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) Unity’s Runtime Fee Farrago: The whole story in one place
In case you somehow missed it… Unity brought everyone together last week, turning against its game engine and causing a huge stir with its proposed introduction of the Unity Runtime Fee. The introduction of upfront fees per install for any game made with Unity’s tools has left many developers contemplating their future with the platform. Here’s the full story all in one place.
2) Brave Nine successor Brown Dust 2 earns $10 million in two months
Brown Dust 2, the sequel/prequel to successful RPG Brave Nine released globally this June, and it has already reached the mighty $10 million milestone in two short months since.
Sensor Tower reported that Japan accounts for the highest proportion of Brown Dust 2 revenue at 28.4%, with the total $10 million surpassed by accumulating App Store and Play Store revenues up to August 31.
3) Zynga, FunPlus and NetEase veterans receive $8M investment for NFT dinosaur game
GamePhilos, a new Web3 gaming studio founded by veterans from NetEase, FunPlus, Zynga and ByteDance, has raised $8 million in a Seed Round to help fund its free-to-play and NFT-based dinosaur game, Age of Dino.
In support of the new title, Xterio, Animoca Ventures, SevenX Ventures and Chain Hill Capital all shared in leading the round.
4) Nazara to expand after latest $49M investment
India-based gaming media platform Nazara is no stranger to investments, raising money itself and investing in others. The latest comes from SBI Mutual Fund, which has given Nazara $49 million and raised its valuation to $660 million, happening shortly after Nazara announced a $500,000 investment of its own into mobile game studio Snax Games.
5) Niantic and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Now launches with three million pre-registrations
Last week finally saw the launch of Niantic and Capcom’s Monster Hunter Now, releasing after four years of development and marking the latest entry in the behemoth of a series. The game amassed over three million pre-downloads and features Niantic niches such as an AR camera mode that displays mighty monsters in the real world, group activities like hunting strong beasts as a party, and of course, location-based gameplay.
