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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) Nintendo and The Pokémon Company vs. Pocket Pair: Understanding the details
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company recently filed a lawsuit against Pocket Pair over potential patent infringement in Palworld. Notably, however, the case doesn’t cite copyright infringement over character designs.
Futura Digital co-founder Alexandra Kurdyumova and associate Evgenia Shikholeva suggested this was deliberate, as proving a copyright violation would be challenging with similarities in design potentially seen as incidental.
2) Facebook Instant Games finally gets in-app purchases on iOS
Facebook Instant Games titles finally have in-app purchases on iOS, now supported within the native Facebook app on Apple devices.
This means that Meta’s in-app purchases are now supported on web, iOS and Android devices.
3) Reverse: 1999 celebrates first anniversary in the West with $100m on the horizon
Bluepoch’s time travel RPG Reverse: 1999 celebrated one year since global launch with $98.7 million in lifetime mobile revenue, combining earnings from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store.
Its most lucrative day to date was May 16th, 2024 with $1.6 million gross.
4) Fingersoft lays off 14 staff after “substantial decline” in ad revenue
Hill Climb Racing developer Fingersoft laid off 14 staff in order to “secure the company’s long-term success”.
In a statement to PocketGamer.biz, CEO Jaakko Kylmäoja noted that the layoffs aren’t concentrated on one specific project but are rather spread across the company, and were necessary following substantial decline in ad revenue throughout 2024.
5) Pokémon Sleep turns spooky with 107% revenue spike as Halloween event gets underway
Pokémon Sleep took a nightmare-fuelled turn this Halloween, introducing multiple new Ghost-type Pokémon alongside a Double Candy Research event and multiple limited-time bundles.
This resulted in a 107% revenue boost on the event’s start date, as Sleep generated $332,000 on October 28th.
