Google and Epic upend Android mobile game monetisation | Week in Mobile Games podcast E71

[music] [music] Hello and welcome to the Pocket Gamer.biz podcast week in mobile games where we discuss the week's news and provide some insights with Craig Chapel, head of content at pocketgamer.biz. And I'm not on my own this week. We're welcoming back Aaron Assel, our news editor. How you doing, Aaron? How was your time off?
Yes, it's good to be back. I enjoyed some nice time off. I went to Wales and um saw saw my uni friend who I used to live with um while I was studying. So, it was nice. Haven't seen him since last year. Good to catch up. And we Yeah, it just so happened to kind of fall over Halloween, which to be honest, I don't usually do much for Halloween, but um he he roped me into dressing up and going out. Not not trick-or-treating. A little bit past that, I think. Um yeah. No, it was quite fun. We went to I think it's called like Heatherton Maze on

Halloween, which it's like a big outdoor like hedge maze. It's like night time. So, they send you in with a torch. So, basically all you can see is wherever the torch is shining. Um, and then they've got like actors in there dressed up to scare you and chase you basically if you, you know, you go around a corner and then there's a guy with like a sack on his head who starts coming after you with a chainsaw. You obviously run the other way and then it you get totally lost um you know where you ended up because they chase you for a little while.
That's terrifying.
It it [laughter] is a bit or then you hear you know you cuz there's obviously multip people going around it just hearing screams dotted all over the place as you go around. Yeah, that was quite good fun.
You made it out.
I did. It was big. It took us like an hour and a half to get out of there.
I'd love if you like supposed to take like 20 minutes, but we just got lost.
Yeah, I don't actually know how long it should have taken, but um it was longer than we were expecting, but I don't know

if it'll um show up very well on my phone, but so I went as like a vampire.
Oh, yeah. Wow, you really got all out. That's great.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I was quite pleased with how that turned out. I don't think I've dressed up since I was probably like 11 or 12. So, um it it was strange to do, but no, I was quite pleased with how that turned out. And then so going around the maze also whenever someone kind of turned a corner and saw me they they jumped. So it was obviously a convincing costume. Gosh,
they obviously thought I was one of the actors meant to like chase them and it's like no, I'm trying to get out as well.
You know, it's funny that I might be misremembering in Castlevania 64. I think there's a like a maze section,
right?
And so I'm just and I in my head I have it. Maybe it was it was probably a vampire, but in my head I have it is you actually run into someone with a chainsaw,
right?
Vampires and chainsaws in a game like live the experience.

Yeah. But yeah. No, that was good. And then um the other day so I went to um Ember Castle. Quite like all the old historical stuff like that. Yeah. So yeah, it was a nice break. Um yeah, obviously hence my absence from the podcast last week, but I have returned.
Well, can rest assured. Yeah, it's just not me chatting nonsense for 20 minutes. All right, thanks Aaron. Yeah, but really great to have you back. Uh I have had a few things on. I've been out of office like in and out of office I guess for the past couple months really. But uh this week but on Sunday I did go I also went to like a Halloween party but it was like a it was just like a gathering of friends that the children there as well. Everyone was dressed up. I'll show you pictures. So I uh I kind of forgot to get something and then I think it was Thursday night. No, it was Friday having discussed with my friends the night before and immediately forgotten and I was like, "Oh yeah, I need to buy something." Obviously went on Amazon and I've been watching a lot of celebrity traitors. If people don't know what that is, The Traers is a great TV show. It's in the UK, the US. I think

there's an Australian, an Ireland one where there's like three free contestants or or maybe less more picked to be the traitors and then each night it's like a reality game show. Um, and each night people vote who they think is a traitor and they vote them off, etc. Do challenges for money. Anyway, I've explained it really poorly, but it's a fantastic show. Celebrity one is very, very good. They actually got British celebrities, actual celebrities, Steven Fry, Jonathan Ross, my faith, a few others. Really good. So anyway, I bought uh I bought a costume in the show that the traitors wear cloaks and they go up to the I don't know what it is like the eagle's nest high up in the tower and then they they decide who they're going to murder that night. I also bought a lamp. So I've cropped them out. So that's me and my uh haters. [laughter]
I was very happy with myself to be honest. I was really happy that I bought the lamp and it was actually quite good.
Anyway, yeah, I had a great time. Halloween was fun. We'll do it. Right,

we're going to go. We'll jump into the news. We're back to talking about non noname stuff this week, which I I kind of enjoy. So, a few shout outs. First, PGC. We we've just done Pocket Gamer Connects Korea. Pocket Gamer Connect Summit Korea, which is on October 31st. Apparently went very well. So, uh I'm looking forward to hopefully maybe hopefully we'll go back there next year and go back to the region next year. There's a lot of exciting stuff obviously happening there. And then we got PGC AKA on November 8th and 9th, so this weekend. So, if you're listening to this, it'll either be during or just before the event kicks off. It's our big Middle East event. We also do obviously we we previously done like the Dubai event as well. Again, that's another region where there's a lot going on for games. And then our big big show, Pocket Gamer Connects London, January 19th to 20th, I think this Thursday, I think the the early or the early Early Bird, whatever it is, Super Early Bird is still on. When this comes out, just if you if you're interested in going, just check out prices. We do do early deals for people that that get their tickets

way ahead of time. Right, we'll jump into the news. So, obviously the day I was out, one of the biggest one of the biggest stories in the industry drops. So, Google and Epic have reached a proposed settlement to open Android apps app store access. Now, I talked about this a bit last week. and Google made some of their changes to enable alternative app stores and uh alternative payment methods in the US only and that would run till 2027. But um this might actually explain why there was a delay to this. It's really interesting and it so the some I guess one of the key things is some of the rulings that affects the global market not just the US market which is the big one right. Tim Sweeney seems very happy about all of this. It does need to be approved by the judge, but I guess if both parties are happy with it, we could see that approved if remember this was the case from 2020. It's taken five years for us to get to this point. I

know I've said before, but I guess kudos to Epic Games and Tim Sweeney for kind of making these for forcing through really these sweeping changes that benefit everybody. But I will also go into that in a minute. So the new proposal will let will now let users download and install third party app stores provided they meet updated security and safety requirements. Developers will be able to steer us to alternative payment methods. There'll be a 9% and 20% service fee. Some of that depends on third party billing and inapp purchase types. So if I actually just go through this uh I'm going to go I'm going to try and go through this document the actual proposal. one of the most I mean some of it I won't go into too much detail on some of it again it's just alternative payments right [snorts] that that's that's one of the key takeaways but there was a bit that actually just sort of confused me I'm easily confused so if you if I look at um 11 so I'm just going to read it so for a period beginning no later than March 31st 2026 through to June 30th 2032 and then just quickly on that so if you remember

originally I guess it would have started immediately which Google did actually already implement changes in the US and it would have run till November 2027 but now some of the dates have changed. So for this part, for a period beginning no later than March 31st, 2026 through June 30th, 2032 for digital goods, this has got to be legally for digital goods purchases set forth in the second paragraph of this section. Google Play and Google Android shall not charge revenue proportionate or per purchase fees for apps first installed/updated from Google Play on or after October 30th, 2025. So new installs uh other than one the Google Play service fees set forth below two fees uh for the use of Google Play billing and three applicable taxes. Google shall independently determine it fees sub subject to limitations provided for below. So that was interesting as well. Curious how they calculate all of this. But this is for new installs which is so

is that good or terrible? So existing users are still on the old fees. Anyway, that was interesting. But then it says Google may not charge a service fee greater than 20% for inapp and linked purchases in games. One where such purchases provide more than a dimmin dimminimous gameplay advantage, including but not limited to purchases that impacts game outcomes, game progress rates, or player power. Or two, purchase with random outcomes. purchase random outcomes such as loot boxes. And then it says Google may not charge a service fee greater than 9% for one inapp inapp and linked purchases in games where such purchases do not provide more than a dimminimous gameplay advantage including purchases for content levels, events, or cosmetic items. Two, inapp subscriptions for apps free inapp link purchases in non-game apps. And then it says, "Google may not

charge a service fee greater than 9% excluding any Google Play billing fee for apps sold up front in the Google Play Store. For the avoidance of doubt, Google may charge the higher service fee for a bundle that includes items subject to two different service fees. For an inapp or linked purchase of virtual currency, which can be used to obtain multiple clients of items whose service fees differ, the higher service fee may apply until and unless a portion of the virtual currency use can be attributed or prorated to items bearing the lower service fee, blah blah blah, right? Um the what strikes me here is that the case you have to remember the case is Epic versus Google and the PR about it and you kind of believed him Sweeney and he says it because his actions have shown this arguably is that he did it for everybody. It's not just for Epic, right? But then you look at this agreement. How does Fortnite monetize? It monetizes through cosmetics and a battle pass, right? Which is gets you cosmetics. It does not monetize by say

timers, does not monetize by giving you a competitive advantage. You don't get boosts to complete levels, etc. So, what they're charging for is the type of inapp purchases purchase you have in a game, which I find really strange. Like, I think that's actually crazy to do. Uh, and it says that's saying what type of in-game economy is okay and what type apparently is not. And so you it's uh no greater than 20%. It could be less but it won't right and that includes but not limited to purchases that impacts game outcomes gameplay progress rate or player power purchases with uh random outcomes such as loot boxes. Right? So that's the higher tier. And then the 9% is for including purchases for content. So I guess that might be DLC, right? Levels. So I guess that that's like you you get an app and then more levels come out basically DLC again events interesting again that might benefit

Epic at some point does they do a lot of events or cosmetic items which is Fortnite's economy so it's it's less than it was I don't think I just think that's kind of this isn't what Tim sold everybody this isn't working for everybody and this is Tim specifically saying so these are both billion dollar companies right and so Tim Sweeny's the underdog in this scenario. But they're both very these both these companies are very powerful and this is saying what's okay and what's not okay based on opinions. Like there's no like this I feel like Google should at least be like we don't like this kind of thing. I don't know. I I I just don't like that at all. He said uh Google has made an awesome proposal subject to court approval to open up Android uh in the US. Epic v Google case and our settlement disputes. It genuinely doubles down on Android's original vision as an open platform to streamline competing store it in stores globally. Reduce service fees for developers on Google Play. Enable third

party inapp bits. This is a comprehensive solution which stands in contrast to Apple's model blocking all competing stores and leaving payments as the only vector for competition. I I'm I'm actually It's weird because I guess it's a good thing, but I think it's quite disappointing. What do you think, Aaron? Yeah, I was going to say it's sort of I feel like it's changed just the dynamic implicitly of like what the Play Store fees are for. You know, I thought the argument, you know, when it was 30% was like, well, you know, it costs Google money to run and operate the Play Store, so they take a fee to keep it operational. But yeah, now to kind of charge people differently depending on what they're selling, you know, surely that should have no bearing on, you know, how expensive it is for Google to let their game be on the Play Store.
Um, so yeah, it just it seems weirdly punishing to like games with loot boxes, I guess, guras, stuff like that, and then it would just be like the games with DLC or yeah, cosmetics not getting

charged as much. But I don't really see the justification for that other than just Google prefers it maybe. So they're willing to charge less. But that's not really how the dynamic work before as far as I know. It was just, you know, we charge this amount to to operate the Play Store.
I just think that if I if I was to make an assumption, right, is that the two companies come together to negotiate. Google doesn't want to change,
but is being forced to. Epic wants certain things. What can they get? Yeah, I guess they would have fought harder for the ones that benefit them.
I guess maybe there was a compromise and be like, look, well, this this is what we want. This is the way we monetize. This is to our benefit. Ultimately, like what it does also do obviously is it opens up to alternative stores, so that benefits everyone and opens up to um alternative payments. Yeah, I I just think and what happens in 2032, who knows? I guess it's at least some of this I think some of the rules of 2027, but at least like this is is later and

surely I would assume things just carry on like they are now after 2032 to be honest. Like what's the point in rolling back? It just piss off everybody.
I guess that's problem with monopolies. Doesn't matter. Wonder if we'll see more mobile games going for like cosmetics or DLC type content as a result or whether whether like web shops will take off enough that people don't really change their strategies anymore.
It's just odd to me. The vast majority I would say of developers and now the 20%. Whereas Epic gets the nine. All right, let's move on. So Aaron, what else have you got? Yeah. So, um, a Nintendo story from me is that the Switch 2 has already sold 10.36 million units. That's as of the end of September. So, that was the end of Nintendo's second quarter. So, this means it uh the Switch 2 crossed the like 10 million mark within 118 days of its release, which is just under 4 months.

um which makes it the fastest ever console to to get to this milestone. So very impressive obviously. Um no Nintendo hasn't put out a direct comparison at least from what I could see to the kind of Switch's launch uh kind of first four months. Conveniently um its four months were covered in Nintendo's financials back in 2017. Um just kind of how the dates ended up landing for each conso's release. Um, so the uh yeah, original Switch it was like 4.7 million units in 4 months. Uh, so the Switch 2 is more than doubled it in the same time frame. Um, and it's also got to 10 million in half the time the PS5 took. Apparently that was 8 months. Um, obviously that was kind of during the pandemic. I think there were some issues with people being able to get hold of a PS5, but still yeah, Switch to

in half the time. So, yeah, like clearly very successful launch. Um, I think we we talked shortly after it released about how quickly it was racing through. It was like 5.8 million units in its first like by the end of June. So, that was like 26 days it was out in June I think. Um, it was like 5.8 million in its first month basically. another like 4.5 million in the next three months. So obviously some slowdown, but kind of makes sense the launch month would be huge. Um it's also kind of funny to note and I guess just how stark a turnaround Nintendo's had over the past like decade. Um 10 years ago the the Wii U was still the flagship like home console and over its lifetime it sold like 13.6 million units. The Switch 2 is like already closing in on the Wii U's lifetime in four months, which is kind of crazy to think about really. Um, and yeah, Nintendo's latest financials kind

of reflect this um success in kind of net sales. They were up 110% year-over-year um over Nintendo's like quarter one and two combined uh when they made over 7 billion. Operating profit was up by about 20% to $941.6 million. Net profit was up by 83% $1.3 billion. Yeah, clearly clearly off to a very good start. I was also interested to see in the financials cuz they had cuz the Switch is still kind of trickling along as well. It sold nearly 2 million units over the first half of the financial year. So, since uh like April and it's now about 10,000 sales away from being Nintendo's bestselling console. So, it's yeah, like 10,000 away from the DS now, which I'm sure is probably past that already by now. These figures go to the end of September, which is just a cool milestone. So, I

think it's only the the PS2 left to go for um the Switch to overtake now. whether it will end up getting there or if um Switch 2 will kind of cannibalize it by then. I think Sony kind of changed um how much the PS2 had sold as the Switch closed in. So I think the PS2 is now at like 160 million. So the Switch is about like 6 million away now. It' be funny if they change it again when cuz it was previously like 150 plus then the Switch hit 150 and Sony said it's actually 160. But yeah, one other thing that I thought was kind of noteworthy in the financials. So on the kind of presentation side, Nintendo briefly highlighted their mobile stuff, like their apps and games portfolio. Apparently combined has surpassed 950 million unique installs. They also drew attention to Fire Emblem Shadows, which released in the last few days of the quarter. Unsurprisingly, they didn't kind of reveal any figures on it. I

guess even if it did really well, it was only around for like three days or something in the quarter. But um according to AppMagic estimates, it's not had a a great start. I think be fair to say it's uh generated an estimated like $200,000 in its first 30 days. Um so compared to like Fire Emblem Heroes, which is Nintendo's biggest mobile game, um that was less than 0.4%. 4% of its first month um back in the day back in 2017.
All right, moving on. Uh we got the I did the October game charts, brought it back finally. Uh so we looked at some App Magic data, the top revenue generators, top downloads for October, that's games and publishers. So I had a couple takeaways. One of the first ones, we've spoken a bit about this before. I think Aaron, you wrote about it last year to talk about like 2024 in hindsight and which is one of the big stories is like the the new games, the

new rising games kind of continuing to scale and like the one of the mobile gaming stereotypes is that the top charts don't change. But there are new kind of wave of hits creeping up. One of those is Kingshot by Century Games, who we ranked number one in this year's top 50 mobile game makers list. Appmagic estimates that their title generated $108.7 million in gross revenue last month, which was its best month yet. So, Kingshot is was actually the eighth top grossing mobile game in the world's apps on Google Play revenue in October, which is amazing. So, and then their their bigger game, Wild Out Survival, which been out a bit longer, ranked sixth. So, they have two top top 10 revenue generating games, but one of them a new one. And then if you look at some others, so Gossip Harbor from Micro Fund, now the biggest merge game in the world, picked up 96.5 million. Dream Games is Royal Match rose to 18th. And then if you look at some in the top 25 over the last few years that have that have released over the last few years,

we got Delta Force, Pokemon Trading Car Game Pocket, of course, SD Gundam, Generation Eternal, what I know, and Love and Deep Space are all up there. And it's not a new title, of course, but Clash Royale is up there, right? I put like his growth is like halted but it still it still made an estimated hund00 million last month and that is not including obviously like Supercell's own sort of marketplace where players can buy stuff. One of the big stories as well is that PUBG Mobile has had a massive decline. So it ranked it ran I know everyone's going to be shocked at how bad it's doing. It ranked as low as 14th in the world in October. You know technically still doing all right. However, it is at quite a dramatic fall. So, in August, it was estimated to have generated $187.3 million for player spending. This includes the China version of Peacekeeper Elite um on the App Store only. By October, it picked up basically $60 million. So, it's like a third of what it was making. China revenue was like the catalyst was such a

massive drop. It also declined significantly as September, carried that on in October. to find out what's going on. I did ask Nico Partners's director of research and insights, Daniel. So, thank you to him for the insights that he gave. Basically, what's going on with Peacekeeper Elite in China because it's hard to have actual visibility in what's going on there. And Deart is kind of the experts here. So he noted a dramatic swing on the iOS app store may not be completely representative of its performance as Apple devices account for a quarter of all mobile devices used in China. He also highlighted Android's large market share and growing presence of Harmony OS in the premium segment. His quote reads quickly, Delta Force is also generating higher revenues than Peacekeeper Elite at this point. Notably all our 10 set titles. Peacekeeper Elite, as with most mobile games, often sees its revenue vary on a weekly basis with spikes primarily driven by in-game updates and events. We believe that the

main reason for declining iOS revenue is increased competition at this point, but he said to note that there was a similar revenue decline followed by a recovery in December 2024. So, this has actually happened before. a chart and story. I don't have the specific figure in front of me, but for example, it looks like it was about maybe it was about 70 between 70 and 80 million that it made in December 2024. Obviously, massive amount of money, which is not that far from what it made in October 2025. And then it and then it just surged to what looks like 180 million or something kind it's happened before. So, this is not necessarily indicative of a long-term crash for PUBG. It could be, but it doesn't necessarily mean that. He said, "In addition, we know that there was a spate of complaints around misleading promotional events a couple months ago. Players had purchased in-game currency as per the promotion, but were not able to purchase the advertised items." But they said he said he doesn't think this is a major factor. So, that was really interesting. Those those were kind of

the the biggest takeaways. Some other interesting things was this game called Xclash Dare. If no one has heard of X Clash, it's by a company called Binguan Network from China. They previously made X Hero and Hero Clash. And I'm not sure, but I feel like they were maybe one of the first to sort of I'm probably wrong, but I feel like they one of the more notable companies that they basically put like really like hyper casual trends as like the gameplay hook and that's all the creators on the store, but it's actually a Forex strategy game. So I remember playing I think it was X hero and you get this like map on and and you go around uh you do stuff but you can all optional is to play these hyper casual games I think to get like I don't even know what you get currency or something you can play those but the main game is actually the forex strategy but you don't see that until you downloaded it which other games are doing but this one just seems a bit weirder but XClash Dare had 18.5 million

downloads suddenly in October massive massive rise picked up about $2.1 million from player spending. Previously, this has happened with their games. They have like one bump where they get loads of downloads and then it doesn't do that again. So, curious if they'll continue with the user acquisition in November, but that's kind of it for that and then we won't hear about we won't hear from them again for a few years. Just to say the top quickly then just to round this out. The top grossing games in October were honor of kings from Tedent Last Survival from Funfly also called the first one Roblox for scope ra games. Five most downloaded were blockbust from hungry studio Roblox free match from Garina X/ Dare which is number four being Network and Subway Surfers from Cybo/ Mini Clip/Tent and then just a couple of the top. So top downloaded publishers were Azure Games, Medicare, Baby Bus, Say Games, and Voodoo. And the top grossing were 10 centra games, Funfly, Dream Games, Play Rick. So Aaron, what else have you got?
Yeah. So the other one from me is um

about Pokémon trading card game pocket, which you mentioned there, released um last year, continuing to do very well. So it was actually just its first anniversary at the end of October, October 30th. And firstly, I can't believe it's been a year already. What a year it's been really. Um, so according to AppMagic estimates, it's made $1.3 billion. Um, which is more than Pokémon Go made in its first year. Go was just over a billion. uh which obviously is still a lot of money but um yeah I don't think anyone really saw it coming you know a year ago or just over a year ago then you know new Pokémon card game would have a bigger first year than Go um but apparently it has we've talked about it many times before but I think there's just a lot that they did right with the game like it launched um really focusing on kind of the '90s nostalgia it had like the original 151

Kanto Pokémon kind of had an online version of um what would have been like playground rumors of how to get Mew specifically. People used to wonder how you could get Mew in Red and Blue. And then it was kind of the same here that it was like a secret card that you couldn't just get from a pack. You had to meet certain kind of hidden requirements to unlock it. So I think that kind of helped generate some buzz and conversation around lawn. And then really since then it's kind of just powered on kind of leaning into different eras of Pokémon. Um and I guess it would be interesting to know whether um that reflects in kind of which players are spending but certainly they have focused on different eras like early this year they kind of moved on from the to6 games um Diamond and Pearl which won the DS. So there was a few months kind of focused around that era of Pokémon. Then a few months later, they did an expansion based on the 3DS games, Sun and Moon. Uh more recently, end of the

summer, they um had packs based on the Game Boy Color games, Gold and Silver. So, they're kind of darting around a bit um I guess to to make the most of the different eras and perhaps different um age groups kind of nostalgia for Pokémon. though I've played since launch. Um I'm not particularly nostalgic for like the Kanto Pokemon over the others. So I started with the DS era. I know a few people my age who didn't download Pocket until they got to like the Diamond and Pearl Pokemon in like late January because that was, you know, for them they're the ones they grew up with. Like
Sacrilege, I'm afraid it's the the first 150 are the best.
Well, some of them some of them are good. Squirtle has a soft spot in my heart. But yeah, no, I like the caner Pokemon. They're just I say it's I would be curious to know yeah whether the kind of focusing on different eras does actually get different people spending

or whether it's kind of just the collectors who want all the cards. Um I guess on the more um yeah kind of numbers side again. So um at launch the pocket hit 10 million installs in 3 days. It went on to 100 million in 4 months. Most recently, it hit 150 million just before the anniversary. So, again, kind of some slowdown as you would expect, but still um still a lot of installs. Uh and then, yeah, kind of on the earnings side based on ATM magic estimates. Again, the game's most lucrative single day was actually February 1st this year, which I was quite surprised by that it wasn't kind of closer to launch. That was actually just a few days after the Diamond and Pearl expansion came out, which at the time that was kind of the most cards they'd added since launch. They introduced like more than 200 new cards. So, I guess that was largely responsible as well. Um cuz December and January had been a bit of a decline cuz there

weren't a lot of new things to get after the initial November, October, November. And yeah, I say just 1.3 billion in a year, which I certainly wouldn't complain at that much.
It's all right. It's all right, isn't it? Uh yeah, Flake, obviously one of the biggest mobile game launches of recent years. Well done to DNA for doing that. A couple quick actually, sorry, the one thing I did I did want to note actually is uh I guess under the new Google Play rules presumably uh this would get a 20% charge Pokemon trade card game and not the 9%.
Because I guess two things it would be it's kind of like a loot box situation. I was going to say
random cards and then they also give you a gameplay advantage
depending on what you get
20% for nine if only they if they were just cosmetic and they did nothing in the game. A couple quick very very quick other stories I just really wanted to give a quick mention. One of them was so

the Space A developed Beat Star and Country Star have now gone offline as of October 31st 2025 which is quite sad. I think Space A had grown to this kind of fairly sizable UK studio. I think it had a mixture of success and and things that weren't so successful. Beast Star seemed to do pretty well. Uh then and then the long story, right? It gets fully acquired because it was technically acquired many years ago, fully acquired last year, turned into Supercell London, like the foundation for that studio. Um so fully acquired by Supercell. Um, and then Next Beat span off with SpaceX co-founder Simon Hayes. And then they took with them Country Star and Beat Star. But then shortly after that, for a few months later or so, they there was a an Aquaire, I guess, Duolingo bought the majority, sorry, Dualingo Scoop up acquired, however you want to put it. The majority of the next beat team is there now dualingo doing sort of cool

music game things and then the few people left to manage beat country start it was announced before it was going offline now it's gone kind of sad in a way it's kind of sad for the games industry then but you know a lot of that team did go on uh to some success and then the other thing shout out we had the exclusive this week which was a UK based mobile game studio called Iron Games set up by four executives at Nerds Dragons developer Grand Games had received $4 million from early stage venture platform Arcadia gaming partners which was set up by Akin Babagget's triple dot co-founder who was I guess now famously called the uh mobile gaming kingpin was it Bloomberg or something like that they called him that and we we gave him the mobile legend award at the mobile games award this year as well so that's one of the first publicly announced deals from his $100 million fund curious to see what else they've got uh cooking So, that brings us to the end of the week in mobile games. Thank you very much, Aaron, for for being on

the show as always. Good to have you back. I'm sure I'm sure everyone's happy to have you back and not just me ying.
Thank you. Yeah, good to be back.
But I still did talk a lot. Thank you everyone for listening. As always, we're back again next week. Hope you enjoyed the show. If you have any feedback, please do reach out. Let us know. Otherwise, have a good weekend. We'll see you soon. Goodbye.