Gamescom Insights

4 takeaways from Devcom and Gamescom 2025: The DTC revolution, Asian publishers make a splash, and room for optimism

We analyse some of the big stories and trends coming out of Europe's largest games expo

August 23, 2025

Gamescom 2025

Gamescom 2025 concludes with 357,000 visitors from 128 countries

Devcom, soon to be renamed Gamescom Dev, drew 5,400 attendees

August 26, 2025

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

August 26, 2025

Latest

New Partnerships

Savvy Games Group signs MoU with Al Jouf’s strategic office to develop games and esports

Savvy and JSDO will co-organise events to attract gamers and esports fans to the region

August 26, 2025

Funding News

Sheba Joy raises $293,000 in pre-seed funding to scale operations from Saudi Arabia

Funding will expand production, attract top talent, and drive development of new titles

August 26, 2025

New Offerings

New platform 962.Games launches as a directory for Jordan’s games ecosystem

It serves as a gateway for players, partners, and investors while inviting local developers to join

August 25, 2025

Investment News

Impact46 invests over $53m in Saudi games studio Kammelna

The studio is best known for bringing the Kingdom’s iconic card game Baloot to mobile

August 25, 2025

Funding News

Spoilz raises fresh funding to expand its development and live ops capabilities

Investment will fuel globally competitive mobile games and attract top Saudi talent.

August 25, 2025

Funding News

Starvania Studios raises $1.1m to accelerate growth and fuel its gaming ambitions

Investment enables Starvania to expand its team with Saudi talent and boost global competitiveness

August 25, 2025

African studios must build business models that can sustain themselves right from day one.

Kucheza Gaming CEO Bukola Akingbade discusses the challenges facing Africa's games industry

Some people look at us and our mission and think, ‘I’m a first-person shooter game, I can’t be involved’. That’s not true at all.

Make-A-Wish International wants games developers to get more involved with the charity

Week In Views

Safe In Our World creates new mental health accreditation and Moshi Monsters Kickstarter comeback | Week in Views

The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories

August 23, 2025

New Era

Outfit7 on growing a global IP with the next era of My Talking Tom Friends 2

Ante Odić, TT&F games division president discusses building a scalable player led sequel

August 21, 2025

Behind The Scenes

Behind Black Deck’s rise: A case study in product, monetisation, and trust

SayGames’ Katya Sabirova shares on Black Deck’s journey from early struggles to a $30M hit

August 21, 2025

Week In Views

Appcharge secures $58m, Fortnite returns to iOS in Australia, and the Moshi Monsters relaunch stalls | Week in Views

The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories

August 15, 2025

Rewarded Ua Insight

Rewarded UA Is a strategic advantage – if you treat it that way

"If there's one thing I want gaming companies to take away, it’s this: rewarded networks aren’t just traffic sources, they’re strategic partners"

August 14, 2025

Esports Tournament

Esports World Cup Foundation launches Esports Nations Cup

EA, Krafton, Tencent, and Ubisoft will co-develop the first edition in November 2026

August 25, 2025

New Partnerships

Savvy Games Group partners with AWS to boost Saudi Arabia’s games technology infrastructure

Savvy CEO Brian Ward says the deal will empower the Kingdom’s developer ecosystem

August 25, 2025

New Partnerships

Savvy Games Group signs MoU with Unity to boost opportunities for Saudi games developers

Qualifying projects gain free access to Unity’s backend, analytics, ads, and multiplayer tools

August 25, 2025

Funding News

Fahy Studios secures $1.75m to scale its mobile game production

Funds will go towards expanding its capabilities and attracting talent to the kingdom

August 20, 2025

Investment News

Exel by Merak invests $300,000 each in 17 gaming startups at its first Demo Day

Over 300 applicants competed for a place in the accelerator

August 20, 2025

Funding For Games

Fateless secures additional $8m to power Godforge toward 2026 launch

The new round brings its total to $14m 

August 15, 2025

Acqusitions

Rewarded play platform Almedia acquires casback firm Zave.it

CEO calls the move a landmark step toward building an engagement engine

August 15, 2025

Jobs Roundup

August 2025’s Movers and Shakers: Supercell's first-ever head of new games, Monopoly Go's team grows, and more

Our regular roundup of the mobile games industry's movers and shakers

August 20, 2025

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

August 19, 2025

Job News

Spin Master appoints Marc De Vellis as EVP and president of its Digital Games Creative Centre

He will oversee flagship platforms Toca Boca and PikNik

August 14, 2025

Job News

Ex-King CEO Riccardo Zacconi joins Layer AI board

Layer AI is used by over 200 studios including Zynga, Tripledot, and SciPlay

August 12, 2025

Loads Of Layoffs

Layoffs to cost 100,000 years of collective games industry experience

As veterans leave the games sector, Amir Satvat calculates the years of experience lost since 2022

July 28, 2025

Game Closure

NextBeat to shut down Beatstar and Country Star

The servers are set to close on October 31st 2025

August 22, 2025

Sound Search

Sony AI and Audiokinetic launch AI-powered Similar Sound Search for Wwise

AI search in Wwise will allow sound designers to find and experiment with audio using text or reference sounds

August 22, 2025

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

August 21, 2025

New Partnerships

Odeeo partners with AI studio Wondercraft to power multilingual in-game audio ads

Partnership brings personalised audio ads into mobile gaming

August 21, 2025

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

August 21, 2025

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"

August 21, 2025

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…

August 20, 2025

Podcast | Episode 63

The Esports World Cup unpacked and lightning strikes twice for Supercell | Week in Mobile Games podcast

The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode 63...

August 9, 2025

Podcast | Episode 62

Apple's regulatory wins and 2025's top genres | Week in Mobile Games podcast

The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode 62...

July 28, 2025

Podcast | Episode 61

Zynga's successes and failures, and Moon Active takes the fight to Scopely | Week in Mobile Games podcast

The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode 61...

July 19, 2025

Podcast | Episode 60

Games investment tips, Clash Royale's evolution, and China's rising global influence | Week in Mobile Games podcast

The PocketGamer.biz podcast team give you the state of play every week. Here's where to get it and what's inside this week's episode 60...

July 12, 2025