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) Monopoly GO makes $2 billion in 10 months with “less than a quarter” of that spent on UA
Scopely’s Monopoly GO has officially surpassed $2 billion in revenue within its first 10 months of launch, the second billion having been generated in only three months. This makes Monopoly GO the fastest game to reach the $2 billion milestone and comes after as much as $500 million in spending on user acquisition and marketing.
This is an unprecedented sum for a mobile game but one that Scopely can evidently afford, with investments to expand Monopoly GO appearing to be paying off.
2) Supercell reveal Spark, applying science and psychology to build better teams and games
Supercell has outlined a new internal system for getting games greenlit, called Spark. Former Hay Day lead Stephan Demirdjian is heading up the scheme and while Supercell’s established structure of small autonomous teams is still revolutionary to many, Spark takes this to a typically Supercell next level.
Spark aims to assess the ability of team members to work together based on psychometric tests, applied and measured by a team psychologist to put together “the best possible teams”.
3) Six months of Monster Hunter Now: A well-earned celebration as Niantic catches lightning twice
March 14 marked six months of Capcom and Niantic’s Monster Hunter Now, the latest entry in the Monster Hunter franchise that can already be called a roaring success. It’s quickly grown into a giant of the geolocation genre and Niantic’s second-biggest game.
The core gameplay formula in Monster Hunter Now is an adaptation of the main series while implementing location-based play and only continues to evolve with every update, pushing the game to $150 million in revenue thus far.
4) Adjust integrates Google Play Games for PC to enable cross-platform measurement
In a move to help developers and publishers with their distribution and measurement of games across platforms, Adjust has integrated Google’s Play Install Referrer API with its PC and console measurement solution.
This “first-of-its-kind integration” means marketers can directly attribute installs to PC campaigns, informing devs as to which channels are the most successful in bringing users to their games.
5) UG Labs secures $7 million to create games from speech
Looking to revolutionise children’s gaming experiences with conversational AI and voice interactivity, UG Labs has raised $7 million. The idea behind this is to facilitate open-ended conversations to enhance gameplay, with unscripted interactions with NPCs opening up new scenarios and immersion.
Personalised models for each user should enable UG Labs to produce inclusive dialogue that ensures all children can actively participate in their gaming adventures, even if their language skills are imperfect.
