That Epic-Google deal, Supercell's mo.co revamp, Sandsoft, October's top games, more

Hello and welcome to the mobile gamer.biz digest. I'm Neil Long and every week I go for a walk and tell you what's happening in the mobile game business. Here we go. You join me in Porto airport on my way back for a fantastic industry event in MadiRaa. Coverage to come on that. But I thought it was worth noting here that the first half of this podcast is being recorded with me roaming an airport. Uh the second half may well be in the more familiar surroundings of Hartford in the UK which is not full of hobbits as Elon Musk will have you believe. Also important to note Porto airport has a load of arcade machines dotted around that are on free play with a load of retro games installed on them. A really nice touch. Now, the biggest news of the week, courts permitting, is the Epic and Google agreement, which may well overrule the previous injunction laid

out by the US courts in October, which meant that customers in the Play Store in the US were given essentially unrestricted access to alternative payment systems and other app stores. effective as of last month. In the original injunction, I think the period for this opening up was two or 3 years, but this new amendment to that injunction was actually put together by Epic and Google who agreed a couple of different measures, some of which are not clear. I'm waiting for clarification from Google on some of this, but in short, the highlights are that the ruling in the US could actually be effective worldwide if the courts agree to this amendment to the injunction. And on top there are additional policies designed to encourage app store competition which mean Google will outline which app stores are registered

app stores and which ones will benefit from the new policies which are all designed to remove some of the scarecreens and friction involved in installing other app stores on Android like the Epic Game Store. There's also perhaps most interestingly some reference to maximum commission fees of either 9% or 20% depending on the type of content bought on transactions in play distributed apps that use alternative payment options. This part of document is not super clear. I have asked Google to clarify under what circumstances these fees are applied. Tim Screeny described the proposal as awesome. He also said it genuinely doubles down on Android's original vision as an open platform to streamline competing stores globally, reduce service fees to developers on Google Play, and enable third-party inapp and web payments. And of course, there's a swipe at Apple. He continues, "This is a comprehensive solution which stands in contrast to Apple's model of blocking

all competing stores and leaving payments as the only vector for competition." Right, I'm back in the UK and had a little bit more time to try and digest the quite complex court documents released around that agreement. Still has to be confirmed by the US court in a hearing that takes place today at the point I'm recording this. But this may change, but where I got to in terms of boiling down all of that legal ease is that effective March 31st, 2026 to June 30th, 2032, all payments, both inapp purchase and through web stores will be subject to either a 20% cut from Google or a 9% cut from Google for apps and games downloaded or updated from October 30th. 2025. So where Google takes 20% inapp purchases that provide a gameplay

advantage, including purchases of loot boxes and items that impact outcomes, progress rate, and player power. Where Google takes 9% is effectively content that does not increase player power. So levels, events, cosmetic items, subscriptions, non-game apps, and premium apps and games. There are some further bits of context to be aware of here. Google will charge the higher rate for the purchase of in-game currency that allows players to obtain both of the above categories. So, a bag of gems which allows you to speed up progress as well as allows you to buy cosmetic items, Google will charge the higher rate, 20%. Now, this one may be really significant. Google may also require developers to build bespoke versions of games to make them eligible to take advantage of these new terms. So developers may have to rework and resubmit their games and

inapp purchase structures to include APIs that you would assume tell Google that these are either cosmetic non powerbased items or loot boxes or what have you in order to show a signal that these are relevant for the 20% or 9% cut [snorts] and Google can take up to 20% of payments processed via external web links, which seems to be worse. I'm obviously checking I'm trying to get clarifying statements from both Epic and Google, but they are doing this court hearing today. So, I would imagine they're busy and they don't really want to talk to someone like me right now. But that's where it stands as of Thursday the 6th of November. Elsewhere on the site, I was seeing a lot of noise from the Supercell community about the potential closure of Moco, the action RPG monster hunting

game that is now released globally, but in a slightly low-key fashion. The community manager says just because Squadbusters has not performed financially and is being closed, that does not mean Moco will be closed either, but it is getting revamped. The community manager Jo Frightas responded to the concerns in the community by posting an FAQ on X in which he denied the game is at risk of being killed. He did confirm, however, that the game is currently being overhauled, but this is not a quote hit or kill moment for the game. He says it was simply a very needed revamp as the current chapter system wasn't working. We're hoping Neo Moco will deliver a better experience, but also just the baseline to keep improving and making it more and more enjoyable with further updates. I think the bit that caused a few raised eyebrows on LinkedIn is the bit where he says, "At the moment, we have 99 priorities. Revenue ain't one. I

understand the concern, but to reiterate once again, we're keeping our player base small, collecting player feedback, analyzing player behavior with the game, and we'll improve based on that. Once we're confident, we'll scale the game. He clarified that every Supercell game is its own team following its own path. One game's closure does not necessarily mean the closure of another. But there is a revamp going on. So clearly the game is not 100% perfect. This launch and learn approach has been how Supercell has been doing things with Squadbusters and now Moco. We shall see whether this revamp will be a success when the new edition of Moco is out in the first quarter of 2026. A quick one on Sansoft. As reported a couple of weeks ago, the studio has indeed closed. This was confirmed by its now former VP of publishing, Amika Lundrren, who said on LinkedIn that the studio

closed due to unexpected turbulence and had to make an emergency landing and cease operations, which chimes with what I reported previously in that the family that was funding the Saudi publisher, which had offices in Barcelona and Riyad, suddenly pulled the plug and has been uncontactable ever since. This appears to be the first public confirmation from someone senior at the company that yes, the company has indeed closed. Lindrren also did a shout out to his former colleagues said they are very much available for work and worth employing. So yeah, that seems to be confirmed now as reported a couple of weeks ago. You're halfway through the podcast. Here is a quick commercial break. I'll be back after this. Exola connects developers with the resources [music] they need to build,

fund, launch, and monetize their mobile games globally. With Exola Web Shop, sell virtual items, in-game [music] currency, subscriptions, and custom offers directly to players while driving up to five times the revenue growth. [music] With the industry's number one web shop solution, Exola provides the tools for developers to focus on what's most [music] important. Creating great games. Visit exola.com to learn more. That's xsol.com. On Tuesday, I posted the latest top grossing and top download charts from App Magic, as I do at the start of every month. Honor of Kings is back on top. 34 million in inapp purchases for October. It is back on top after Roblox's spectacular summer which was driven by a grower garden stealer brain rot the fever around that. But yeah, revenue has dropped off as expected really as the kids return to school and stop spending

all their parents' money sandwiched in between his last war which is pretty steady. earned about 125 million in October according to AppMagic, which is roughly in line with where it was earlier in the spring, but not that close to the all-time high of 150 million that it hit in July. Monopoly Go, Royal Match, pretty typical months for those. White Out Survival is interesting. That seems to be easing off a little bit if you zoom out and under the 100 million mark for the first time since September 2024. Century Games other hit title, Kingshot, is on the up, 66 million earned in October, another record monthly total. And Micro Funds Gossip Harbor is also scaling gently but steadily. It passed 60 million for the first time in October in terms of monthly earnings. And the Clash Royale comeback may have peaked.

It is down month on month to the tune of about 10 million, 59 million for October, but that in itself is still way up on the 13 million it was consistently pulling in before the big comeback happened in the springtime. Outside of the top 10, Delta Force is doing pretty well. Coin Master seems to be fading a little bit. Pokémon TCG Pocket leapt up the charts thanks to a new card pack. PUBG Mobile's very sudden drop off is pretty notable. It generated over 131 million in August, but is down to about 42 million in October. And there are also rises for Genchin Impact, Royal Kingdom, SD Gundam, Generation Eternal, and drops for Hongkey Star Rail, Crossfire Legends, and Uma Misumi Pretty Derby. In the download charts, Blockbust back on top, Roblox dipped below into second,

Freef Fire Max into third, which has been consistently rising more due to other games dropping off than a really notable spike in downloads for FreeFire. Block Blast not as far ahead as it once was. About 25.9 million downloads for October. Roblox second with 23.7 million. But the big story is SX Clash Dare from Bing Chuan Network in at number four up 148 places month on month. As I've reported before, this game has had a couple of different names. It has disappeared from the store. It has reappeared from the stores. It has sometimes had different names across iOS and Android. But the consistent thing about this one is that at its core, it's actually a squad battler, a little bit like Raid: Shadow Legends, but it has this very UA driven

shell around it, which means that, you know, it's one of those games where you play a flash miniame in the UAD, where you save a Odoge from some bees by drawing lines and then actually once you're a little way into the game, you discover it is it's a superhero squad battler. So yes, some canny/synical UA shenanigans there. Uh depends how you feel about that, but it's clearly effective and is happened before. Just to show you the difference in downloads this UA push has had. September this game posted about 3.6 million installs. October 18.5 million. So, whatever you think about the methods behind this one, clearly is effective and I would assume they have done the maths and figured out that a certain proportion of those players will stick around and play the real game and spend

money. So, well done, I guess. Elsewhere in the downloads chart, Subway Surfers, Pizza Ready, Ludo King, broadly the same. Clash Royale, while its earnings are down a little bit, downloads continue to rise, though that line is easing off a little bit. It was up on September's total, about 12 million installs in October, significantly up on the 3 million installs per month it was getting at the start of the year. Other titles, Vita Marjong and Tile Explorer, both increasingly breaking into the top 10 and making themselves a fixture there. On to the regulars. Data digest. Loads of good stats in here. Q3's top publishers by inapp purchase revenue according to AppMagic. 10-centent miles ahead of everyone else. Century Games, Scoply, Dream Games, Roblox the top five there. Funfly, Supercell, Net Ease, Plays, and King complete the top 10. A new UK studio, Iron Games, has raised 4

million from Arcadia. This is Akin Bab get his Arcadia Gaming Partners VC fund. That is a story first reported by pocket gamer.biz. Squadbusters has earned 65 million to date, says app figures, which very much lines up with App Magic's estimates, which I pulled out when it was announced that game was closing down last week. 24% of Roblox players aged 10 to 65 play exclusively on mobile. I think this number is surprisingly low. It's a number from Nuzu and GameFam. I thought it might be higher, so I figured that was interesting to put in. Roblox revenue, meanwhile, up 48% a year on year for its Q3. And you've also got Sensor Tower's top grossing and fastest rising up the top grossing charts and top downloads and fastest rising downloads charts. Broadly the same as that magic though you've got

titles like SD Gundam, Last Z, Professional Baseball Spirits rising up the top grossing and X Clash of course. Battle of Polytopia, a game that has seen me through many a plane journey has topped 25 million organic downloads on mobile according to the studio behind it, Mijuan. Uh, Sensale has landed some investment from a South Korean investment group, Shinhan, and Capcom's mobile sales down 50% in the first half of FY25. Capcom has some brilliant franchises, but just appears to not get mobile at all. So, bit of a shame there. Maybe they'll crack it with this new Resident Evil survival unit game. We shall see. The other regular article, Monday's jobs digest, Supercell's COO departs. So Hayato Sakaguchi moved over to Limit Break, the web 3 gaming firm, led by former Machine Zone boss Gabe Leaden. Sakaguchi was COO at Supercell for about

four years. Worked at the business eight years in total. Also worked at Facebook and Amazon. There's also moves at Blizzard, Exola, Mini Clip, Moon Active, Unity, and roundups of the studio closure reports that I've been doing on Sansoft, Boss Fight, Roio, and Red Links in that latest recruitment update. And finally, a reminder, the next off the record is Wednesday the 19th of November at Mini Clips office in central London. details on the website. Just Google off the record LLondon mobile gamer.biz. That sort of thing. Speak to you next week.