[Last week in games] Elon Musk wants to start his own AI video game studio, Xbox’s mobile plans hit another stumbling block and more news!
News in games that caught our eyes in the last week [November 25 - December 1, 2024]
INDUSTRY NEWS
Gam3 Awards unveils 2024 winners for top Web3 games (venturebeat.com)
The celebrity effect in mobile game advertising: When stars collide with games (pocketgamer.biz)
On Riot’s Arcane and It’s Cost (gameeconomistconsulting.com)
Report: Ubisoft Barcelona unions file lawsuit against return to office mandate (gamesindustry.biz)
CMA Investigates Apple and Google’s dominance in UK mobile market (pocketgamer.biz)
Miniclip CEO Saad Choudri on running mobile's 'quiet giant' (mobilegamer.biz)
Singular takes shots at rival Adjust and its ‘undoing under AppLovin’ (mobilegamer.biz)
Microsoft Says It's Google's Fault You Can't Buy Xbox Games On Its App (kotaku.com)
Xbox’s mobile plans hit another stumbling block (mobilegamer.biz)
Elon Musk wants to start his own AI video game studio (polygon.com)
INVESTOR
Appcharge raises $26M as studio demand for DTC platform increases (venturebeat.com)
Stillfront secures $78 million in successful bond issuance (pocketgamer.biz)
CD Projekt reports 49% plummet in sales revenue in Q3 2024 (gamesindustry.biz)
Codecks secures €1 million to drive growth and expand project management tool (pocketgamer.biz)
Nazara nets $100m to accelerate strategic acquisitions and expansion plans (pocketgamer.biz)
MARKET DATA
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 drove October's sales growth (venturebeat.com)
Stalker 2 sells 1m copies in two days (gamesindustry.biz)
Matchingham Games celebrates reaching 750 million downloads worldwide (pocketgamer.biz)
Balatro nears $4.4m on mobile amid a sudden spending surge (pocketgamer.biz)
Block Blast reaches 40m daily active players (gamesindustry.biz)
PlayStation 2 has surpassed 160m lifetime sales (gamesindustry.biz)
Data digest: biggest ad spenders, top grossing games, download charts plus big numbers from Appcharge, MGVC, Matchingham and more (mobilegamer.biz)
NEW GAMES
New games digest: Royal Kingdom, Final Fantasy XIV, Warframe, Squid Game, Metacore's new soft launch and more (mobilegamer.biz)
Monoloot mixes up Monopoly Go and D&D, out now in soft launch for select regions (pocketgamer.com)
Dredge's mobile port delayed until next year but a closed beta test is planned for December (pocketgamer.com)
Emberstoria, Square Enix's new Japan-exclusive RPG, launches tomorrow (pocketgamer.com)
Meadowfell is a cosy, procedurally generated fantasy world with no combat to explore, out now on iOS (pocketgamer.com)
Once Human's mobile closed beta test to start tomorrow (pocketgamer.com)
After Inc is out now, letting you rebuild society after a global zombie pandemic you may have caused (pocketgamer.com)
Medarot Survivor offers Vampire Survivors-esque action but with cool mechs, coming soon to iOS and Android (pocketgamer.com)
Zombastic: Time to Survive is a roguelike shooter where you fight the undead in a supermarket (pocketgamer.com)
PUBLISHER NEWS
Candy Crush is teaming up with Blizzard's Warcraft? (pocketgamer.com)
Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen: “I was actually quite worried about the company” (pocketgamer.biz)
Sony’s making a handheld console to compete with Nintendo and Microsoft (theverge.com)
Sky Mavis to lay off 21% workforce (techinasia.com)
My.Games launches MGVC Publishing with $100m marketing budget to scale mobile games (pocketgamer.biz)
AppLovin-owned Adjust cuts an estimated 120 staff as it appoints new CEO (mobilegamer.biz)
Sony is developing a handheld console to run PlayStation 5 games (pocketgamer.biz)
Monopoly Go developer Scopely opens new studio in Saudi Arabia (pocketgamer.biz)
Humanoid Origin is closing down (gamesindustry.biz)
Tim Sweeney praises Roblox "fighting the Apple tax" as it gives up to 25% more Robux for web purchases (pocketgamer.biz)