That Unity-Epic deal, Minecraft Blast, Netflix Games 2.0, Duolingo, Ubisoft, Stash, EA and 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 games industry. Here we go. [snorts] On Wednesday morning it was Unite in Barcelona Unity's annual conference and they had a special guest. It was Epic Boss Tim Sweeney. Unity boss Matt Bramberg and Epic boss Tim Sweeney on stage together at the same time announcing a deal that means Unity made games will be publishable within Fortnite and Unity will be adding support for Unreal Engine within its new suite of web shop and monetization tools. So closer collaboration from Epic and Unity. Historically, these two have been competing in the engine business, but actually it makes a lot of sense for these companies to work together given their common enemies who are effectively Apple and Google and Roblox. They both

certainly want to spread the use of alternative web shop payments and Epic will want to see more content published through Fortnite. and Unity will want to see greater reach for games made with its engine. So, this all makes a lot of sense could well be a precursor to a more meaningful partnership where these two team up in other ways to take on Apple and Google. That might be quite a fun fight to watch. Tim Sweeney is quite good value in the press and actually Matt Bramberg appears to be a lot more active on LinkedIn and on X. Interesting to see these two very large companies team up to take on some even bigger companies in the form of Apple, Google and to appoint Roblox. The Bramberg

Sweeney alliance may well strengthen over time and bear more fruit. Who knows? Couple of big stories breaking late last week. Didn't quite make the podcast last time. So, I'm going to talk about them here. Minecraft Blast turned up in soft launch in Malaysia on iOS only late last week. This is proven to be a very popular story in terms of readership. I think Google picked it up and ran with it and it's been easily the most popular story of the month. Any kind of new Minecraft game [snorts] is going to get a lot of attention and that's what's happened here. I think from a mobile point of view, the Minecraft mobile game has not really been tried properly. As I referenced in the piece, there was that Minecraft Earth game which was more like a building AR geoloccation game which was as it sounds quite a muddled

prospect, but this one seems much clearer. It's a blast game. It's made by King. It's got the Minecraft IP attached to it. This sounds like a much more solid proposition for for a free-to-play mobile game. So, we'll see how this one develops. in the blurb on minecraft.net where there are the usual caveats. It's extremely early days for the project. It will develop over time and so on, but yeah, it looks like a blast game with a creative building meta. Looks [snorts] like the first fruits of Microsoft's IP moving into mobile. And King obviously knows how to make a puzzle game on mobile. So, I think hopes will be high on this one. We'll see how it develops. Another one that broke on Thursday, the Netflix games reboot. So, this was teased back at GDC by the new boss Alan Taskcan and also in various earnings calls. Essentially, this was the big

coming out party for Netflix games 2.0. And it is kids party games, mainstreams, mainstream games, and games on [snorts] your TV. So, of the more traditional, you might say, games in the mix, Red Dead Redemption coming to mobile on December the 2nd. That will be free to Netflix subscribers, but it is also being released as a premium game anyway. So, Netflix must have paid to add it to its service as it was being made. There was also WWE 2K25. Netflix Puzzled is an interesting one. daily puzzle game themed around Netflix shows. I think that's quite a good idea. There's also Best Guest Live which is effectively a live quiz show and a load of kids games at Lego Duplo Barbie Tucker Bucka Hair Salon Paw Patrol Academy. These kids games always get as

I have done in this story. They get mentioned last in a sort of list format. But I think actually those games will probably be played the most. Netflix is a trusted digital babysitter. A lot of kids content gets consumed on Netflix. And I would imagine it would be the same for games. On the TV stuff, it's party games that you can play with your phone if you already have Netflix. Interesting that Amazon is also going for this party games market at the moment. So clearly big tech likes the idea of harking back to the Wii years. I think Red Dead will be a hit initially and then people will realize I don't want to play this on my phone like a lot of HD type games. But yes, Netflix has made its big U-turn you might say and it is family, it is mainstream, it is party games and I think that makes a lot of sense. Um, there's still some lingering disappointment out there that

they're not really doing anything too brave or the kind of indie game stuff that it was adding to its service, but those games did not perform and Netflix didn't seem to figure out how to market those games anyway. So, I think it's probably safer ground for Netflix from a marketing point of view as well to be doing mainstream stuff, party games, kids stuff. Very much the Apple Arcade model, but obviously with a few Rockstar games in there, not afraid to be a little bit more adult as well. Uh, Duolingo is not done snapping up mobile game developers and talent. The former co-founder at Space Ape/Nextbeat, Simon Hay, said on LinkedIn that Durolingo is looking to aqua hire mobile game studios with experience building quote delightful momentto moment gameplay on mobile.

So teams interested in getting snapped up by a giant language learning app that is expanding increasingly into gaming type areas would do well to have a chat with Simon or Durolingo in general. This is interesting. It is a kind of lowkey trend that people in mobile who are very good at retaining and monetizing customers are now very much in demand from app developers and the overall gamification of everything continues. I've seen Diorolingo described as a game with some learning in it rather than a learning app. I'm sure they would disagree. But yes, I think this is part of a bigger trend. So I don't think Dolingo will be the last giant app company that is out there scouting around for mobile game talent. And the jobs market being what it is, I figured this would be

interesting to the readership. And it [snorts] was one story I have not covered on the website, but I think it's probably worth mentioning. Um, Ubisoft halted trading late last week, but effectively nothing has happened. So, I didn't do anything on it. You can't really report on nothing happening. It's come out this morning that they will announce their financial results on Friday at the latest. Obviously, this has led to lots of speculation that it's being bought out by a 10 cent which already owns quite a large chunk of it or something dramatic is happening. I would speculate here that all of the shenanigans going on with Ubisoft dividing itself up into different companies that own bits of different IPs is probably quite complicated accounting wise and they didn't have enough time to get it all straight in time for their trading update. I that is probably the

most boring outcome of this, but maybe the most likely one or maybe 10-centent has just bought the whole thing. We don't know. We will find out Friday. So, that trading update may well be out by the time you listen to this. And you will be able to tell me whether I'm right or wrong. You are halfway through the podcast. Here is a commercial break. I'll be back after this. Exola connects developers with the resources they need to build, fund, launch, and monetize their mobile games globally with Exola Web Shop. Sell virtual items, in-game currency, subscriptions, [music] 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 important, creating great games. Visit exola.com [music] to learn more. That's xsol.com. I published another soft launch story on Monday. Plants vs. Zombies 3 has been

resurrected is now Plants Versus Zombies 3 colon evolved and that arrived in soft launch around the same time as what appears to be a new Sims game. So, Plants vs. Zombies 3 popped up in beta in the UK, Singapore, Ireland, and Kazakhstan. It's Android only for now, and the store blurb says that it is a seedling build, and it will evolve over time, as you would expect. [snorts] The Sims game is called Sims Labs Life Together. Uh, it's picking up downloads in Italy, Netherlands, and Sweden. It appears to be more multiplayer focused. and it follows on from Sims Labs Town Stories and City Life Game with Friends. So, there are different flavors of Sims games being tested right now at EA. And this is all obviously within the context of EA being sold to a Saudiled

investment group. So, we shall see if these games make it. They may not fit into the new regime and the new ownership's plans. Or [snorts] alternatively, they may well be part of the plans and EA will be making a comeback of sorts in mobile because it can now invest longterm with all that Saudi money and make a better fist of it in mobile. I would be inclined to say these games are going to get killed, particularly The Sims. I don't think The Sims fits into the Saudi world view. And Plants Versus Zombies is probably a rounding error at this point. So, [snorts] I don't know if these games are going to make it. And this was scheduled before the Saudi takeover, but I would love to be a fly on the wall at EA right now, having a big injection of Saudi money, but also not knowing really where

the company is going or what its future priorities are. I would assume that [snorts] this Saudi deal is really all about EAFC and Madden and the other games including things like Mass Effect will either get sold off or closed down, but we shall see. Quick one on Stash. The web shop company has bought Gallion and not a company I'd heard of before, but it is effectively the direct to consumer [snorts] tool set that is in Superplays games, Disney solitire, Dice Dreams, and Domino Dreams. So, Stash out there competing with giants like Exola, very wellunded competitors like Appcharge making a move for Gallion. I think there will be more consolidation in this market. There seems to be five, six, seven different web shop payments

processing companies out there, not least Unity and Epic Games. I think the time is ripe for Unity or Epic to swoop for one of those web shop companies as well. Maybe Stash is getting itself ready to get snapped up by Unity or Epic. Maybe not. This is certainly not the end of consolidation in web shops and digital payments. In the regulars this week, Data Digest leads on Match Villains 4.5 million in monthly in purchase revenue. Now it is scaling steadily. The 13th highest grossing match three title globally last month. I led on this because it's quite a new contender and it is from the Turkish developer Good Job Games which previously made and then sold Zen Mats to Moon Active and then announced at the end of July that it had

raised 60 million to scale match villains. That 60 million clearly being put to good use over the summer and in the autumn. App figures estimates for October have last wore as the top earner across iOS and Android. Honor of Kings is top on iOS, Google Play, Roblox is top, but combined together, Last War comes out on top. Royal Matt second, White Out Survival third, Monopoly Go fourth, Honor of Kings fifth overall in the combined chart. In downloads, Block Blast is of course top. Roblox, Subway Surfers, Pizza Ready, and Clash Royale, the top five. Speaking of Clash Royale, that hit new revenue high of 6.6 million in one day. [snorts] That beats the game's previous single day record of 4.9 million, which was just after launch back in 2016. Remarkably, that game is

10 years old in March. So, Supercell working its comeback magic on Clash Royale as it did on Brawl Stars. It did not do that for Squad Busters, but we've discussed that enough elsewhere in Data Digest. Nexon's mobile revenue down 48% yearonear. That is down to the immense success of Dungeon and Fighter Mobile the year previous. So the year-on-year comparisons were difficult. Maple Story, another big mobile game from Nexon. MTG, owner of many studios including Pllearium, Hutch, You know, and so on. Net sales increased 108% yearon year. Obviously, that is a result of buying up Raid Shadow Legends. So those year-on-year comparisons per perhaps not fair, but yeah, Embracer Mobile Games sales were down 61% in Q2.

Obviously, it sold off Easy Brain, so that was a large part of its mobile revenues, but the top five by revenue, uh, Embracer, Glow, Fashion Idol, Coffee Mania, Alien Invasion, Party in My Dorm, and Bus Frenzy, Traffic Jam. All of those on the hyper/hybrid casual end of the scale. Sales down but profits up at 10 square maker of fishing clash and hunting clash. And finally, there's a breakdown of the party games genre. Eggy Party way out ahead according to At Magic. Worldwide year-to- date revenue 103 million for Eggy Party. This was prompted by the release of Sonic Rumble, which is the Sonic branded take on Fall Guys, Stumble Guys gameplay. That game made about 300K on mobile in its first week. So, Sega and Roio will be hoping for that one to grow over time. Stumble Guys, that seems

to have plateaued a little bit. According to that magic data, 10 million in revenue year to date, but that doesn't seem to have maintained the early momentum it had. That meant that Scopely bought it a couple of years ago. Finally, in regulars this week, Stein Topps, former Supercell head of live ops and monetization, is the new GM on stumble guys. So, he may well help make all the bars point upwards again. Scopely also hired Pravin Sharma as senior product manager on Monopoly Go. Praine is a former aristocrat gaming senior product manager. There's also big moves at Unity, Supercell, Roblox Play Ticker, Netflix, Metamoki Game Site, Voodoo, and Fun Plus in that jobs update. And finally, it was off the record London this week. Thanks for everyone who came. Another great gathering of mobile game mines. That is the last

event of the year for me. Seven events this year, basically one a month since April. Off the record, we'll be back in 2026. Probably fewer events next year, but bigger and better. We shall see. I've had some really good feedback on this first run of off the record events and all of that is being taken into account. So, thank you for everyone who came along. Thank you to the sponsor Exola for making those events possible. And thank you for listening all the way to the end. Well done. Speak to you next