TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Tencent revenue up 21%; video game usage rises amid Covid-19; and users prefer non-intrusive gaming ads to display units. Tencent revenue up 21% Tencent Holdings Limited has posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2019, with its annual revenue climbing by 21% from the previous year to CN¥337.29bn (£40.38bn), moreover operating profit increased by a similar measure (22%) to CN¥118.69bn (£14.21bn). Income from its gaming [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Video games UA spend to hit £37bn; PlatinumGames developing engine; and Comscore and Twitch partner for streaming analytics. Video games UA spend to hit £37bn Mobile attribution platform AppsFlyer has predicted that gaming app spend on user acquisition (UA) will reach £37bn by 2022, a 118% increase from the £17bn spent in 2019. The prolific increase reflects the competitiveness of the sector, with gaming responsible for an estimated [...]

As part of the recent UK budget, the government confirmed that it is pressing ahead with its somewhat controversial Digital Services Tax. As reported by the Financial times, the UK plans to raise £500m a year by applying the tax primarily to large US tech companies. It is being seen as a means to secure money in relation to allegations that many large tech outfits are not paying enough tax in the areas in which they operate, instead using low tax [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: iDreamSky in Leyou takeover talks with CVC; Facebook sues oneAudience; and NetEase releases 2019 financial results. iDreamSky in Leyou takeover talks with CVC Mobile developer iDreamSky Technology Holdings Ltd. is in advanced talks with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to partner on an estimated USD$1.4bn (£1.1bn) acquisition deal for Hong Kong-based video game holding company Leyou Technologies Holdings Ltd., according to sources speaking to Bloomberg. As previously [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Roblox raises USD$150m (£116m), App Samurai closes USD$2.4m (£1.8m) funding round; USD$1.8m (£1.4m) investment in casual mobile studio FunCraft; and Valve soliciting proposals for The International host cities. Roblox raises USD$150m (£116m) Online gaming platform developer Roblox Corp. has raised USD$150m (£116m) in a Series G round led by American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with additional participation from new investors Temasek and Tencent Holdings, along with support [...]

In this special contributed feature by Wilhelm Voutilainen, senior game analyst at GameRefinery looks at what we can learn about mobile gaming by looking back to the previous year, pulling insights from the company’s considerable pool of data. — So here we are in 2020 – not just a new year, but the start of a whole new decade. We’ve returned to our desks full of heady optimism, and focused on the future. Looking back at the past year can often be [...]

In the second of this two-part interview series, TheGamingEconomy speaks with Yat Siu (pictured), founder and non-executive chairman of Animoca Brands, following its acquisition of nWay, Inc. in December 2019. In part two: the evolution of in-game advertising, the growth of gaming, and the value of true digital ownership. How do you see in-game advertising evolving over the course of the next decade? Do you see it continue to grow in importance as it has done over the previous few years? I [...]

In the first of this two-part interview series, TheGamingEconomy speaks with Yat Siu (pictured), founder and non-executive chairman of Animoca Brands, following its acquisition of nWay, Inc. in December 2019. In part one: integrating nWay, advertising partnerships, and upcoming developments in mobile gaming. How do you plan on leveraging the technology and expertise of nWay to enter the competitive gaming space? One of the things that nWay has really cracked is real-time multiplayer fighting games, which in mobile is not at all [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Tencent set to acquire Funcom for USD$148m (£114m); AppsFlyer raises USD$210m (£161m); Stillfront Group acquires Storm8 for USD$300m (£230m); and US state intervention attempt on Riot Games discrimination lawsuit. Tencent set to acquire Funcom Tencent Holdings Limited has made a formal offer to acquire the remainder of shares it does not currently own in Funcom SE, in an all-cash bid valuing the developer-publisher at NOK 1.33bn (£114m), which has [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: CWA launches campaign for video game unionisation; Square Enix focusing on cloud gaming; and Anzu.io partners with Vivid Games. CWA launches campaign for video game unionisation The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union has launched the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), which will focus on the unionisation of US companies within the video game and technology industries. The campaign was established in cooperation with Game Workers Unite [...]