Marvel Snap's troubles prove you can't keep politics out of games

Read on for all of this week's stories in one place. Paid subscribers get exclusive commentary on the week's biggest news.

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This week’s stories:

New game digest: Epic Games Store gets 17 third party games, Supercell tests Project Rise, new soft launches, more

We've also got updates on 'TikTok for games' app HypeHype, fresh indie games and new additions to Crunchyroll's subscription service in this week's round-up.

Epic Games Store adds third party titles – and payouts to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee

The Fortnite maker will keeping fighting against Apple and Google’s restrictions however expensive it gets, says Tim Sweeney.

EA is about to switch off eight more mobile games

The closures include seven games published by Glu, the company it acquired in 2021 for $2.1bn.

UK launches new probe into Apple and Google’s control over mobile ecosystems

The Competition and Markets Authority could “impose conduct requirements or propose pro-competition interventions” once the new investigation is complete.

Data digest: Royal Match, Pokémon TCG, Golf Clash and DnF numbers, Mihoyo fined $20m, App Store’s 75% profit margin, more

This week’s numbers at-a-glance.

Netflix is refocusing on narrative, party, kids and known-IP games

The streaming giant says it'll "stay disciplined" with its investment in games while snapping up big-name titles like GTA. Party and couch co-op games “on TV delivered from the cloud” are also coming this year.

Resident Evil 2 struggles to $100k as triple-A flops continue

Capcom's latest iOS port has attracted fewer than 10,000 paying customers, according to Appmagic. Its other Resident Evil ports and Ubisoft's Assassin’s Creed Mirage also continue to struggle, say estimates.

Second Dinner seeks new Marvel Snap publisher amid US-China instability

The card battler is now back online for US players, but is looking for a new home. Its current publisher, Nuverse, is owned by TikTok’s parent company Bytedance.

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.

US TikTok ban pulls Marvel Snap plus other Nuverse and Moonton games offline

Update: Second Dinner says the game will return for US players "within 24 hours". Appmagic estimates suggest the US developer will have lost around ~$130k in IAP revenue from the two-day outage.

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Marvel Snap's troubles prove you can't keep politics out of games

Read on, paid subscribers, for thoughts on why Marvel Snap may not be the last unexpected victim of the unpredictable political climate.