Social Media

• Knock Knock Knocks on the Door of the Post-App Store Opportunity

  3 weeks ago News

  

  Instant gaming outfit Knock Knock has secured USD$4m (£3.3m) in a Series A funding round led by March Capital Partners. It’s another encouraging story of success in the casual games sector, but there’s something more fascinating beyond the investment itself. Knock Knock is focused on instant games for messenger platforms, having so far launched two titles for the Facebook Instant Games platform. It’s relatively early days for the 2018-founded company, but those two games have enjoyed five million organic and viral installs. [...]

• gamescom Attracts 373,000 Visitors; Steam Business Model ‘Unrealistic’ According to Ubisoft

  3 weeks ago News

  

  TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: gamescom attracts 373,000 visitors; Steam business model ‘unrealistic’ according to Ubisoft; and Tik Tok adopts F2P-style video ads. gamescom attracts 373,000 visitors The 2019 edition of gamescom attracted record visitor numbers of 373,000 to Cologne from over 100 nations, according to figures released by organisers Verband der deutschen Games-Branche. This represents a rise of 3000, or 0.8%, on last year’s conference. A total of 1153 companies held exhibits [...]

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• Facebook reportedly pursuing high-profile IP exclusives and acquisitions to bolster Oculus VR gaming

  2 months ago News

  

  Facebook is reportedly pursuing acquisitions and exclusivity deals in an effort to supply its VR hardware with big name, triple-A productions. That is according to The Information, which cites two insider sources with knowledge on the matter. One of those sources reported that deals have already been signed around Ubisoft game series like Assassin’s Creed and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The idea appears to be to bolster the fortunes and longevity of Facebook’s Oculus VR hardware range through high-profile titles. Meanwhile, the [...]

• Snap Games details real-time multiplayer focus for hyper causal Snapchat games

  3 months ago News

  

  As one of the dominant social platforms for teenage and young adult users, Snapchat is an obvious home for hyper casual instant games. That’s something the platform’s team are keenly aware of, it would seem, as a number of games have recently become available for Snapchat, each playable directly within the messaging service. Yesterday, for example, the internal Snapchat games division Snap Games released its seventh titlefor the platform, Bitmoji Tennis. The launch coincided neatly with Wimbledon, and continues the platform’s Bitmoji [...]

• Against Gravity secures USD$24m investment in VR social gaming space Rec Room

  3 months ago News

  

  Seattle start-up Against Gravity has raised USD$24m (£18.9m) of VC funding. The money will help bolster Rec Room, the studio’s blend of social space, game compilation and user content generation platform. As reported by TechCrunch, Against Gravity raised the investment over two rounds of funding. The first Series A funding round was led by Sequoia, while Index Ventures spearheaded the second, Series B, which concluded recently. Investors in Against Gravity include Acequia Capital, Anorak Ventures, Betaworks, DAG Ventures, First Round Capital [...]

• iOS 13 to bring faster downloads, smaller app sizes and greater user privacy

  3 months ago News

  

  Apple has used its annual Worldwide Developers Conference to detail the coming iteration of its iPhone operating system, iOS 13. Overall, iOS 13 promises to deliver faster, more responsive performance; something anyone would expect from a new operating system. However, thanks to the new ways in which apps are stored on an iPhone, software downloads are purported to be much faster, while Apple says apps will take up to 50% less storage space than currently seen. That may be significant to [...]

• Short-Form Game Video Service Medal Secures £2.7m in Funding

  7 months ago News

  

  New game ‘clipping’ service Medal has raised USD$3.5m (£2.7m) in investment. The success of the funding round appears to demonstrate that Medal’s short-form video clips platform has potential and appeal. Certainly, tech-savvy investors are apparently convinced. Medal lets users record the previous 15 seconds of their gameplay with a single click, bringing the approximate function of the ‘share’ buttons seen on console to the perennially booming PC market. Clips can then be shared as a generated link, or via the Medal [...]

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

  7 months 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 [...]

• Analysis: Launching Apex Legends. Fortnite's greatest contender yet?

  7 months ago News

  

  A lot of businesses in the global game industry would like a slice of the ‘battle royale’ pie. And it’s no surprise. Fortnite is a battle royale game – sometimes called a ‘BR’ title – and we all know how well it has done. The shooter hit 200 million players in November last year. According to a source speaking to Tech Crunch, its creator Epic banked USD$3bn (£2.3bn) in revenue through 2018. But, more than all of that, the free-to-play competitive online [...]

• Basketball, Multiple Screens & Post Malone: Peripherals Outfit Debuts New Ad Campaign

  8 months ago News

  

  eSports-orientated gaming hardware outfit HyperX has launched a new ad campaign running across TV, digital, and social under the ‘We’re All Gamers’ banner. In doing so, the established specialist in high-end gaming keyboards, mice, headphones, and more, has demonstrated that for all the technological advances in securing inventory, reaching audiences, and delivering ads in-game, many of the old conventions of successful video commercials still apply. HyperX has partnered with numerous stars, is targeting high-profile televised slots like those amidst mainstream sports [...]