PocketGamer.biz Podcast

Craig Chapple and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. On this week's episode the team discusses Ubisoft's big Assassin's Creed Shadows delay, strike action and other problems. We also analyse the enormous success of Genshin Impact, which has hit $6.3 billion in four years. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com...

Data is the lifeblood of any business, but marketers build companies to last when they go beyond the numbers to pinpoint the underlying factors contributing to revenue changes and transaction values. Safia Dawood , Senior Data Scientist at Moloco , joins our hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow to show how marketers can leverage a data-driven approach to build businesses that last in today’s com...

Craig Chapple, Paige Cook, Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. On this week's episode the team discusses Playtika's $1.95bn acquisition of SuperPlay, dive into WeChat Minigames - the multi-billion dollar games platform you know nothing about, and analyse why games companies are moving away from gaming. ** Let's Con...

In today's app market, success is no accident—it's a strategy. Whether your app becomes a unicorn (a rare, standout success), a camel (steady and sustainable), or a hog (a resource-draining misstep) depends on the decisions you make now. In this episode, Patrick McSteen , App & Game Monetisation Expert with Logan Square Consulting, joins hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow to explai...

Craig Chapple, Paige Cook, Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We're also joined by special guest, Fundamentally Games CEO Oscar Clark! We delve into the big breaking news of the week - Unity's decision to cancel the Runtime Fee, one year after it was first announced. Our hot takes were delivered just as the news broke...

Making business decisions blindly will bankrupt you and your game. But with the right data, you’re never in the dark. This week, we hand the flashlight to CEE Mobile Gaming and Apps Lead at Google, Mariusz Gąsiewski . Nicknamed “The Insights Guy,” he turns numbers into narratives that guide game devs through the emerging trends they can’t afford to ignore. In this episode, he shines a light on the...

Traditionally, studios faced a tough choice: either crank out hypercasual games at speed or concentrate on crafting deeper player engagement with fewer releases. TapNation breaks this mould—and brilliantly—mastering both approaches to top 1 billion downloads just four years after its founding. On this week’s episode of the PocketGamer.biz Podcast, Vincent Février , Chief Marketing Officer at TapNa...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths, and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We delve into Savvy Games Group's big MENA investments and partnerships, the closure of Finnish developer Lightneer, and how Pokémon Masters EX has quietly generated $335m+ in gross revenue. Craig also talks about the Godzilla movies a little bit too...

Pixel United , known for its portfolio of popular F2P titles and millions of active players, has nailed the art of squeezing revenue from ads without squeezing the fun out of a game. On this week’s episode of the PocketGamer.biz Podcast, Kelly Kang , Senior Director of Ad Monetisation & Partnerships at Pixel United, joins host Peggy Anne Salz to share pages from her playbook and to shed light...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths, and Paige Cook from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We provide a breakdown of the key stories and trends from Devcom and Gamescom 2024. Meanwhile, we discuss Apple's latest changes following regulatory pressure, peek into the data that shows Squad Busters is on the up, and cover the big reveal of Monume...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We offer tips on surviving Gamescom, discuss a drive for games industry sustainability efforts, delve into why Xsolla is sponsoring English League One football team Stevenage FC, and Apple aficionado Daniel gives the iPhone giant a ticking off. ** Let'...

Kooapps is no stranger to building big brands and successful games. Its portfolio, which includes Snake.io, Piano Tiles, Pictoword and Stacky Bird, has garnered more than 450 million downloads to date. On this week’s episode of the PocketGamer.biz Podcast, Kooapps CEO CK Wang joins host Peggy Anne Salz to discuss his journey from Microsoft to co-founding his own company, evolving out of the hyperc...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths, Paige Cook and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We analyse the mobile games market's return to growth, discuss Nazara's $100m war chest, and talk about Turkey's big Roblox ban. Daniel also gets mad about Beetlejuice. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbi...

A seasoned games professional with over 15 years of experience at top-grossing studios, including Rovio, Voodoo, and PlayStation, Sophie Vo knows the drill and how to drive success. But she also learned first-hand that companies can only go from good to great when they have exceptional and empathetic people at the helm. That's why she founded Rise and Play , a company helping studio leadership...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We delve into AppMagic's $3m raise and the future of market intelligence, discuss the big SAG-AFTRA games strike against AI, and the team gets very British about the weather. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz 👉🏻 LinkedI...

Deceptive and disturbing ads are gutting your game. Recent reports found that nearly 60% of mobile gamers have encountered creatives that blatantly misrepresent gameplay and more than half of all games are uninstalled within 30 days. Simply put, bad ads are bad for business. Alex Yerukhimovich , Head of AppHarbr , likens locating and blocking these creatives as a game of whac-a-mole—exhausting, ti...

Craig Chapple, Paige Cook and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We delve into how Lilith Games builds billion-dollar mobile games, discuss the Humble Games layoffs and the confusing messaging about its restructure/closure, and Craig gets angry about the definition of downloads. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://...

Craig Chapple, Paige Cook and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We cover the news that Monopoly GO! is now its own board game... plus discuss the future of B2B games media and the closure of Axis Studios - the team behind that famous Dead Island trailer. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz 👉🏻 L...

For smaller studios, building long-term relationships with ad networks is crucial. This means asking the right questions, leveraging the right data, and utilising all available resources effectively. Sergey Sukhov , Chief Business Development Officer at AdQuantum —a performance marketing agency that offers unique support to smaller game studios on top of traditional UA services—offers his advice f...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths and Paige Cook from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We cover the big takeaways from the Develop: Brighton conference with advice on how studios can survive to 2025, and ask whether web3 gaming is still all talk. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz 👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://ww...

Whether it’s webshops, alternative app stores or multiplatform, the race to find more ways to get your game in front of more users is real—and so is the competitive edge you achieve if the channels you choose put the player experience first. In this episode, we zoom in on InMobi Group’s Nostra , a platform revolutionising game publishing and development in Southeast Asia and India by creating snac...

Craig Chapple, Daniel Griffiths, Paige Cook and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We cover Squad Busters' first month revenue data and ask whether it's a success or failure, review June 2024's top games and publishers, and get industry opinion on those sexist ads. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://tw...

Monster IP may require a monster budget, but smaller studios can still tap into cultural trends to perform well in the app stores—provided they know the right questions to ask and licensors to pitch. Enric Pedró , SVP of Marketing at Tilting Point , gives us all the answers about IP ahead of his studio's upcoming release, Godzilla vs. Kong: Titan Chasers. From overlooked sources of IP to the t...

Craig Chapple, Paige Cook and Aaron Astle from the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the latest mobile games industry news from the past week. We cover the news that Apple faces huge fines in the European Union for its App Store practices, Supercell's latest game Project R.I.S.E, and Square Enix's backtracking on its AI investments. ** Let's Connect ** 👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgb...

It used to be that big wins demanded deep pockets. Now, achieving success on a shoestring budget isn’t the exception but the rule. It all comes down to one question: how much are you spending on your backend? This week’s guest estimates that studios spend an average of $21 million and three years developing their own backend. With Metaplay , you can do it in two weeks. Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Ba...