FTL dev not fond of iOS, Glu acquires Diner Dash pub PlayFirst, and Rovio's profits are put on pause
It's really amazing how quickly spring bleeds into summer, especially in the gaming industry.
In rapid-fire succession, you've got PAX East and GDC at the end of March, then those in the US trip over their taxes in April, while the F2P summit in London draws crowds at the end of the month.
In May, you’ve got GMIC in China, Digital Dragons in Poland, Intergame in Estonia, and the Nordic Game Confernce in Malmö.
Before you know it, it'll be time for E3 in LA, Pocket Gamer Connects in Finland, and then Gamescom... where does the year go?
We don't have an answer for that, but we do have our Week That Was - a look back at the highlights and big stories from Pocket Gamer Biz over the past seven days. So let's put the rhetorical ruminations aside and dive into it.
PG Connects
- PG Connects is coming to Helsinki on June 16, and we already have Lima Sky, Ubisoft, King, Nordeus, Rovio, and Wargaming (among many, many others) signed up to speak. Looking to attend? Head over to our Eventbrite page to book your spot.
- This week, we shed some light on a pair of our speakers: Roadhouse Interactive's Nick Malaperiman and Cornfox & Bros Ltd.'s Heikki Repo.
- As if that wasn't enough, we also put up videos from our January PG Connects in London.
- While we opened up the call for our summer developer survey, the results of which will be made available at PG Connects.
- And if you're bouncing around at industry events this month, be sure to catch up with us - we won't be hard to find.
Tools and Platforms
- Multiplayer platform Nextpeer rode the wave of 2048 on Andriod, and added 1.5 million active users a day to its network.
- While FTL dev team admitted 'we really don't like designing for iOS'.
- And in Windows Phone news, Microsoft and Chukong extended their Cocos2d-x hackathons to help devs port their games to WinPho.
Monetisation
- This week saw the launch our first Weekly UK Store Game Charts, a new feature where we present exclusive iOS data for the UK's top-performing games.
- Meanwhile, our In-App Purchase Inspector took a long look at Blizzard's Hearthstone and its IAP structure.
- And our Monetizer looked at the value of reciprocity in 15 free-to-play mobile games.
- The Chart of the Week gave a snapshot of how Rovio's past three years measured up to King, Mojang, and Supercell.
- Whilst our in-house promiscuous gamer gave us his weekly rundown, noting that Family Guy is 'a highly monetized game'.
Industry Voices
- Unity CEO David Helgason talked about measuring success in mobile, contending that 'not everyone needs to be King or Supercell'.
- While US Correspondent Matt Diener gave his impressions of a week spent with the Kindle Fire TV - noting that it hasn't changed his gaming life much.
- Steve El-Sharawy used our Finnsider this week to look at how Supercell's former analytics guru Joakim Achrén is firing up free-to-play.
- And our Mobile Gaming Mavens hashed out whether Oculus would have caught Facebook's eye if it didn't have the huge Kickstarter presence.
- Zynga co-founder Eric Schiermeyer, meanwhile, announced his new studio's plans to crack into the endless runner market with Greedy Goblins.
- Fiksu's Glenn Kiladis gave some insight as to why Facebook app ads outperform other channels for games.
- While Fuse Powered's Ben Huxley shared three points of player value that'll help you effectively monetise your entire player base.
- And Martine Paris went on the look for games at Coachella.
Funding, acquisitions, personnel, and shutterings
- Kamcord raised $7.1 million, aimed at improving discovery through gameplay videos.
- While Free-to-play advocate Ben Cousins announced that he's leaving DeNA's Scattered Entertainment and going freelance.
- And Glu Mobile announced its acquisition of Diner Dash publisher PlayFirst.
- Finally, ZeptoLab and Yodo1 announced that they'll bring Cut the Rope to Kakao.
Financials
- Rovio announced that its 2013 profits were down 51 percent - to $37 million - as part of 'a foundation building year'.
- And Gameloft didn't have any major releases this quarter, but it still saw its Q1 FY14 sales tick up 4 percent to $77 million.
- Glu Mobile, meanwhile, saw its Q1 2014 sales up 81 percent to a record $44.6 million.