Week in Mobile Games E31 - The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2024 revealed!

[Music] hello and welcome to the pocketgamer.biz podcast week in mobile games where we discuss the week's news and provide some insites I'm Craig Chapel head of content at pocketgamer.biz with me today are Deputy editor Paige cook and news editor Aaron assel and again we're all on videoos that's all that's all really awwesome it's PR weird like yeah I don't know it's like I didn't do it last week so it's just strange and you've got you've got really awesome background as well the funny thing is about my background is technically behind me that's my desk that's where I work so it's because I'm using the laptop at the moment cuz we wanted to do video so technically I'm sat using my partner's desk so when we're the other way around like so that's my background all the gaming stuff like got my steelbook cases this wall which is what you would usually is full of unicorns and

princesses so like not my vibe at all so this room is just like split between two polar opposite personalities yeah right down the middle literally like one side is rainbows and pink and the other side is video games and Agent 47 over there there's a little katos somewhere in the background like there's just things everywhere Aaron you've chained backgrounds yes very very slightly we've got a different Pokemon in the back this week um just so I might have to make that a regular thing for viewers to keep an eye out for Spot the Difference every week yeah and for our just for our Audio Only listeners uh my background there absolutely nothing going on as usual I'm I'm I guess I'm podcasting live from Helsinki I've been at Pocket Gamer connects this week and finished games week I'll actually be heading back to We Love Games W love games uh just off just off this recording uh but yeah as usual and right

instead of what looks like an airon CED it's now just a white wall and and a lamp so I guess it's slightly more interesting um but uh yeah how have you both been how's your week going yeah um all good very busy um but yeah it's always weird when the team is like split because there's so much going on in two different places so yeah obviously all the Helsinki stuff from you normal stuff on this side from us you know news features interviews um I actually haven't been playing as many games recently just I I've just been too tired but I am reading a lot I'm reading a Dragon Age book because the new Dragon Age game comes out and it's been 10 years like how has it been 10 years since the Dragon Age game so yeah I'm just being a super nerd and reading before the game comes out Aaron what you been up to yes so I've been on Zelda quite a bit um new echo of wisdom which I'm having a lot of fun with exploring it's nice to have another 2D Zelda game

it's been quite a long time since there's been a brand new one obviously it's a lot more scaled down than like breath of the wild Vis Kingdom but now having a good time with it very of puzzle based and it's a Zelda game where you play as Zelda who thought that would ever happen who would have thought finally after Decades of waiting my really bad confession is I've never got into a Zelda game so oh oh no and that's a bad one that is very bad I think that's the podcast over that I know I'm going to be kicked off now yeah I said there was a deadline for this actually forward yeah yeah well I mean I my my my worst confession uh that that people will definitely judged me for is I have never properly played an Assassin's Creed game that's quite bad I feel like Zelda's worse because people it's just the Nostalgia Factor but yeah none of the Assassin's Creed not even the good ones the worst the worst thing is cuz my P of Shame I've like bought them

and then just like oh I have to play this like open world I just really got R to it when you get home you should have them in your background so each week you can sort of be like oh yeah I've never played these games but just looking at me like you need to play this you know to actually do your job you need you need to play Assassin's Creed I've only played Black Flag but I did enjoy it on the we at least that was one of the good ones the old ones are the best ones right they're a bit before my time okay uh on that note we're all going to uh U going to jump into some kind of takeaways from Pocket Gamer connects and actually this week we also announced our top 50 game make mobile game makers which I will jump into uh first you some very quick shout outs we we have a couple of events coming up after after we've just done this one so Pocket Gamer connect Jordan November 9th 10th link

the description and Pocket Gamer connects London returns in January on the 20th to 21st so there's there's a few things coming up for us so as promised uh we're actually going to kick things off kind of like we did for Gamescom and I can't remember if we were recording back in GDC I don't know if we'd started then we do things a little bit differently so going do some takeways to start with and then we'll do the news run through kind of the opposite way it's what we usually do so I guess the first thing I'm going to do is yeah my my my PGT takeways which I keep saying so one of the things that I I kind of found from this week uh that was interesting so oh for anyone that doesn't know uh finished games week which the first time they've run it leadership Day by RGA Finland was on Monday Pocket Gamer conects was on Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday Friday is is W love games so there's kind of plenty of uh there something for everyone I guess so by actually takeways

were fins get real Finland style so you know Chris Chris uh James starts off the conference you know quite positive trying to get a bit of Buzz going and then and then straight away you get koopy the director at NE games Finland who who's who's fantastic and he just kind of comes on very matter of fact this is how it is which I actually love uh about the industry so he talks about how the last data that they had EO game on the industry showed in 2022 uh so quite a while ago that this turnover in the sector was at 3.2 billion euros um I don't don't know what that is now but obviously after that period uh you then get to 2023 and 2024 when the whole sector has had a very very tough time so dealing with kind of the Fallout of app tracking transparency inflation declining consumer purchasing power reduced

financing options Global instability and increased competition those are all kind of factors that copi pointed out that have made things uh very difficult and as we pointed out previously in our state of Finland article there's other issues going on as well like in Helsinki due to kind of the new government that uh there's less or maybe even none government uh investment options now for for local Studios it doesn't mean in kind of bordering cities that that's that's still not the case I think espo is is trying to do some stuff there there funing option somewhere but not in Helsinki anymore which is actually quite surprising given the impact of the industry and if you think about it kind of how much tax it actually pays as well and then there's other factors like uh IM new immigration laws um was a very hot political Topic in Finland and that would actually make things more challenging to bring over senior Talent um which in kind of

a maybe trying to think what the word is a mature saturated kind of talent Market in fing for for senior Talent maybe that makes things more difficult although koopy did point out that now there are more senior developers available but unfortunately only because of kind of layoffs that we've seen throughout the industry so there there there's kind of a lot going on he was talk about talked about kinding not there've been like closures obiously men those layoffs and I think Shipyard games is is another one that you know was one that closed light a closed in the last few months so so yeah so you said that you know highlighted a lot of issues and I think it's slightly different from again the vibe of all these events is a bit different so when earlier in the year I went to Finland it was that was kind of the first time I'd heard or survived 25 when was that March April time so people starting to get pretty real about you know the state of the industry and by now and I said this at gescom and here everyone's very honest like it's really

tough there are signs that things are are growing again and some of the biggest finish studios are even growing themselves but everyone's kind of you know backed against the wall some are doing subcontracting just kind of keep the lights on and yeah everyone's very well and goes on to my next takeaway which was which is and it kind of feels like a cliche to say this about Finland but it's very close community and generally a very honest one uh uh so could be just kind of do it by being honest and what I like is actually about this week is that uh it's very much an example of well we you know Pocket Gamer connects we bring that to kind of to Helsinki and the community's always kind of Embraces that and then it was just like well why don't we just do the in why don't we just do more to help to help the studios and so you the leadership Daye I mentioned obviously kind of for leaders and they and they discuss a lot of Dei initiatives which is great

and then you get to a kind of our event PGC where it's we try to make it for everyone but you know it's kind of a place we do business dealings discuss Trends Etc bigy pitch and then you get to kind of w love games and it's very much like even more focused on development and for Indies so they're kind of trying to embrace everyone as could be noted you know the US with challenges cuz for juniors it's actually very difficult and I think I think some of these events try and embrace that but you know it's still very difficult for for certain levels of talent in in the sector here quick some other quick takeaways and again it's what I always mention now it's direct consumer strategies I I just feel like I hear it all the time we hosted the purchasing power track we had another session from App charge there uh we had like speakers from Far spring Nexus roio agon stash Raptor all all talking about it uh and then I hosted a panel at the end of day

two uh with investors so investors from ignia Capital C game Ventures and play Ventures and one of the things that they discuss as as kind of uh something interesting for them to see in developers is those direct consumer strategies so that is the reasons for that is kind of increasing profitability and also you're just engaging your communities better which I guess is more attractive if you're able to do those things cuz as as some other speakers noted you know very difficult to for some for some studios it's just very difficult to kind of build a community unless you're like one of the one of the big developers out there so that was that was definitely very interesting and then the last thing and I'll get into the top 50 in a sec but uh it was the Finish influence in the top 50 I'll go to some of the wider Trends but you've got in the list spoiler alert uh we had fingersoft metacore roio and Supercell of course

and then actually if you think about the wider influence of Finland it's still pretty huge so you've got EA which owns track 20 uh Netflix owns next games take two and zingga owns small giant MTG owns snow print Studios which makes Warhammer I think and C play has a finish office they're all in the in the top 50 uh play tiker the best fiends IP that was obviously seriously and supercell has a a major stake in space a which is in the list and then obviously 10 cent acquired most of supercell and they in the list as well so like you can kind of see finish influence everywhere so while you know maybe they're not quite it's a really harsh way to put it you know they used to be kind of the cap especially the startup capital of mobile gaming and and maybe then maybe villain's not that anymore you know over the years kind of turkey became a bit of a star especially during the hyper casual boom now they've got some some of the top casual game

developers like Peak games Grand games dream games Ric to mention to mention a few but uh finland's influence just kind of stays is very very much in the mix yeah forever will be kind of maybe what one of the hearts of the mobile games industry I would say uh so I just ranted a lot there um I don't know I don't know if you you saw anything coming out of of Finland this week that you found interesting um nothing specific just obviously some of the tracks that you covered were you know pretty interesting and obviously I was at hinki last year um it's the first time I'd been and yeah like I think like I said I think that kind of summarizes it of you know they're kind of always going to be like a heart of the mobile games industry but things do change and maybe they're not like I said whether it's because of you know Government funding or it's the startups you know maybe there's not as much of an impact there as there once was but yeah there's definitely still a

lot of heart left in it there's actually um and I put it in my takeaways there's actually a great LinkedIn post from I forget his name he used to work at UH huge games anti and and he and he just wrote this post about a month ago which was kind of to my point about how honest uh uh people in the fish industry can be you know because that's how you kind of move forward you have to be honest about things but also perhaps in in contradiction some my points that I think maybe leaders haven't even been honest with themselves about you know certain Trends and adapting quick enough to those so a really interesting piece about the state of the market I'll link it in the I'll link all this in the description and that's definitely worth checking out for his opinions as well the other thing I obviously wanted to touch about which I I did just kind of go through a little bit is uh so yeah obviously said we we did the top 50 this week we've been working on that for for a couple months at least um few a few meetings a long time writing

those profiles so uh it's out in the wild we hope everyone enjoys it I'm sure there'll be people that agree with the list people that disagree with the list we're always we always welcome feedback for that so who made number one spoiler alert who else could it be Monopoly go developer scopely that game you know they they were acquired by a savy games group for $4.9 billion and then that was around the time that they released Monopoly and that has since made in just over a year I think 15 months3 billion in Revenue which scopely confirmed so that acquisition is actually is actually looking pretty good um it probably it probably even looks cheap at this point so yeah that what what a great great developer like not just Revenue like that game is Just fantastic to play some really good social Innovations and then not forgetting that um they've got stumbl guys again a finish made game from kit K

games they acquired that that's had 700 million downloads 50 million monthly players uh so that's doing incredibly well lots of really interesting Partnerships going on there they also own Marvel strike for Star Tre C card YY With Buddies I'd say they're very well worth the number one spot and then uh some other Trends while while while up here that that I kind of noticed as we put the list together I was quite happy that we spotted super play so Paige earlier this year you did an interview with the team with elad Dory and uh that was very timely because that was kind of the first time it been brought to my attention because I hadn't really thought about that studio no no offense to the team was super play very talented but for quite a few years and then you suddenly see like wow they're having a real like spike in Revenue growth for die streams which was first released in 2019 was it and now is just kind of having its best year ever and then

Domino dreams there a new game they've released that's come out it's kind of what the top 50 is all about this year which is looking at top new games that have come out that have done really well but also how developers are kind of managing their their current games especially in a tough Market can they keep them stable can they grow them and Super Players kind of done both release a hit new game and and grown an existing one so yeah really fantastic and now obviously they by pla for $1.95 billion which I guess maybe it's 2 billion because there's a 50 million earnout clause on top of that as well and then there was a few you know worth pointing out there's a few releases in 2023 2024 I mentioned on podcast about a month ago uh like kind of surprise hits because you think how down the Market's been and actually there's been loads of successes uh so1 billion hits that were released in 2023 to 2024 me Monopoly go got Century games is white out survival

first funds last war Hoya versus honai starl and nexon's dungeon and fighter mobile I might have missed one but that that's already quite a few so they all rank very highly in the list some other Trends so competition the merge games category has actually heated up so I think you kind of take for granted that metacore again on the list with merge Mansion is and was the leader that's now no longer the case most man still does well but it faces serious competition from magmatic games is travel town magmatic is owned by Moon active as well as a company called Micron I believe they're based in China uh they've got gossip Harbor and seaside Escape which do tremendously well so actually they've now that that whole Market is actually grown quite considerably and it's not just uh I was going to say a a a one game Market I guess you still have grand games up there with merge kind of pushing that market forward as well originally but yeah like interesting to see that puzzle genre grow and a new

competition emerge uh I'm nearly done but uh a couple other things so I did an article for de structureal F last year about like I called it the hybrid casual gamble so hyper casual was dying we know we discussed that topic to death for the industry so they decided we're going to do hybrid casual which again it's not really a genre it's just like made up that was based on Hab arero from years ago and kind of just adding an extra kind of layer of progression onto the hyper casual model and I was very skeptical I like well they just you know to be honest these hyper casual Publishers desperate they're kind of making up this opportunity and I I thought like they'll have to Pivot away from that or it won't work turns out these people are obvious as we all know very much obviously much smarter than me and so they've actually made it work right so completely transformed their businesses like Voodoo I think is one in particular they've uh was they talking about they got up to like 300 million

just from their hyper hyper casual business and they've done that in just a few years uh you got say games my perfect Hotel on tremendously well uh Homer has been has been doing a lot there think it fight for America is is one of their uh it's one of their games qu's pivoted into that space and a few of those have also kind of pivoted into other areas uh like social apps uh PC console Etc so actually it's quite commendable with a way obviously they' got lot of money to play with to make these changes but but it's still quite commendable that you have to shift your entire business the way you work and then the team that you've ultimately built into these kind of new models ways of doing things and they've actually so far at least seemingly uh succeeded I guess we you know we'll learn over the next couple years just how well that's doing in the long term but yeah really fascinating and then lastly there were just there were 10 brand new companies on the on this year's list so that means

not just companies that weren't in last year 10 companies that have never been in it that's due to col merges acquisition so technically Microsoft's in it first time it's in it obviously we really mean Activision Blizzard and King which have been in it for many many years yeah just shows the changing Market land landscape kind of innovative new companies of titles coming out uh companies that are really really well like play with live Ops and like the hyper casual guys is trans transforming businesses so yeah that's that's my summation uh of PGC and the top 50 apologies for like the longest rant ever um but yeah I don't know if Paige Aaron you got any thoughts on this year's top 50 any takeaways you had what top 50 is always such a funny one because I feel like obviously you know as readers you just see the final thing and there is behind the scene so much uming and aing like some things are quite clear like yes it's pretty sure this that this one should at least be in the top 10 but things can just be

changing so constantly and I think that is just it is kind of you know it just just represent that you know next year one could have easily been above above the other or below the other like said whether it's for a merger or someone just like happens to get one game and it does amazing and that one game propels them really far up so yeah I think it's just one of those things where it it's great to celebrate it but at the same time like it like behind the scenes like it can be so hard putting it together because you know things do well in different ways so yeah I think it's just a a state of you know shows how sort of vertile our industry is and even you know with the last few years it's been obviously really tough but like the top 50 just shows that like how many great Studios there are out there that are managing to still stick it through through these Hard Times yeah I did the I noted in the inro to the top 50 you know as to to your point about tough times like I think if you're in the list or not in the list there's there's a lot

for kind Studios to be proud of like really at the moment if you can keep the lights on keep keep people as many people as you can employed and that that's a huge success in itself and so it's definitely not a slight on anyone that doesn't make the list there's so many talented Studios to choose from we've got 50 slots so we we try and pick the ones that we think kind of reflect as I guess as many of the kind of criteria trades as possible but yeah it's really tremendously difficult but congratulations everyone that was in it and I think like um AG said with like the deliberating it all you know we had way more than 50 companies to kind of decide who makes the the list you I don't think it's quite clearcut as these are the 50 really good ones and everyone else you know what you playing at you know everyone's doing you know really good work is just um yeah how how the list works yeah quite yeah we have like a we have loads of companies that we choose from that we

have to kind of Whittle it down it a really interesting process yeah congrats to everyone that's on it and and but congrats already everyone in the industry that you know keeping going during this tough time it's just it's super impressive so I'm going to stop talking because I I've talked for about 20 20 minutes at least uh so thank you for anyone that's listening for stay staying tuned and paig now for sticking around so yeah uh Paige I've kind of missed out on some of this stuff this week but what's been in the news yeah I'll try and keep it somewhat brief because you've got places to be and people to meet um but yeah so this is technically one that was more of a last week thing with merge games announcing its closure but I'm kind of glad it trickled into this week for us because it got a little bit complicated so they announced a closure on Twitter I'm still calling it Twitter it's not X never will be um so they announced that and that's after a 15-year run and then

all of a sudden they deleted the post that was gone and it was replaced with a second statement of rather than them wording it of like oh it's a closure they just stated that they would be integrated into maximum entertainment which is like their publishing partner um so yeah just a little bit of a a weird one with a little bit of mixed messaging um last year merge games they suffered some layoffs they had had a closure of one of their offices here in the UK as well so you know maybe it was kind of building towards this anyway um but yeah just the the messaging of it and the the second statement that they put out it did kind of clarify the fact that the portfolio of games would still be looked after so there's there's not going to be any losses in terms of games but there was no mention of like obviously the team so the original statement was a closure the second statement is it's an integration so are any of the original team still there are

they not it I I feel like reading between the lines it feels like it was a closure they've took the portfolio but the teams have gone but you know that that speculation I did reach out um to maximum entertainment just to see if they wanted to kind of clarify the situation but haven't heard anything back um I know a couple of months ago there was the whole humble game situation that it was a little bit different but similar in the sense of really stranged mixed messaging and you know nobody likes layoffs nobody likes closures so at the very least I feel like you've got to get these messages clear so you know what's happened especially with a company that you know after 15 years and it's like well are any of those people still working on these things or is it is it a closure so yeah just um a bit of a weird one really definitely you know I think you've just got a what's the expression the American way of saying it it's just rip the bandaid off rip the off and just just be honest and and when you get weird mixed

messaging especially it's just I it comes across so much worse like the cover up is always worse than the action generally speaking uh and so just be upfront and honest that makes you more trustworthy and transparent you know the entire industry is dealing with really difficult times like you just you've just got to kind of be honest get through it and yeah changing messaging but just basic look like well like I say what's happening then now I'm just confused strange way of doing things yeah very strange and like I said as of now there's still not really any update on like clarifying that so yeah I am going to keep an eye out just in case but yeah um you know not not great news if you know all of the team is essentially gone um but other news you actually mentioned this briefly a minute ago Craig um so habby have very quietly launched Arch Hero 2 just to mention

that habby are also in the top 50 they're in their number 31 so yeah nice to see someone in our top 50 uh doing some new stuff but yeah um obviously the first game was super popular so you would assume you would have some kind of official announcement that you were soft launching a game but it doesn't really seem like there was um when I woke up and I saw it was researching it everything I could see was lots of people are being like this is going to be fake nobody thought it was legit and then I think it started to roll out on certain stores so I think I think it was Canada I think maybe their store had it first and people were like oh like this is legit it had like the habby name there um so yeah it it is a thing it is legitimate the first game had over 350 million in player spending according to at Magic so yeah really big game um but yeah just really quietly soft launching the second one I know obviously I mean

companies have different takes on how they do things like this so obviously a soft launch usually you know you're just testing the waters type of thing but I can't help but think of obviously like when Squad B Busters soft launched I know that was kind of like I feel like they had the game ready and they knew it was ready and the soft launch was more of a way to sort of generate some excitement get the hype up they had the whole count of like oh how many people can we get pre-registered and stuff so it's just such a contrast between you know how big soft launches are to also this which should be big cuz it's a big name but yeah it was kind of like searching the internet and people being like is this real is this not real so yeah exciting that it's happening but strange that it's so quiet maybe I other than their user acquisition campaign I'm sure a massive you know Survivor iio as well did very well I don't I don't think Hab has ever made a big shout about like the games I guess in like more traditional marketing channels CU I guess it maybe it just doesn't make sense uh for for mobile companies to do

it that way I'm excited for this game because it's like I said it's it's like the it's kind of the original hyper casual hit and so interesting that they do a sequel I haven't actually seen what what all the things that are different because I guess usually you'd think that they would just update arero as is and and introduce new features into that quite rare to see a two attached to a hit title on mobile still um not not counting angry Bir two I guess so yeah yeah really really really interesting while I'm looking forward to seeing how that does yeah um similar to page when I was researching it for the article like I was just seeing so much saying like no this is fate and then like people putting like screenshots up and then people like no it's all fake and then I was looking into it and like found the Google playlisting and like checked you know this is the real H that's listing it and it had all their other games but yeah pretty sure this is real but yeah it is just it's strange there's so

little mention of it from them but apparently uh to answer your question Craig um the one of the differences is you have a new hero this time around the old one has been corrupted to the dark side according to the um play store Page Six story line the old Heroes now the villain Yeah well yeah there so now you have to release a whole new game right yeah but presumably you can still go back to the old one and now you know still be a hero over there spoilers AR that's prob the ending oh maybe the ending of these r games yeah it'll be um one to keep an eye on definitely numbers wise but yeah I don't know I guess they must be super confident that you know it's just not really something they're having to shout from the rooftops and if people don't even know that it's the legit thing or not oh well um and then last little bit of news for me it feels weird doing a Pokemon thing I feel like I've committed a crime because usually Pokemon is

Aaron's remit but I just thought this one was um again I think all of mine are a bit strange this week so uh Pokemon unite is going to end its service in Belgium and the Netherlands on the 30th of November 2025 not this year next year both I and Aaron we had to look into that we like are we reading this wrong like there was an official release it said 2025 so that's that's what we're going with maybe they've done that wrong but their official thing did say that we both were checking like it seems like a lot of notice yeah but it said it multiple times as well so it's not as so if it is a mistake you've made the mistake multiple times so yeah um lots of notice which isn't necessarily a bad thing um well over a year away but um it didn't really give any indication as to why this is happening um obviously the Netherlands and Belgium they do have more strict regulations when it comes to things like loot boxes and any kind of

mechanics that resemble anything like gambling so you know is it them trying to get a head ahead of any sort of regulations there that they don't want to deal with um the markets there for them aren't obviously like their top markets or even close to it so maybe they're just thinking you know this is going to create some speed bump so let's just essentially let's just not bother with it which is a little bit of a shame really that you know people won't have access to it um obviously it is a lot of notice but I think it's Ina purchases they will seize at the end of this this month so that's the 31st of October um so yeah just it's kind of a shame that you know players there won't have it anymore but yeah I'm more just intrigued as to the why why did they come to this decision like is it kind of what we're speculating like just trying to get ahead of you know any potential regulation issues when they don't see it as giving them enough of a return or you know is there is there a different reason for it I can't remember about

MERS the uh but it's got to be loot box right that has to be that has to be the reason I think they're a loot box elements it has a few different things like you can just buy like whatever their premium currency is to like get skins and stuff and they have a subscription service I think there is a a kind of natur s loot box kind of element to it because some countries now are just they're getting so strict of it so some games where you'd think like oh well that's not really gambling elements some countries now are like even the most remote thing that indicates that it could be like gambling they're kind of flagging it and regulating it more so you know whether you know they they see that these countries are two that are doing that you know maybe it sort of comes down to that I do think it's quite cool of them to um you know they're essentially going to force everyone to go free to play but still let them play it for a year knowing they're not going to make any money from those audiences uh so I think that is pretty good of them to live that long before

they shut it down and then maybe if any yeah if they're worried about any legal issues once there's no monetization there maybe they can kind of get around that of like yes it's in the game but these people can't participate in that part of it maybe yeah it's definitely interesting to skip that long for sure I've never seen that it's usually quite a long time to be fair it's like a good few mons but 13 months effectively that that rounds it up for me for news thanks very much for that page Aaron what have you got yeah so um kind of on a pokemony note Crafton has confirmed that it's making a mobile version of pal World um which we've discussed a couple of times before it might even have been last week we were talking about it um with its kind of potential unfortunate similarities to Pokémon that may cause issues um but for the for the most moment um a bit of good

news for them I suppose so yeah pocket pairs Al World which came out in January on PC and Xbox uh yeah it is now getting a mobile version which has been speculated for a little while and then sometime in September um it kind of came up that craft and maybe um developing the mobile game and now they they've confirmed it uh so it sounds like it won't be a direct P because is um they've got a license agreement to quote Faithfully reinterpret the game um so it sounds like it will be different in some way to the original um more kind more streamlined for mobile or they've not really explained yeah what will be different yet but Crafton said that they aim to implement the originals main fun elements to fit the mobile environment so um yeah it's an interesting one the the announcements kind of come at a

funny time just like a week or two after Pokemon company finally filed their lawsuit against our world they started investigating it in like late January early February and then finally done the lawsuit but I guess this craft and deal would have already been in the works and the pocket there um and yeah the games the game also came out on PS5 a couple of days after Pokemon F the lawsuit um so it's getting to be a pretty big like multiplatform title for obviously Pokemon is huge as well but it's a pretty big project for them to be going up against at this point love that they're just like oh no Nintendo are coming for us I know let's release on mobile like they're just it just seems like they're just completely on face I said you don't know what's going on behind the scenes but it's kind of like oh no they're coming for us release on PS5 oh no they're coming for us again mobile and I'm glad that they kind of said that oh you know we're going to Faithfully adapt it because I would have

half been expecting it's just like how World Battle Royale or something along those lines so yeah interesting so obviously you know that there is just the whole controversy of you know it obviously looks similar to Pokemon with the creatures but I have a feeling that you know obviously it was huge on Console so I just have a feeling it could um it could be good for them on mobile yeah I mean it did like huge numbers on Steam and Xbox so I think it um made it was like the most played game pass game or something in January and I wonder if that was a big help as well like nobody really had to take any risks by buying it because it was on Game Pass so you know would it have had such an impact if people were like oh you know do I want to buy this game like I know Game Pass you have to pay for it but I have Game Pass and I always just think oh this game's free like it's not free I'm paying for it every month but it's just like the

illusion of it so yeah I think that's part of the reason it got so big as well I think uh it did do well on Steam at least for a Time the player count was was was pretty high I I can't remember if there was quite a big drop off I think there might have been eventually I think it sold about 15 million units in like a month right right one one of the uh interesting things just just reading this now already is is that uh pubg mobile was really developed by 10 cents light speed Studio obviously Crafton I think played a part and and then they also did New State and Battlegrounds mobile but the the big world famous one was was developed in China so yeah I'm curious that power world not to say it's not a talented team sure it's super super talented team but partnered with uh Crafton as opposed to frankly like AED R not to dive to deeply in speculation but I wonder if because Pokemon unite is

developed with 10 cent and Pokemon and now suing pocket Fair whether that would complicate them working with 10 interesting Theory um and then so also um Hoya vers has had another Milestone this week with Zen Zone zero surpassing 150 million by at Magic estimates and that's just on mobile to the Google Play Store and the App Store um so yeah 150 million in gross revenue in just under three months which obviously a big sum a lot of people would be happy with that um but it's no genin impact it has to be said so well both genin impact and honkai star rail achieve 150 million in three weeks not three months and genin had already made over half a billion when it was as old as Z zero is now and

again that's just on mobile um so in that point of context suddenly their latest game doesn't look quite so successful but at the same time yeah 150 million is pretty good going um and as we've kind of discussed before on the podcasts there's it seems like there has been some cannibalization between the different hoe games with more being RPGs and similar kind of art style and I guess they're targeting a similar audience but hoe probably prefers that as we kind of discussed before like I'm sure they'd rather people stay with their games rather than move to another developers like shiny new RPG like even if their newest title isn't you know the next gench in Impact it's still making a lot of money and stopping people from maybe yeah going elsewhere thanks very much for that Aon and page you around us out with some big news from epic this week

yeah there there's been a lot going on with epic um every week it's either Apple epic Google they're like these scandalous celebrities they just can't stay out of the headlines um but yeah this week lots of Epic and one of those stories being that they are changing their um so their epic store royalty fee so the percent it's usually a 5% fee that they take um so they're reducing it to 3.5 but that's for games that go to the Epic gam store on launch so it's not kind of like after the fact it's you release your game you put it straight on the Epic store and you get this new shiny discounted rate and that applies you know across the board um so obviously that's you know really nice appeal for creators um and good for them because you know good for epic because it means that you know hopefully more people will want to release on their store um if you then go if you release but then want to kind of expand outside of it your fee can just be reverted back

to the 5% so you do need to make sure that you remain on the Epic store um this applies across all of the platforms including mobile kind of um so obviously there's a lot of Epic Apple stuff going on so iOS has you know that that's not included at the moment but for Android it is um one other thing to know is that I think it's yeah October 16th so anyone who's eligible for this epic first run as they're naming it they'll get 100% of their net revenue from new titles on the epic game store for six months but and that's even if they're not developed in Unreal Engine but then kind of to Pivot it back around after the 6 months epic will take 12% of future Revenue so I think I've got those numbers right I to check my notes but yeah I feel like that's kind of like a you know that's a that's a big deal um

but yeah basically you know it looks like epic are just trying to find ways to get more people to use you know their platform as opposed to others and you know there are a lot of people out there at the moment that are kind of looking to expand you know beyond the traditional platforms that that you know are the most popular ones so I feel like it's it's quite a a smart move but yeah um interesting with the the second part you know like the having the 100% of the fee and then sort of 6 months later it's 12% I feel like I'm going to have to fact check that because reading it out loud sounds wrong but am I missing something if I'm thinking about this right I haven't had because been here I haven't had a chance to check yet so the the the 5% royalty fee is the engine is the Unreal Engine right and that's based on gross revenue yeah and so that's been

reduced and then the other 12% fee is just the store fee right so they removed the store fee I think is what they're saying for six months yeah I think so yeah yeah okay I think I think they already did that they they announc it again like it's new it's very Apple thing it's like here's here's something that's been invented five years ago we talk about that know is that is I I thought that was new but the the um the 5% down to 3.5 that's like that's definitely new and I get how that's like you know that is a a good incentive and I guess it's kind of sneaky but also good that they're kind of being like you know you release it with us first and like they have to stay because you know you would obviously get developers who just release their first and then move elsewhere but I guess it's a it's a good way of making sure people release with them but also stick with them um because yeah there are just are so many

different stores out there now like how do you make yourself stand out even as someone like epic with such a big name there has to be those incentives thanks very much for that page that brings us to the end of of this week's pocket G it up is week in mobile games uh I'm going to head off to to the next event for finished games week but as always uh thank you very much Paige for joining the show thank you for making time for us even though you've got lots going on I feel awful that you said that thanks for making time for the team be on the show okay it sounds wrong but I mean I know when you're at events like you're so like you're between things all the time you're running back to hotels so like I I mean in the sense of you know it was good of you to come along thank you I don't mean in the sense of like oh he just forgets about us just yeah thank you and AR yeah thanks thanks very much yeah thanks yeah thanks for finding the time for us yes see you see you at the next event

yeah I'm looking forward to the to the new figures behind you on the shelves Aon yes yeah I'm gonna have to make a thing of that now all right yeah and thanks everyone for listening we'll catch you all next week have a good weekend goodbye