Jobs Roundup
September 2025’s Movers and Shakers: Roblox's head of agency partnerships, Women in Games' new community manager, and Epic Games hires Supercell veteran
Our regular roundup of the mobile games industry's movers and shakers
Staff
Aaron Astle
Job Title
News Editor
About Aaron is the News Editor at PG.biz and has an honours degree in Creative Writing.
Having spent far too many hours playing Pokémon, he's now on a quest to be the very best like no one ever was...at putting words in the right order.
Articles by Aaron Astle
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Monster Milestone
Monster Hunter Now celebrates second anniversary and $271m in lifetime player spending
Originally a Niantic game, Now was purchased by Scopely as part of a larger $3.5bn deal this May
Pgc Helsinki
"Why your players hate your web store"
Appcharge’s Miikka Luotio discusses the four steps of a web store and which element might be "broken"
Mobile Mavens
Four decades of Mario: What the industry has learned from one of gaming's most iconic characters
As Super Mario Bros celebrates its 40th anniversary our Mobile Mavens discuss the legacy of one of Nintendo's most loved characters
Off To The Races
Umamusume: Pretty Derby: "To be honest, we weren't sure how a game inspired by Japanese horse racing culture would be received overseas"
We speak with an anonymous developer at Cygames about Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s global launch, localisation nuances and more
Pgc Helsinki
Rovio talks optimised ad placements, player segmentation and Beacon
Rovio principal product manager and team lead of Beacon product management Niina Ojala highlighted the uses of Beacon throughout a game’s lifecycle at PGC Helsinki 2024
Showdown Shutdown
Sword Art Online Variant Showdown will end service on October 30th
Bandai Namco Entertainment is closing down the troubled title after almost three years
Genre Strategies
FreePlay talks 2bn downloads and hybridcasual's rapid growth
"We consider creatives production to be one of our core strengths," says head of publishing Ivan Spijarskiy
Destiny Downloads
Destiny: Rising surpasses 1m installs on Apple’s App Store
NetEase Games’ latest release ranked as the third most-downloaded game on launch day on iOS
Romantic Revenue
Anime-style dating sim Love and Deepspace surpasses $750m
Infold Games’ departure from the Nikki series has proven fruitful, three-quarters of the way to $1 billion
Hot Five
Hot Five: Uma Musume: Pretty Derby’s overseas victory, Destiny: Rising’s mobile launch, and India's games companies hit by real-money ban
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Destiny: Rising, Acecraft, Hello Mario, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Pgc Barcelona
AI vs art and the evolution of creative campaigns
PGC Barcelona panellists discuss user acquisition and the battle against "average" results
Loads Of Layoffs
Rec Room lays off "roughly half" of staff as priorities shift away from broad UGC
Rec Room’s mobile creation tools have struggled to produce "impactful" experiences
Office Opening
Lightspeed Japan opens Osaka office to recruit talent, including Capcom veterans
This is Lightspeed Studios’ second office in Japan after a Tokyo office was established in 2024
Triumphant Trot
Uma Musume: Pretty Derby picks up 57% of mobile revenue outside Japan in two months since global launch
Cygames’ horse girl racer has earned $46.8m overseas since June 26th, 2025
Roblox Rising
Roblox’s peak concurrent user count hits record 47.4m as Steal a Brainrot and Grow a Garden compete
Steal a Brainrot has become the platform’s second experience to hit 20m concurrent users
Jobs Roundup
August 2025’s Movers and Shakers: Playtika promotions, Appcharge's senior hire, SayGames' new head of PR, and more
Our regular roundup of the mobile games industry's movers and shakers
Finland Report
Finnish games industry's revenue and profit declines in 2024 despite Supercell boon
Despite the declines, the Finnish games sector remained among the five largest in Europe in 2024
Stopping Support
Square Enix to shut down Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and Dragon Quest of the Stars in Japan
Both games will celebrate their 10th anniversaries in the weeks before end of service, set for October 31st
Hot Five
Hot Five: Mobile Games Awards winners revealed, India bans real-money games, and NextBeat shutting down Beatstar
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Valorant Mobile, Mini Sudoku, Coffee Pool and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Regulation Ramps Up
India bans real-money games but looks to legitimise esports as competitive sport
The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 will ban ads and social media promotion of real-money games, whether skills-based or chance-based
Play Policy
Google Play policy update restricts pre-registrations, discovery and more to higher-tier fee payers
Changes also allow developers to more flexibly link to payments outside of an app
Mobile Games Awards 2025
Balatro wins hearts as the People's Choice at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025
Solo developer LocalThunk picks up the People’s Choice award for a $30m mobile game first intended "for myself and a few friends"
Mobile Games Awards 2025
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket wins Game of the Year at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025
Making $1 billion in 204 days makes TCG Pocket the very best, like no Pokémon mobile game ever was…
Mobile Games Awards 2025
Scopely triumphs as Best Publisher at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025
Monopoly Go, Pokémon Go… It’s all go!
Mobile Games Awards 2025
Supercell is crowned Best Developer at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025
Record revenue, portfolio-wide growth and Clash Royale’s ‘Brawl Stars moment’ help Supercell come out on top
Moshi Milestone
Moshi Monsters’ second comeback Kickstarter hits £50,000 goal in six hours
The original Kickstarter fell short of its target, but the new, lower goal was promptly achieved
Platform Partnership
Atlas partners with Google Cloud as its AI platform enters closed beta
"If you haven't started putting AI in your development pipeline, you should probably do that," says Google Cloud global director for games Jack Buser
Doubling Down
Supercell hires Drussila Hollanda as first-ever head of new games
The role will include cultivating cultures for developing new games and putting together the best teams
Wants And Wishes
Games are Make-A-Wish’s fastest-growing wish category, but the industry has "taken a backseat" since the pandemic
Make-A-Wish International charitable gaming and creators community manager April Stallings talks Infinite Wishes, opportunities for developers to get more involved, and her plans for Gamescom 2025
Workplace Wellbeing
Safe In Our World launches first games industry mental health accreditation
The Mental Health Star Accreditation will award companies for exemplary mental health and wellbeing practices
Risks And Rewards
Publisher Lyrical Games to work with devs "taking big creative risks"
The new company has been formed by veterans from Private Division, Humble Games and Devolver Digital
Shares And Safety
Roblox shares decline 6% after new lawsuits raise child safety concerns
Shares have hit a two-month low but remain up year-over-year
Pixel Power
Pixel United veterans launch Plan A Games to invest in casual, midcore and social casino
Gary Rosenfeld, Huy Nguyen and Michael Lang bring their experience from RAID: Shadow Legends and more to help games overcome UA challenges
Bringing The Backend
Metaplay’s new Starter plan lets devs use same backend infrastructure as games like Merge Mansion
Metaplay co-founder and CO Petri Kero believes too many devs have been "priced out of using top-tier backend solutions"
Hot Five
Hot Five: Konami's games division grows 14%, Fortnite to return to iOS in Australia, and AppsFlyer reportedly in acquisition talks worth up to $4bn
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
Party Planning
Pocket Gamer’s ultimate Gamescom 2025 party guide
Making the most of every event around Devcom and Gamescom 2025
New Games
New release roundup: LEGO Bluey, Dragon Spira, Once Human: RaidZone, and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover over the past week
Sonic Slowdown
Sega sales down 23% as Rovio falls short of expectations
The Sonic owner has forecast 42% annual growth in its free-to-play sales
Pgc Barcelona
"100% of IAP is up for hijacking" in DTC 2.0
Appcharge chief marketing officer Gil Tov-Ly spoke at PGC Barcelona about web shops, web games, alternative app stores and more
Series Support
Appcharge raises $58m to scale up with growing DTC demands
The direct-to-consumer platform has raised $89m to date, currently powering stores for more than 100 games
Australia Ahoy
Epic Games hails "win for developers and consumers" as Fortnite to return to iOS in Australia
After five years, a court ruling has determined Fortnite and the Epic Games Store can return to iOS
Protective Partnership
Roblox asks "vigilante groups" to leave child protection to experts, AI and law enforcement
The platform is partnered with law enforcement and has AI-based Sentinel to detect signs of exploitation
Moshi Makeover
Mind Candy cancels Moshi Monsters Kickstarter as it targets campaign relaunch
The team is taking a pause to reflect on fan feedback almost two months into the original campaign
Hot Five
Hot Five: Clash Royale’s Brawl Stars moment, AppLovin vs Unity, and the NextBeat team joins Duolingo
Our quick-fix roundup of the hottest stories on PocketGamer.biz
New Games
New release roundup: Talking Tom & Friends: World, Mecharashi, Farlight 84 and more
We highlight the latest new games that have broken cover and are all set to do big business
Subscription Strategy
Games subscription opportunities and challenges after "people have been trained to play for free"
GameHouse CEO Simonetta Lulli spoke at PGC Barcelona about lessons to learn from other industries
Fitness Formula
How Talofa Games' Monster Walk aims to stand out from Pokémon Go
CEO Jenny Xu discusses raising $6.3 million, making exercise accessible and fun, and why it's targeting a Gen Z audience