Start your week right with our quick take on the stories that are impacting the mobile industry right now.
To help get you primed and ready for another week in mobile gaming, we’ve curated the biggest stories you need to know from the last seven days.
1) Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile ready for battle with 50 million players on board
The latest Call of Duty game, Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile, released on March 21st as the biggest mobile launch of the year so far, raking in a mighty 50 million pre-registrations as eager fans awaited the due date.
The global launch has come 18 months after the title was first revealed. Warzone allows up to 120 people to compete in battle royales at the same time, in addition to classic modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination.
2) Epic Games Store coming to mobile by end of 2024
Epic Games’ State of Unreal event during GDC saw the Fortnite developer announce that the Epic Games Store is set to come to Android and iOS by the end of 2024.
The company claimed the store would be the “first ever” games-focused multiplatform marketplace, with new self-publishing tools designed for mobile expected to coincide with the release.
Developers will get the lion’s share of a 88/12 revenue split, significantly lower than the standard 30% fee Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store take. Games with in-app purchases will be able to use their own payment service providers, too.
3) Turkish game studios don’t pay tax as government supports burgeoning industry
At Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco, Games from Turkiye head of advisory board Tugbek Olek outlined how tax incentives work in Turkey to support its local games industry. In fact, he shared that Turkish game studios don’t pay any tax on their earnings.
Developers and designers employed at Turkish studios are exempt from taxes too, income tax included, while investments into gaming also come tax-free. Olek assured: “I know it sounds too good to be true, but believe me, it’s even better than that.”
4) Mattel’s Mike DeLaet on their big push into games and why the focus is mobile
After a whole range of Mattel announcements in gaming, we spoke with the company’s global head of digital gaming Mike DeLaet to find out why mobile is such a focus.
He shared that the leveraging of beloved franchises is intended to “engage directly with our fans, closing the gap in our relationship with our players and offering immersive, innovative gaming experiences”.
Mattel’s partnership with Rollic was also a focal point after the Barbie movie’s success last year, noting that people “love immersing themselves in their favourite universes”.
5) Analytics firm Sensor Tower has just bought rival, Data.ai
Mobile market intelligence firm data.ai has been acquired by Sensor Tower, joining forces with its closest competitor despite assumptions that data.ai was the larger company.
The result of the acquisition essentially means one giant service will be available to companies looking to monitor mobile insights, with Sensor Tower CEO Oliver Yeh calling this a “significant step” for the market intelligence industry.
