TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Baidu to invest CN¥500m (£58m) in livestreaming; Respawn opens Vancouver studio; and T1 invests in Mobalytics. Baidu to invest CN¥500m (£58m) in livestreaming Baidu executives have announced that the Chinese tech firm will invest approximately CN¥500m (£58m) to expand its live-streaming business through integrating its Haokan platform with its search and short-video products, alongside the recruitment of 1000 influencers. While the Beijing-based firm launched its Haokan platform in [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Video games market to pass USD$200bn (£162bn) by 2023; Gravity Well formed; and Torque Esports completes merger with Frankly and WinView. Video games market to pass USD$200bn (£162bn) by 2023 The global video games market is set to be worth USD$200.8bn (£162.4bn) by 2023, representing a CAGR of 8.3% from 2019, according to projections published by analytics platform Newzoo. By sector, mobile will continue to see the fastest [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Sensor Tower raises USD$45m (£36m); Unity acquires Bolt; and Redemption Games receives AppLovin investment. Sensor Tower raises USD$45m (£36m) California-based mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower has announced that it has received a strategic investment of USD$45m (£36m) from Riverwood Capital, which will be used to support the platform’s growth through product innovation and recruitment. Since an initial USD$1m seed funding round in 2013, Sensor Tower has expanded organically, [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: European mobile game revenue hits record high; Riot Games acquires Hypixel Studios; and esports predicted to withstand recession. European mobile game revenue hits record high March 2020 saw a record high level for mobile game downloads across Europe according to Sensor Tower estimates, with installs climbing by 19% month-on-month to reach 1.2 billion. The comparative rise during the same period last year was 9%. While European user spend [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: GameStop surpasses earnings expectations; ASOdesk raises USD$1m (£833,000); and Tribe Gaming raises USD$1m (£833,000). GameStop surpasses earnings expectations Video games retailer GameStop has published its financial results for the fourth quarter and full financial year ending February 1st 2020. While net sales over the course of the year fell by 21.8% over the course of the year to USD$6.466bn (£5.389bn), the retailer reduced its debt by a measure [...]

In this special exclusive contributed piece, Dimoso CEO Jacki Vause considers the fine art of publishing mobile games to China. Vause is a widely respected veteran of the tech, mobile and PR space, has been named one of PCR’s Top-30 Women in Mobile, and is an experienced entrepreneur and founder. — China should be considered by all mobile games developers who are looking to take their games global. Over the years I have represented many developers and publishers both from the East [...]

Audio-first and audio-only games have to-date offered a fascinating micro niche within the gaming medium. In the late 1990s the visionary musician and game designer Kenji Eno released a game with very few visuals at all for the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast called Real Sound: Kaze no Regret. The idea was that blind and sighted players could enjoy the same experience. A few years later Nintendo debuted SoundVoyager for the GameBoy Advance, which challenged you not to look at the screen [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It’s easy to feel instinctively optimistic about in-game advertising. In recent years there’s been a powerful sense that in-game ads aren’t simply an increasingly valuable means of income for developers and publishers; perhaps they’re now understood and embraced by more consumers and industry figures than ever before. Furthermore, there is an ever more diverse spread of games, markets and consumers where ads are fitting. And now it feels like there are a greater number of platforms, approaches and tools through which [...]