Developer

• Facebook Sees More Q4 Mobile App Downloads than Any Other Publisher Globally

  10 hours ago News

  

  Social Networking giant Facebook saw its mobile app downloaded more times than those of any other publisher globally in the closing months of 2018, according to a new report. The Facebook app was downloaded 800 million times through October to December last year, putting it a significant way ahead of the next best performing publisher, Google, which counted over 650 million downloads through the period. The numbers come from insights by enterprise-level data outfit Sensor Tower, which looked at downloads across both [...]

• Nintendo 'Not Exactly Satisfied' with Numerous Successes

  1 week ago News

  

  Ever one to be modest about its achievements, Nintendo has revealed that the huge success of many of its current first-party IP titles has left the company longing for more. As revealed in a new investor-facing Q&A report, the company is looking to expand the reach of its games and connect with more new users. Any contemporary game company is likely to be pursuing those goals, of course. But recent months have seen new Pokémon titles ‘Let’s Go! Pikachu’ and ‘Let’s [...]

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• Free-to-Play EA Sports Mobile Titles Generate £763m in Revenue

  3 weeks ago News

  

  According to a new report, the EA Sports division of EA has seen its free-to-play mobile games bank revenues of USD$1bn (£763m) to date. That’s according to research by mobile data outfit Sensor Tower. The estimate – which reflects spending across both the Apple and Google Play stores – totals revenues from EA’s releases across the Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live, and EA Sports UFC mobile franchises. Remarkably, it does not include money generated by EA Sports titles licensed to and [...]

• Ad Tech Spotlight: Synative Playable Studio

  3 weeks ago News

  

  There are two main reasons playable ads offer a beguiling option for game developers, publishers, and marketing teams. Primarily, of course, they give a player a chance to try a game without having to spend a penny or download a kilobyte. Equally, there’s a good chance that those who do click through and download the game are likely to be readily engaged, retained users who are more willing to spend money. After all, if they like the playable demo enough to step [...]

• Google AI Triumphs Over 2 Esports Pro Gamers

  4 weeks ago News

  

  Last night, the Google-owned artificial intelligence outfit DeepMind gave us a taste of the future by pitching two esports professionals against a nonhuman player built from its proprietary technology. DeepMind has already seen its AI defeat world go champion Lee Sedol, in an astounding showcase of the potential of ‘general AI’; that is, artificial intelligence programs that can not simply carry out a specific function, but that can also learn from experience, evolve abilities, and make decisions. The ancient Chinese game go, [...]

• Behind the Data: Worldwide Digital Games Market Dips 2% Through December 2018

  4 weeks ago News

  

  The worldwide market for digital spending on games dipped 2% throughout December 2018. The festive period is typically a pivotal one for game downloads, as new devices arrive as Christmas presents, and gifted money is spent in app stores. But looking behind the new data – made public by Superdata – it appears that the dip isn’t too much to worry about. The 2% tail-off saw consumers spend a still considerable USD$9bn (£6.9bn) in December. The dip is really a quirk of bundling PC, console, [...]

• GRIS' 'Sexually Suggestive' Facebook Ad Ruling 'Stupid', Says Publisher

  1 month ago News

  

  Facebook’s advertising methodology is under the game industry spotlight again, after the social networking giant deemed the trailer for a celebrated indie title too ‘sexually suggestive’ for distribution. In a tweet, Devolver Digital, the publisher of GRIS, claimed that Nomada Studio’s game had its game trailer rejected by Facebook for including an animated scene where a towering sculpture crumbles as birds pass in front of a looming moon. The news left many games industry observers scratching their heads. Kotaku, which spoke with [...]

• App Store Customers Spend £1.7bn Over Festive Week; Apple Issues Profit Warning

  2 months ago News

  

  Apple customers across the world collectively spent USD$1.22bn (£1.7bn) in the week that ran from Christmas Day 2018 to New Years Day 2019: the company’s user spending record for the period. The festive week is famously a time for peaks in app spending; and clearly 2018/19 has been no different. On New Years Day alone, App Store users spent USD$322m (£254m), marking a new all-time single-day spending record for Apple’s customers. “The App Store had a record-breaking holiday week and New Year’s [...]

• Discord's Gaming Store Bolstered by £118m Investment Round

  2 months ago News

  

  The gaming-centric voice chat platform Discord has raised USD$150m (£118m) in a round of funding that may position it to rival Valve and Epic’s efforts to dominate video game distribution platforms. The new round of funding, led by investment group Greenoaks Capital, also includes contributions from Firstmark, Index Ventures, IVP, Technology Opportunity Partners, and Tencent. Discord now courts an impressive USD$2.05bn (£1.6bn) valuation. It has been widely reported that Discord will use much of the money to bolster its restructured curated online [...]

• Out of Step? The Dancers Suing Fortnite Creator Epic

  2 months ago News

  

  Here at TheGamingEconomy, we’re not usually inclined to cover the latest developments in choreography, and muse over the thorny issue of ownership of dance moves. But then with Fortnite’s eccentric game universe continuing to dominate popular culture, anything is possible. And today being the day of the most Christmas parties all year, there’s a slim chance the games industry will be a little more uninhibited when it comes to dance right now. Over the past fortnight – no pun intended – a number [...]