The secret of Pokémon TCG Pocket's success isn't a secret at all

You just need a wildly popular IP based on collecting things, a fun, familiar ruleset and an experienced mobile game developer to run it all. Easy, right?

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Hello, I’m Neil, I run mobilegamer.biz. Thanks for subscribing to this newsletter.

My weekly editorial follows below this week’s stories. It’s for paying subscribers only. So to read it – or just to support the work I do – stick a paid sub on expenses here:

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This week’s stories:

New games digest: Royal Kingdom, Final Fantasy XIV, Warframe, Squid Game, Metacore’s new soft launch and more

We've also got Kingdom Hearts, Marvel Mystic Mayhem, Civilization and more new Netflix releases in this week's new games update.

Will Royal Kingdom complement or cannibalise Royal Match? We asked the experts

Can Dream Games pull off the Playrix model with its new match 3 puzzler? Laura Taranto, Tom Froud and Harshal Karvande offer their thoughts.

Data digest: Playtika’s big buy, Pokémon Pocket rockets, Balatro hits $2.5m plus numbers from NetEase, Embracer, Tencent and more

We've also got data from Easybrain, Ten Square Games, East Side, SayGames and milestones for Merge Mayor in this week's stats round-up.

Clash Royale to add Clash Mini in 2025 as it makes new platform play

Supercell wants to evolve Clash Royale into a strategy game platform, and will start by adding Clash Mini into the game in June 2025.

More staff cuts at Kwalee

Around 10 staff in the UK publisher's marketing arm have been let go, we’re told.

PlayStation has a new head of mobile

Olivier Courtemarche has taken on the gig full time, after over a year sharing the role with ex-Kabam exec Kris Davis. Partnerships manager Justin Kubiak also has a new role.

AppLovin once tried to merge with Unity – could it now just buy it?

VC firm Konvoy says the time is right for AppLovin to swoop for Unity, but industry experts Eric Seufert, Alex Merutka and Felix Braberg beg to differ.

The soft launch games you need to know about

Take a peek at the games in testing from Dream, King, Playrix, EA, Ubisoft, Rovio and more.

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The secret of Pokémon TCG Pocket's success isn't a secret at all

You just need a wildly popular IP based on collecting things, a fun, familiar ruleset and an experienced mobile game developer to run it all. Easy, right?