[Last week in games] Dungeon & Fighter’s $270m debut, Supercell reboots Clash Heroes as Project Rise, and more!
News in games that caught our eyes in the last week [24 to 1 July 2024]
INDUSTRY NEWS
The State of Gaming 2024: Trends in Marketing, Gaming, and Apps (deconstructoroffun.com)
EU accuses Apple of breaching DMA laws as it launches fresh App Store investigation (mobilegamer.biz)
European Commission finds Apple has breached DMA (gamesindustry.biz)
How to start marketing games as a developer: choosing sources and budget (pocketgamer.biz)
Northern Ireland APG calls for gambling in games to be "severely limited," including loot boxes (gamesindustry.biz)
Epic's Fortnite fine: The precedent and potential consequences of in-game purchases in the Netherlands (pocketgamer.biz)
China approves 104 new games including titles from Tencent and Alibaba (pocketgamer.biz)
Getting your game vision right at the concept stage (gamesindustry.biz)
Little Kitty, Big City: How a former Half-Life dev’s game for his kids became an overnight success (gamesindustry.biz)
How to start marketing games as a developer: choosing sources and budget (pocketgamer.biz)
Exploring monetization: Using data to guide decisions (gameanalytics.com)
INVESTOR
Pullup Entertainment acquires minority stakes in Uppercut and Rundisc (gamesindustry.biz)
k-ID raises $45M to make online games safer and more private for all (venturebeat.com)
Web3 games raised $160M between 2023 and 2024, according to new report (venturebeat.com)
Scaffold accelerator for Alberta games starupts receives $1.5m funding (gamesindustry.biz)
Redacted raises $10M for Web3 entertainment ecosystem (venturebeat.com)
Infogrames buys Surgeon Simulator franchise from TinyBuild (gamesindustry.biz)
CyberAgent to acquire NitroPlus in $104 million deal (pocketgamer.biz)
MARKET DATA
Squad Busters generates $28 million in first three weeks (pocketgamer.biz)
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy surpasses 20M copies sold (venturebeat.com)
Dungeon & Fighter Mobile has been the top-grossing game on iOS for over four weeks (pocketgamer.com)
74% of midcore installs come from ads in casual games as iOS CPI continues to rise (pocketgamer.biz)
Squad Busters One Month Later: Down (like a lot), But Not Out (gameeconomistconsulting.com)
EA Sports FC 24 and GTA 5 top European charts in tough May (gamesindustry.biz)
Summoners War: Sky Arena now boasts a whopping 220 million downloads (pocketgamer.com)
Microsoft Flight Simulator reaches 15m players (gamesindustry.biz)
Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s first month of iOS revenue was twice that of Honor of Kings (pocketgamer.biz)
Data digest: Dungeon & Fighter’s $270m debut, Squad Busters numbers, new Sensor Tower data and more (mobilegamer.biz)
Fortnite continues to lead engagement and revenue charts for May (gamesindustry.biz)
Garena Free Fire celebrates seventh anniversary with $4 billion in lifetime revenue (pocketgamer.biz)
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree reaches 5M players in first week (polygon.com)
NEW GAMES
New games now: Honor of Kings goes global plus what's next from Game Freak, Outfit7, Lilith and more (mobilegamer.biz)
SIlkroad Origin Mobile, a port of the classic PC game is now available in early access on mobile (pocketgamer.com)
Uma Musume Pretty Derby English Release Confirmed, To Be Playable at Anime Expo 2024 (toucharcade.com)
Birdman Go! lets you collect bird-themed personalities across an idle RPG, out now on Android (pocketgamer.com)
Space Spree rages against fake ads by offering an actual endless running experience, out now on iOS and Android (pocketgamer.com)
Studio 369 unveils MetalCore's third closed beta with new modes and social hubs (venturebeat.com)
Theorycraft unveils hero battle royale Supervive, coming to open beta this year (venturebeat.com)
Clash Heroes lives!… As new Supercell game, Project R.I.S.E (pocketgamer.biz)
‘Thirsty Suitors’ Coming Soon to Mobile via Netflix Games on iOS and Android (toucharcade.com)
Pokémon developer Game Freak’s first mobile exclusive is new IP Pand Land (pocketgamer.biz)
Superliminal a puzzle game about escaping a dream is coming to mobile (pocketgamer.com)
Cattle Country Reveal Trailer Promises A Sim Game That's Stardew Valley Meets The Wild West (gameinformer.com)
Second Life Mobile's hotly anticipated public beta is now live! (pocketgamer.com)
‘Harvest Moon: Home Sweet Home’ New Screenshots Revealed From Natsume for iOS and Android, August Release Date (toucharcade.com)
Supergaming's Indus surpasses 11 million pre-registrations and introduces new 4v4 deathmatch mode (pocketgamer.com)
New games now: Clash Heroes' reboot, Umamusume goes west, CookieRun, Monster Hunter Puzzles, Thirsty Suitors and more (mobilegamer.biz)
Monster Hunter Puzzles: Felyne Isles lets you match tiles to save Catizens from monsters, out now on iOS and Android (pocketgamer.com)
PUBLISHER NEWS
Embracer Group pays up $300m to clear $1.5bn debts (pocketgamer.biz)
Supercell reboots Clash Heroes as Project Rise (mobilegamer.biz)
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on the company’s new culture memo and ad ambitions (theverge.com)
GAME denies reports that it's dropping physical sales (gamesindustry.biz)
Second Wave studio Challengers Games shuts down (gamesindustry.biz)
How King is using AI to speed up development of new Candy Crush levels (gamesindustry.biz)
Bringing real life adventure to mobile with augmented reality game Swords (pocketgamer.biz)
New studio 2weeks to focus on prototyping and bite-sized games (gamesindustry.biz)
Reports: Perfect World lays off 1,000 staff (pocketgamer.biz)
Crunchyroll adds 15 new games to its Vault this summer (venturebeat.com)
Report of mass layoffs at Gameloft Toronto (gamesindustry.biz)
Game7 launches LootDrop with up to 2M tokens in prize pool (venturebeat.com)
"Games are a long-term bet for Netflix" (pocketgamer.biz)
Thunderful Group sells all distribution businesses to Bergsala NDP (gamesindustry.biz)