TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: iPad games spend hits record level; META raises €1m (£870,000); and gaming social video surges. iPad games spend hits record level Consumer spend on iPad devices across all apps passed USD$2.1bn (£1.7bn) in a single quarter for the first time, driven by a record USD$1.6bn (£1.3bn) spent on games during Q1 2020, according to estimates compiled by Sensor Tower. The majority of this record spend was driven by [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: 55% of UK dev jobs are outside of London and the South East; Atari to open gaming hotels; and USD$10m-plus (£7.68m-plus) contracts for top streamers departing Twitch 55% of UK dev jobs are outside of London and the South East UK games industry trade body Ukie and cultural charity the BFI have released a new report that reveals that 55% of game developers were based outside London and the [...]

Esports organisation Gen.G has partnered with cosmetics specialist Benefit to deliver a an initiative targeting female gamers that will include a series of beauty routine videos staring women popular as streamers and players. The ‘Game Face’ video series continues Gen.G’s apparent effort to recognise, serve and encourage female presence in the esports player-base, industry, community and audience. Not all females that devote time to gaming will find interest in beauty videos, of course, but the move seemingly demonstrates the significance of [...]

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 [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Games grew 4% in 2019 to USD$120.1bn (£91.8bn); Razer applies for Digital Full Bank License in Singapore; and Xiaomi set to invest CNY¥50bn (£5.5bn) in AI, 5G and IoT. Games grew 4% in 2019 to USD$120.1bn (£91.8bn) Games globally generated USD$120.1bn (£91.8bn) in 2019, marking 3% growth from the previous year. Strikingly, Fortnite alone accounted for USD$1.8bn (£1.4bn) of the total revenues, assertion its position as a bona fide [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Typhoon Studios joins Google’s Stadia Games and Entertainment; Tencent-backed Global Esports Federation founded; and Twitch Fortnite viewership dips 28% in 2019. Typhoon Studios joins Google’s Stadia Games and Entertainment Following an acquisition independent developer Typhoon Studios has joined Google’s cloud-focused game division Stadia Games and Enetertainment. Founded in 2017, Typhoon is led by former Electronic Arts executive producer Reid Schneider, and previous Ubisoft creative director Alex Hutchinson. The acquisition [...]

Earlier this year mobile monetisation platform outfit Fyber launched a significantly reworked version of its Fyber FairBid technology, having celebrated 10 years in business in the previous months. But what have the team learned about the changing in-game advertising landscape over that decade? And what does it mean that Fyber FairBid offers a unified auction technology for app bidding ‘built from the ground up for the in-app programmatic era’? TheGamingEconomy caught up with Fyber president Offer Yehudai to learn more about the [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Call of Duty Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads; Medal acquires Megacool; and Atari system architect leaves following payment dispute. Call of Duty Mobile surpasses 100 million downloads Call of Duty Mobile, published by Activision and developed by Tencent’s Timi Studio, has become the fastest selling mobile game launch of all time with 102.2 million downloads worldwide in its first week, according to data released by Sensor Tower. The [...]

In this special contributed piece Erick Fang, CEO of AI-driven ad platform Mintegral, explores the opportunity and challenges around cloud gaming. And as the release of Google Stadia nears, he considers how the roll-out of 5G will found any potential… March’s GDC presentation of Google Stadia was a real game-changer. Stadia and services like it could disrupt the gaming industry, just as Uber did with taxis, Netflix with TV and Amazon with shopping. Google, Microsoft and others vision a future without consoles [...]

2K’s long-standing and wildly popular basketball game NBA 2K19 has in recent days been the subject of a flood of frustration from players unhappy with the premium title’s apparent ramping up of ‘unskippable’ ads. It appears some of that frustration may be partially unfounded; the ads may not be unskippable, and they have always been part of the game. But the momentum that has built in recent days has seen a lashing out against 2K’s use of ads – and that [...]