Google's stealth games app, new Apple shenanigans, Netflix's game cull and more
This week's mobilegamer.biz stories are all here at-a-glance. Plus: a podcast in which I go for a walk and tell you what's going on.
Hello, I’m Neil, I run mobilegamer.biz. Thanks for subscribing to this newsletter.
There’s usually a paywalled editorial below the week’s stories, but from today onwards, I’m replacing that with a plug for the (free!) podcast, which serves the same purpose: it’s a concise digest of the week’s events, but in audio form.
Sign up through Apple Podcasts and Spotify. through the links. And if you listen to podcasts through one of the million other podcast apps, this magic link should take you to where you need to go:
Paid newsletter subscribers have already been notified that the paywalled content is ending, and have been invited to unsubscribe or request a refund, if they want one.
The paid subscriber tier was added mostly because some people offered to support my work that way; you can still do that below, if you find my work useful and just want to support the site:
This week’s stories:
New game digest: Honor of Kings Plus, Marvel Mystic Mayhem, Umamusume, Persona 5, more
Here every Friday you’ll find the latest global releases, new soft launches and everything in between.
Apple introduces complex new fees and policies to ‘open up’ the EU App Store
Developers using web payments will pay an Initial Acquisition, Store Services and Core Technology Commission, and are blocked from "app delivery and management, engagement, curation & personalization, app insights, and developer marketing" services.
Strauss Zelnick on why Take-Two ‘missed the boat’ in mobile – then bought Zynga for $12.7bn
He also accuses other game companies of “empire building” and engaging in M&A that “makes no sense”.
Data digest: the $1bn game club, May’s top titles, India stats, funding news, more
This week's need-to-know numbers at a glance.
Netflix to remove 20+ games as reboot continues
Monument Valley 3 is leaving the service a little over six months after it was released as an exclusive. Fellow high profile indie games Hades and Braid are also on the way out.
Going to Develop? Come to Off The Record Brighton
Xsolla and mobilegamer.biz are hosting a gathering for mobile folks attending Develop Brighton. Apply for a spot here.
Apple set to loosen grip on EU App Store to dodge further fines
Epic boss Tim Sweeney has weighed in, of course, suggesting that perhaps Apple should “just obey the law”.
The soft launch games you need to know about
Take a peek at the games in testing from Supercell, Playrix, EA, Ubisoft, Rovio, Miniclip and more.
Google has quietly released its own standalone Instant Games app
It is home to various hypercasual and webgames, mostly from its existing YouTube Playables catalogue.
Subscribe to the mobilegamer.biz podcast now
A concise, banter-free weekly digest about the mobile games business.