mobilegamer.biz digest

mobilegamer.biz

What's going on in the mobile games business.

  1. 2d ago

    King dodges Xbox cuts, Destiny Rising, Google's store fees, Ustwo slams platforms, June’s top games, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: More sources suggest King has so far dodged having to make layoffs in the big Xbox resetNow that Destiny 2 is no longer being supported with new content, what’s going on with Destiny Rising? It might be in a “death spiral”, it seemsA rattle through Google’s explanation of its suite of new store fee policies, which are still pretty complex and might not be all that meaningful for most developersUstwo Games on platforms not doing enough to fix discovery and moving away from making Apple Arcade and NetflixJune’s top grossing games and top downloads, according to AppMagicA quick tour of the regulars from this week: data, jobs and new games A sudden police siren in the middle of a bit about King dodging those xbox layoffs, plus traffic noises and chatter from Brighton’s delightful seafront#55, 16/07/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  2. Jul 8

    King and the Xbox cuts, Meta's 'TikTok for games', alot of Scopely news, game closures, MTG, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: Those huge Xbox cuts and some loose talk about King's new place in the hierarchy at Microsoft Meta’s new ‘TikTok for games’ app, Pocket, has sneakily soft launchedThree big chunks of Scopely-related news: a new Japan studio, a rebrand of the teams formerly at Niantic and alot of Pokémon Go data as it celebrates 10 yearsSome game closures: Mario Kart Tour, Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis and Rumble ArcadeMTG gets an ex-Supercell exec to run marketing at 'Europe's biggest collection of midcore studios'A load more data, soft launch and new games nuggetsA slightly wearier tone than usual as I walk-and-talk during a frankly ridiculous heatwave#54, 09/07/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  3. Jul 2

    eFootball vs EA FC, Apple Arcade stats, Stillfront, Queen, third party app stores, payments, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: We look at Konami’s quietly very successful mobile game eFootball, which is actually making about three times the IAP of its closest competitor EA FC. But all that money is coming from Japan, currentlyApple Arcade’s top performers by player reviews, a rare bit of data on Apple’s game subscription service from our friends at GameDiscoverCo. Some analysis in there, tooStillfront is looking for a new CEO after Alexis Bonte stepped down, having overseen what looks like a big restructureA quick confirmation that our Queen story was indeed correct – its founder offered a comment to Swedish finance publication Breakit, but never responded to our requestsAre developers actually making money on third party app stores? Yes and no, depending on who you ask, and we happened to ask AltStore and SkichUK regulators could open up Apple and Google’s app store payment systems this year, if its proposals are approvedA rattle through regulars including our data, jobs and new games round-upsAmbient going-on-a-walk noises including gravel underfoot, light traffic and some yelling schoolchildren#53, 02/07/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  4. Jun 25

    Google Play store fees, Kingshot's World Cup ads, AppsFlyer's $1bn raise, Kabam layoffs, Ex-King execs kill Queen, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: Google (re)confirms that it’ll be dropping store fees by around 5% for most folks using the Play Store. Though there are caveats and complications, of courseA cheeky look at Kingshot’s new set of World Cup ads, featuring ex-England and Brazil players AppsFlyer attracts a whopping $1bn investment from heavy hitters Google, Meta, Unity and Moloco, possibly to stop AppLovin conquering the worldKabam lays off staff in its LA office but refuses to clarify how many or why, causing more confusionEx-King execs kill Queen, a start-up that has attracted as much as $50m in VC funding and has been been making casual puzzle games in stealth mode since 2022(ish)A quick bit on Hoyoverse’s next game, Honkai: Nexus Anima, which appears to be Genshin Impact meets Pokémon: a pretty good idea, actuallyAnother quick fun one on No.10: Full Confidence, the political satire game that got a boost in the run-up to Keir Starmer’s resignation on MondayMag Interactive says AI tools could help it test four times more new game ideas per year – it also delivered some solid Q3 resultsIn data digest we’ve got World Cup and DTC stats, May’s ad charts, Rush Royale hit $500m, UEFN payouts and plenty moreA dash through the latest soft launch update, including Zynga’s take on Coin Master / Monopoly Go, a Rollic UFC game, Sega’s reworking of Sonic Blitz and some usual suspectsIn new games we’ve got Pokémon Champions, a new Kingdom Rush game, a new Barbie game and the closure of blockchain game Pudgy PartyA rattle through some of the big companies making moves in the latest jobs digest PLUS: an overall drowsiness in my voice and demeanour thanks to the insane heatwave gripping the UK this week#52, 25/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  5. Jun 18

    Amateur devs score hits with 38-0, WWDC reactions, May’s top games, Orna, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: We run through two stories about football drafting games 38-0 and 38-0-0, each made by amateur developers using AI tools to jump on a trend and quickly land a hitSome indie app developer reactions from WWDC, where Apple promised free use of its AI models and compute until your app gets 2m installs, though it’s unclear what happens after thatWe’ve got a breakdown of May’s top grossing and most downloaded games, according to AppmagicA quick one about Orna, a location-based game that arrived shortly after Pokémon Go and has outlasted the likes of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Minecraft EarthJobs, data and new games nuggets featuring Pixel Flow, Wuthering Waves, Neverness to Everness, Pokémon Go Fest attendance and moreAmbient noise from kids and dog walkers in the beautiful and historic Verulamium Park, next to St Albans Cathedral#51, 18/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  6. Jun 11

    Why Summer Game Fest is a mobile-free zone, Supercell kills US projects, yet more Xbox chat, EA's mobile misstep, data, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: A bit of a ramble from Summer Game Fest in LA, which had barely any mobile games in it. And actually that makes a lot of senseNews from Supercell US, which has closed one game project and seems to have wound down anotherNew Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball says that mobile is the biggest and most valuable part of the games business – but his first priority is the console business (the part with the least growth potential, he admits)EA’s Laura Miele on why fans were unhappy about Command & Conquer Rivals when it launched in 2018Metacore confirmed 159 jobs are going in Helsinki, and it’ll be closing its offices in Germany and SwedenLoads of data nuggetsAmbient background sounds from both Grand Hope Park in downtown LA and our usual stomping ground in Hertfordshire, UK#50, 11/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  7. Jun 3

    Supercell, King and Sybo slam EU plan, Atari buys Hipster Whale, Zynga's Mark Pincus on copycats, more

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: Ilkka Paananen, Todd Green and Mathias Gredal Nørvig have criticised incoming EU proposals that they believe could make free to play games “unplayable in Europe”Atari bought Hipster Whale, its latest retro-adjacent acquisitionZynga founder Mark Pincus’ thoughts on the art of copying and mobile game designThe Simpsons takes over Monopoly GoMulti-award-winning indie game Consume Me is now on iOSApple has reveals its Design Award winners ahead of WWDCMattel launched its debut firstparty game, Master of the Universe - Skeleton: Until Next TimeA bit on the brief disappearance of Block Blast from the Play Store last weekNews nuggets from our jobs, new games and data digestsWhy I decided to run a 'best mobilegamer.biz stories you probably haven't read' listicle last ThursdayAmbient sounds of birdsong, passing dogwalkers and slightly squelchier footsteps thanks to a post-heatwave downpour#49, 04/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

  8. May 27

    Take-Two, Ubisoft, Monopoly Go and SciPlay news plus data and soft launch nuggets

    The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: We rattle through Take-Two’s financials, which as ever show mobile earning roughly half the company’s cash with earnings from Zynga, Peak, Nordeus, Rollic and others up year-on-year We also pick through Ubisoft’s earnings which the company itself described as a “low point” – mobile is also down and those Rainbow Six and Division launches have been weakHasbro is banking about $40m per quarter from Scopely thanks to Monopoly Go – easy money, and perhaps the best bit of licensing business ever(?)SciPlay has made staff cuts as its social casino portfolio declines, though D2C is rising and there’s a startling stat about the average monthly spend of a paying playerThere’s also your regular data nuggets featuring Neverness to Everness, Tencent Games’ astonishing quarterly earnings, the top grossing games in the US and the most-advertised mobile gamesWe’ve also updated our soft launch list to include another new Metacore beta, and there are three new Century Games titles incoming, according to AppmagicAmbient audio highlights include some delightful birdsong from the woods, gravel underfoot and a couple of sections recorded on a path near a Costa during a record-breaking heatwave#48, 28/05/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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About

What's going on in the mobile games business.

Information

  • Creator
    mobilegamer.biz
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 mobilegamer.biz digest
  • Show Website
    mobilegamer.biz digest

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