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) YouTube Playables public gaming test kicks off for select users
YouTube’s ambition to become its own gaming platform continues with the kickoff of Playables testing among a small number of YouTube users. The idea, if all goes according to plan, is that users will eventually play games directly on the video platform either through a browser or through the mobile app.
2) Royal Match takes the puzzle throne from Candy Crush Saga
With Sensor Tower’s release of new stats for July, we discovered just how successful Turkish studio Dream Games have been in taking on everyone’s former favourite puzzle giant. The company’s flagship game, Royal Match, outperformed market leader Candy Crush, generating $112 million in revenue across 14.6 million downloads.
Overall, Royal Match outperformed Candy Crush with $8 million more revenue and 200,000 more downloads through the month, attributed to an aggressive paid user acquisition campaign.
Blockchain dev Matthew Buxton tells it like it is, being blunt about blockchain games that are hardly games at all, but excited about the direction this space is moving. As the CEO of Mystic Games, Buxton discussed the studio’s new game Call of the VoYd, the future of Web3 and more.
“One current trend I’ve seen is for studios to say their priority is to ‘make fun games’ but then spend most of their time talking about staking, chains and ‘educating users’,” he observed.
4) Former PlayStation president Shawn Layden predicts the end of gaming as we know it
With increasing cash to be made from mobile, the big players in tech may soon redirect their attention and bring their weight to bear. Former PlayStation president Shawn Layden discussed the idea of Google, Apple and Amazon all getting serious in the mobile gaming space, and hopes that companies will be “smart enough” to survive this.
5) Sumo Group acquires UK developer Midoki to boost live service skills
Tencent subsidiary Sumo Group announced the acquisition of British developer Midoki last week, a studio with 12 years of history and a game lineup that includes the popular RPG Knighthood. Sumo believes that this deal will strengthen its free-to-play and live service credentials specifically.
