games
Zynga acquires Echtra, maker of Torchlight 3, to double down on RPG games
Games company Zynga has been on an acquisition tear the last several years to beef up its activity, in particular in mobile and casual-puzzle games, spending over $3 billion to…
Chinese mobile games are gaining ground in the US
Over the past year, the coronavirus crisis has spurred app usage in the United States as people stay indoors to limit contact with others. Mobile games particularly have enjoyed a…
Area 120 is beginning to use Google’s massive reach to scale HTML5 GameSnacks platform
Hundreds of millions of users, especially in developing markets, don’t own high-end smartphones and can’t afford fast data plans to enjoy much of anything on the web. Google has been…
Plex launches a subscription-based retro game streaming service, ‘Plex Arcade’
Plex, the media software maker that’s expanded into streaming in recent years, is adding to its service once again with today’s launch of game streaming. Unlike other game streaming efforts…
Google Play’s Best of 2020 Awards highlight the stressful year it’s been
Continuing its annual tradition, Google today announced its Best of 2020 awards — the company’s list of the best apps, games, movies and books for the year. Not surprisingly, the…
To own an AR future, Niantic wants to build a smarter map of the world
Niantic is continuing to bet heavily on the idea that it knows where consumer computing is headed, namely toward augmented reality. The game development startup behind Pokémon GO has some…
PUBG Mobile to terminate access for users in India on October 30 following ban order
PUBG Mobile, the sleeper hit mobile game, will terminate all service and access for users in India on October 30, two months after New Delhi banned the game in the…
Former Apple engineer and autocorrect creator builds his first app, a word game called Up Spell
Former Apple software engineer and designer Ken Kocienda, whose work included the original iPhone and the development of touchscreen autocorrect, has created his first iOS app, Up Spell. The fast-paced,…
Tencent takes minority stake in French casual games maker Voodoo
Tencent just added another portfolio member to its expanding global gaming empire to up its game in mobile casual plays. Voodoo, the French company that has amassed 300 million monthly…
Tencent wants to merge China’s esports archrivals Douyu and Huya
The war between two of China’s largest esports companies may soon come to a truce at the will of their investor, Tencent. Tencent, the world’s biggest games publisher, announced late…
Roblox jumps to over 150M monthly users, will pay out $250M to developers in 2020
Gaming platform Roblox, which has seen a surge of use due to the coronavirus pandemic, now has more than 150 million monthly active users, up from the 115 million it…
Over 2,500 games removed from Apple’s China App Store in early July, as crackdown begins
More than 2,500 mobile games have been removed from China’s App Store during the first week of July, according to a new report from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower.…
Google Play Pass expands outside the US, adds more titles and annual pricing
Google Play Pass, the Android alternative to subscription-based game store Apple Arcade, is expanding. Launched in September 2019 with more than 350 apps and games, Play Pass today announced it…
Microsoft makes Teams video meetings less tiring with its new Together mode
Video meetings. While the move to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic may have made them mainstream, they are not without issues and more and more people are now opting…
Global app revenue jumps to $50B in the first half of 2020, in part due to COVID-19 impacts
Consumer spending on mobile apps and app installs grew significantly during the first half of 2020, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from Sensor Tower.…
Kahoot raises $28M for its user-generated educational gaming platform, now valued at $1.4B
As schools stay closed and summer camp seems more like a germscape than an escape, students are staying at home for the foreseeable future and have shifted learning to their…
FTC fines kids’ app developer HyperBeard $150K for use of third-party ad trackers
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced a settlement of $150,000 with HyperBeard, the developer of a collection of children’s mobile games over violations of U.S. Children’s Online Privacy…
Kids now spend nearly as much time watching TikTok as YouTube in US, UK and Spain
A new study on kids’ app usage and habits indicates a major threat to YouTube’s dominance, as kids now split their time between Google’s online video platform and other apps,…
Modern Games is a new studio working to create games that combine physical and digital play. The company was founded by husband-and-wife team Justin and Amanda Kifer — serial entrepreneurs…
Consumers spent record $23.4 billion on apps in Q1 2020, thanks to being stuck indoors
Time spent in mobile apps has been surging, as people stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak have been turning to apps to do their shopping, manage their finances,…
Game downloads will be throttled to manage internet congestion
For the billions stuck at home during the global effort to flatten the curve, gaming is a welcome escape. But it’s also a bandwidth-heavy one, and Microsoft, Sony and others…
Women-led Robin Games raises $7M to combine lifestyle content with fantasy gaming
As a former Jam City executive, Jill Wilson led teams behind some of the top-grossing gaming franchises, like Cookie Jam and Panda Pop. Now she’s running her own startup, Robin…
Comscore partners with Twitch to bring gaming and esports viewership stats to advertisers
Measurement firm Comscore announced this morning a partnership with Amazon-owned game-streaming site Twitch. The deal will see Comscore measuring video streaming activity across Twitch, including gaming and esports, as well…
Roblox raises $150M Series G, led by Andreessen Horowitz, now valued at $4B
Online gaming platform Roblox, now home to 115 million largely Gen Z players per month, announced today it has raised $150 million in Series G funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s…
GameSnacks, from Google’s Area 120, brings fast, casual online games to developing markets
A new project called GameSnacks is launching today from Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120, with the goal of bringing fast-loading, casual online games to users in developing markets. Billions of…
This Week in Apps: The year and decade in review, gaming acquisitions and a Facebook OS
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The…
Apple and Google reveal the best apps and games of 2019
Continuing their annual tradition, Apple and Google have released their list of the best apps and games of 2019. Apple, for the first time, held a real-world event to celebrate…
This Week in Apps: Apple Arcade updates, TikTok distances itself from China, Kardashians send shady app to No. 1
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. What…
This Week in Apps: Photoshop for iPad bombs, Google Play’s new rewards program, iOS bug fixes
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support, and the money that flows through it all. What…
This Week in Apps: iOS 13 complaints, Q3 trends, App Store ratings bug
Welcome back to This Week in Apps — the easiest way to keep up with everything that happened in the world of apps over the past week — from the…