Decoding Supercell’s annual blog

Read on for all of this week's stories in one place. For paid subscribers, we read between the lines of Supercell's annual blog and work out where it's going next.

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This week’s stories:

New game digest: Game Freak’s next RPG, Tencent, Voodoo and Century Games soft launches, Apple Arcade updates, more

We've also got the next games from Inkle and Coffee Stain and a couple more indie games and RPGs in this week's round-up.

Off The Record is our debut event, and it’s happening in London on April 2 – register now

Sign up here to be part of it.

Mobile profits drop 35% at Embracer

The Swedish roll-up firm posted a slight Q3 sales rise, but adjusted EBITDA dropped dramatically year-on-year despite growth for CrazyLabs’ Bus Frenzy and Alien Invasion.

AppLovin is selling all of its studios for $900m – but who’s the buyer?

Machine Zone, PeopleFun, Magic Tavern, Lion Studios, Belka and more are being divested as AppLovin becomes a pure adtech business.

MTG completes $620m Plarium buy

The owner of Hutch, Innogames, Playsimple, Ninja Kiwi and more expects revenue to double with the addition of the Raid: Shadow Legends maker.

Data digest: Solitaire Grand Harvest hits $1bn, earnings from Rovio, Roblox, Krafton and Square, more

We've also pulled out the need-to-know numbers from market reports by Apptica, Adjust and Appmagic is this week's round-up.

More layoffs incoming at Unity amid further restructuring

The changes appear to be as a result of the continuing integration of IronSource, though Unity has not officially confirmed the move.

Squad Busters disappoints but Brawl Stars soars in record year for Supercell

Brawl Stars was the star performer as Supercell posted record revenue in 2024, but it described new launch Squad Busters as “disappointing” – despite passing $100m since launch in May last year.

Netflix games’ new general manager could earn up to $1.3m per year

The streaming giant is looking for someone to serve as the ‘face’ of Netflix games as it continues to realign its games efforts.

Nintendo hasn’t given up on mobile games, actually

"We are actively working on new mobile games," Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has said.

Jobs digest: moves at Fingersoft, Playstudios, Lego, Sony, Kwalee, Tactile, Ten Square and more

There's also appointments and promotions at Tactile, AppsFlyer, Adjoe, CrazyLabs, Next Games, Scopely and Unity in our latest round-up.

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Decoding Supercell’s annual blog

Read on, paid subscribers, as we read between the lines of Supercell's annual blog and work out where it's going next.

Ilkka Paananen’s lengthy annual musings do offer signals as to where Supercell is heading next, if you look hard enough.

His latest 1,000 word blog, published on Tuesday morning as part of Supercell’s financials, shows the exec in typically humble mood, acknowledging some of the disappointment around the Squad Busters launch while also saying he had absolutely nothing to do with that big Brawl Stars comeback.

During an hour-long earnings briefing, digested here, Supercell boss Paananen and head of live games Sara Bach didn’t really give much away about what’s next. But look a bit closer and I think you can take away three big things: