI (pocketgamer.biz)
Agate seeks $10m power-up for game dev expansion (techinasia.com)
Virtuos completes acquisition of UK games studio Third Kind Games (pocketgamer.biz)
Virtuos acquires British indie game developer Third Kind Games (gamesindustry.biz)
Mobile titles account for 76.4% of NetEase’s online game revenues in Q2 2024 (pocketgamer.biz)
MARKET DATA
89% of Devcom speakers believe AAA games don't need additional purchases (gamesindustry.biz)
"Africa is on track to become a top three market globally for mobile games" (pocketgamer.biz)
Global Revenue Growth and the Rise of Mini Games (pocketgamer.biz)
Data digest: Deadpool drives Marvel Snap, DnF boosts Tencent plus numbers from Newzoo, Mistplay and more (mobilegamer.bi)z)
Black Myth Wukong peaks at 2.2M players on Steam on first day (venturebeat.com)
Circana reports 10% uplift in US game spending but admits "this will continue to be a difficult year" (gamesindustry.biz)
New Key Fact report says 75% of video game players in Europe are adults, and average age is 31 (gamesindustry.biz)
Research finds that app icon optimization can boost user numbers by up to 25% (pocketgamer.biz)
NEW GAMES
Project Kyzen launches on August 22 with custom Bruce Lee avatar (venturebeat.com‘)
The Elder Scrolls: Castles’ Launches on September 10th Globally for iOS and Android, Pre-Orders and Pre-Registrations Now Live (toucharcade.com)
Demon Squad: Idle RPG from SuperPlanet is out now on Google Play (pocketgamer.com)
Torerowa, Asobimo's roguelike dungeon crawler, is out now in open beta for Android (pocketgamer.com)
‘Alien: Isolation’ for Android Is Now a Free To Start Release Just Like iOS Letting Everyone Try Two Missions for Free (toucharcade.com)
Miniclip's Ultimate Hunting soft launches for iOS and Android, letting you endanger species on the go (pocketgamer.com)
Monument Valley 3 to launch exclusively on Netflix this December (pocketgamer.biz)
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket opens pre-registrations as release date revealed (pocketgamer.biz)
Infinity Nikki dazzles players with a new trailer to coincide with mobile pre-registrations (pocketgamer.com)
Shadow Fight 3 relaunches in China, partnering with Wanda Cinema Games for a grand return (pocketgamer.com)
New games now: Eggy Party does match 3, Dark and Darker, Pokémon, Monument Valley 3, Squid Game and more (mobilegamer.biz)
Auto Pirates is an auto battler set on the high seas, out now for iOS and Android (pocketgamer.com)
Ubisoft unveils Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era for Q2 2025 (venturebeat.com)
Sonic Rumble soft launches for Android in the Philippines (pocketgamer.com)
PUBLISHER NEWS
Tilting Point’s Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest makes 50% of revenue from its web shop (pocketgamer.biz)
Ubisoft lays off 45 from US offices (gamesindustry.biz)
Climax opens new studio in Scotland (gamesindustry.biz)
Aggressive mobile game monetisation pushes loyal players to churn, says Battle of Polytopia CEO (pocketgamer.biz)
Space Ape closes Rival Kingdoms and gives the game a "final farewell" (pocketgamer.biz)
Nvidia unveils advances in digital humans and avatar tech at Gamescom (venturebeat.com)
Stumble Guys is now available on Nintendo Switch (pocketgamer.biz)
Publisher Headup establishes new independent studio Goon Squad (gamesindustry.biz)
Apple's App Store boss Matt Fischer quits amid major reorg (mobilegamer.biz)
Apple’s App Store to split in two following the departure of its vice president (pocketgamer.biz)
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to close, but fans can continue playing… For a fee… (pocketgamer.biz)
Infinix partners with Honor of Kings and MediaTek to boost performance in mobile games (pocketgamer.biz)