Another E3 has officially drawn to a close, but it gave us plenty to talk about while it lasted.
One of the earliest interesting titbits was Fallout Shelter, a small and unassuming free-to-play mobile offshoot that was released immediately and became our internal Game of the Week.
Little did we know then that it would also go on to take the Top Grossing charts by storm.
Fallout Shelter aside, we covered Razer's acquisition of Ouya, tackled the continuing relevance of E3 in 2015 and beyond, and spoke to speakers from DeNA and Spacetime Studios ahead of Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2015 on 7-8 July.
Industry voices
- We asked our Mobile Mavens the question on everybody's lips after a week of such unexpected mobile success for Bethesda - what can the mobile games industry learn from Fallout Shelter?
- As for our Indie Mavens, we asked if they felt E3 was becoming any more welcoming to them, and mobile games in particular.
- We announced Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco's Superstar Sessions, featuring big names from Disney, DeNA, and more.
- Speakers confirmed for PG Connects Helsinki, including representatives from Rovio, Seriously, and PlayRaven.
- As part of our Flashback Friday series, we dredged up an opinion piece from 2012 arguing that E3 should be about more than just console blockbusters.
- And, perhaps suggesting that things haven't moved on as swiftly as we'd have liked, this year's E3 opinion piece argues that a decentralised event would better represent today's industry.
- Shintaro Asako, DeNA West CEO and PG Connects San Fransisco speaker, discussed the power of 'glocal'.
- We also shone our speaker spotlight on Spacetime's Ari Sapriel, who discussed offbeat approaches to user acquisition.
- We spoke to Atli Mar Sveinsson about his startup Directive Games, and its faith in hardcore gaming for mobile devices.
Discovery, user acquisition, retention, and monetisation
- Our IAP Inspector analysed Fallout Shelter, taking a look at the monetisation systems behind the impressive revenues.
- In light of the Angry Birds and Cut the Rope movies due in 2016, we quizzed our mobile mavens as to their purpose - mere vanity branding, or genuinely extending the audience?
- In one of the more interesting bits of mobile news to emerge from E3, Bethesda released Fallout Shelter and announced The Elder Scrolls: Legends.
- Fallout Shelter, in spite of its $19.99 max IAP, began earning millions right off the bat.
- Going head-to-head with Kabam in the battle of the mobile Star Wars games, EA announced its CCG Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.
- EA Mobile revealed that its games have been downloaded over 715 million times.
- Mobile eSports platform Skillz is paying out $500,000 per day - totalling 1/3 of all eSports earnings.
- Lara Croft Go was announced for mobile at E3, following in the footsteps of last year's Hitman Go.
- Our series of guest articles from Pixelberry Studios continued, this one concerning compelling character design.
- The Mobile Majority shared with us its infographic and accompanying video to help developers deal with the complex issue of mobile ad viewability.
Tools & platforms
- Razer unveiled the latest OSVR dev kit, bringing position tracking and Android support.
- Snail Games made its $400 gaming smartphone, the W3D, available to preorder in the US.
- Our stateside columnist Carter Dotson discused the benefits of Apple easing iOS development barriers.
Funding, deals, acquisitions and personnel
- Goodgame Studios announced that, in a departure from its strategy background, it's set up a standalone casual studio.
- Starbreeze invested $1.4 million in Chinese firm Cmune, in order to bring the heist-based FPS Payday to mobile.
- US hardware and PC gaming peripheral firm Razer has seemingly acquired Ouya.
- It looks like US Android dev Kiwi will be ceasing its current operations. It's selling its legacy titles to longtail specialist RockYou.
- Flaregames acquired the publishing rights to Limbic's F2P sequel to Zombie Gunship, which was an early iOS success story.
- GameDuell is advertising for five vacant roles in its Berlin office.