[Last week in games] Tim Sweeney has no regrets over battles with Apple and Google, EA’s retreat from mobile continues, and more news!
News in games that caught our eyes in the last week [September 30 to October 6 2024]
INDUSTRY NEWS
Finland’s games industry set to come together for a full week of events (pocketgamer.biz)
4 x Reasons Why Squad Busters Suffers While Brawl Stars Soars (deconstructoroffun.com)
Monopoly Go developer Scopely takes the number one spot in the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2024 (pocketgamer.biz)
The five pillars of perseverance in game development teams (pocketgamer.biz)
Esports Wales receives up to £125,000 in funding (gamesindustry.biz)
INVESTOR
Tencent loans €15m to Remedy (gamesindustry.biz)
Future Trash raises $5M to build its IP within Fortnite's platform (venturebeat.com)
French publisher RIVRS raises €4m to "professionalise and industrialise" UGC (gamesindustry.biz)
Global VC activity declines in Q3 | NVCA 1st look (venturebeat.com)
MARKET DATA
Genshin Impact hits $6.3 billion in time for fourth anniversary, but is it running on fumes? (pocketgamer.biz)
Chinese licence approvals on track to surpass 2023 with 109 domestic games approved this September (pocketgamer.biz)
Driving 25% of mobile game players to a web shop can lead to 8% increase in profitability (pocketgamer.biz)
Balatro mobile hits $500k in five days, tops paid game charts (mobilegamer.biz)
FAU-G: Domination hits a million pre-registrations in less than a month (pocketgamer.com)
Zenless Zone Zero surpasses $150 million, but it’s no Genshin Impact… (pocketgamer.biz)
Japan’s PC Gaming Market Size Triples In 4 Years (serkantoto.com)
September’s top grossing mobile games (mobilegamer.biz)
September’s top mobile game downloads (mobilegamer.biz)
Data digest: Call of Duty Mobile, Zenless Zone Zero, Squad Busters numbers, SEA market update, more (mobilegamer.biz)
Balatro approaches $1 million in seven days on mobile (pocketgamer.biz)
Fallout series reaches 100m viewers worldwide (gamesindustry.biz)
NEW GAMES
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from capybara chaos to robots vs humans (pocketgamer.biz)
Balatro Mobile is available now, bringing the deck-building roguelike to the perfect platform (pocketgamer.com)
New games now: Balatro, Eve, Habby's new soft launch, Nikki, Naruto, Spongebob and more (mobilegamer.biz)
MapleStory Worlds will soft launch in the US next month, offering a wealth of online experiences to enjoy (pocketgamer.com)
Once Human launches PvP scenario Prismverse’s Clash, while mobile pre-registrations are still underway (pocketgamer.com)
Blasphemous, The Game Kitchen's stylish action-platformer, is heading for iOS and Android (pocketgamer.com)
Neopets: Faerie Fragments is the upcoming return of match-3 title, Neopets: Faerie's Hope (pocketgamer.com)
Heroes of History is the next 4x MMORTS from Innogames, creators of Forge of Empires (pocketgamer.com)
Go Go Muffin will be at Tokyo Game Show this year, soon launching in the West after success in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (pocketgamer.com)
The King of Fighters AFK announced, bringing an idle-twist to the classic fighting series (pocketgamer.com)
Haunted Mansion: Merge Defense lets you merge quirky household goods to defend against ghosts, out now on Android (pocketgamer.com)
Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge heads out of early access soon as a new action releases (pocketgamer.com)
Merge Match March is an interesting RPG puzzler that is now available on Android and iOS (pocketgamer.com)
Dot9 Games' FAU-G shooter focused on Indian military gets a million pre-registrations (venturebeat.com)
Konami’s MLB Pro Spirit brings authentic baseball to mobile this year (pocketgamer.biz)
In face of Nintendo lawsuit, Palworld marches onto mobile (polygon.com)
Hybridcasual hitmaker Habby launches Archero 2 pitting players against the Lone Archer (pocketgamer.biz)
Go Go Muffin reveals more gameplay details in new feature video, coming soon to the US and Europe (pocketgamer.com)
Archero 2, a sequel to Habby's popular game, has soft launched for iOS in Canada (pocketgamer.com)
Moonray Studio unveils Web3 mobile Autobattler for next year (venturebeat.com)
AAA RPG Based On Avatar: The Last Airbender Announced By Paramount (kotaku.com)
PUBLISHER NEWS
EA’s retreat from mobile continues with the closure of The Simpsons: Tapped Out (mobilegamer.biz)
Nexon America lays off “small number” of staff (pocketgamer.biz)
Star Wars Outlaws Reveals Roadmap To Get The Massive Open-World Game Back On Track (kotaku.com)
Discord Activities opens up to all developers to make games on the platform (pocketgamer.biz)
Blizzard Reportedly Hasn't Given Up On The Dream Of A StarCraft Shooter (kotaku.com)
Epic files Google and Samsung collusion suit as its Games Store hits 10m installs (mobilegamer.biz)
Tim Sweeney: "I have no regrets" over Epic Games' costly legal battles with Apple and Google (pocketgamer.biz)
Epic files lawsuit against Google and Samsung over “anti-competitive” app Auto Blocker (pocketgamer.biz)
GOO NFT maker Good Gaming Inc to take "new path" as mobile game publisher (pocketgamer.biz)
Pokémon Unite shutting down in Belgium and Netherlands next year (gamesindustry.biz)
How Blizzard’s canceled Warcraft follow-up Titan fell apart (polygon.com)
Switch emulator Ryujinx shuts down development after “contact by Nintendo” (arstechnica.com)
Devolver Digital launches new publishing label Big Fan Games (venturebeat.com)
EA mobile racing veterans form new Melbourne studio The Three Thousands (mobilegamer.biz)
Unreal Engine royalty fee reducing to 3.5% for games landing on Epic Games Store on launch day (pocketgamer.biz)
Sharkmob London faces layoffs after game cancelled (gamesindustry.biz)
UK-based VR studio XR Games' "massive restructuring" reportedly puts dozens of jobs at risk (gamesindustry.biz)
Antstream Arcade makes "small number" of layoffs (gamesindustry.biz)
Mario + Rabbids and Red Dead Redemption creators form new studio: Day 4 Night (gamesindustry.biz)
Supersocial and supermodel Heidi Klum launch Modelverse on Roblox (venturebeat.com)
Future shutters PlayStation-focused Play magazine (gamesindustry.biz)