To keep you up to date on the biggest news in mobile gaming, we round up the five most-read stories on PocketGamer.biz each week.
Read on and digest…
1. Take-Two acquires Zynga at a $12.7 billion valuation
Take-Two has revealed its acquisition of mobile games industry leader Zynga, valuing the firm at $12.7 billion.
As part of the agreement, shareholders in Zynga will receive $3.50 in cash and $6.36 in shares of Take-Two common stock, to a total value of $9.86 per share. The purchase price represents a 64 per cent premium to Zynga’s closing price on January 7, 2022.
2. Sulake enables use of NFT avatars in Habbo
Sulake, a part of Azerion’s platform, has revealed that the first stage of bringing Habbo to Web 3.0 has been completed.
Players of Habbo can connect an Ethereum wallet to their Habbo account, and those who own NFTs from the Habbo Avatars collection have been able to play in-game as their unique NFT characters since December 22, 2021.
3. Apple shuts down Wordle clones on App Store
Apple has removed clones of popular online word game Wordle that have been appearing on its App Store.
Wordle, a word guessing game recently popularised by Josh Wardle, has given rise to numerous unlicensed or copycat versions of the game appearing on the App Store, quickly climbing its charts. Many of these clone apps feature different gameplay but still utilise the Wordle name.
4. Netflix brings three more casual games to iOS and Android
Netflix has added three new casual mobile games to its gaming lineup, bringing the total number of games available to 10.
After an initial launch on Android consisting of five games, the service was then made available on iOS late last year.
5. Newzoo: Apple and Google will open up app marketplaces in 2022
Games market analysis firm Newzoo has released its predictions for gaming trends in 2022, with expectations ranging from changes in play-to-earn to Apple, Google, and the metaverse.
One trend Newzoo expects to see is an increased desire for cross-platform play and cloud gaming, but, because of the potential impacts on revenue, Apple and Google are unlikely to allow cloud gaming in their stores.
