👨💻Mobile Game Sector-November 2022
Introduction
This month, we have left behind a very active month as the world of mobile games. Besides the events, one of the most important publishers of Turkey, Rollin, bought Germany-based Popcore studio, which has achieved significant success in the hypercasual game genre, as well as the 25million dollar investment of ACE games in November 2022. took its place among the developments. Now let’s talk about the details of the developments in the mobile game industry in Turkey and around the world.
Details
Rollic, which recently bought Germany-based mobile game studio NanoTribe, announced that it has acquired Popcore. No information was shared about the financial details of the purchase agreement between Rollic and Popcore. Popcore, an independent mobile game studio, 2018 It was founded in Berlin by Johannes Heinze and Thomas Heinze. Focusing on the puzzle genre, Popcore, Parking Jam 3D and Pull the Pin! Popcore, which has a team of 150 people, has received more than 500 million downloads in total to date.
Another acquisition news came from abroad. According to the information conveyed by Netflix, the company acquired the US-based Spry Fox game studio. The financial details of the purchase agreement between Netflix and Spry Fox were not shared. Netflix, which officially entered the mobile game world with the Netflix Games brand about 1 year ago, is currently working on 55 mobile games. Netflix, which has bought many game studios in the past 1 year, continues its work in the field of games.
Another important new is that the SDK developed for unity by the Bidstack company, which works on in-game advertisements on computer, console and mobile platforms, has been approved by unity engineers. In-app advertisement has become a feature that has been used more frequently, especially in game projects. Top Eleven supports major game projects such as Mad Skills Motocross 3, Football Cup 2022 and Hollywood Story through the SDK it has developed to open revenue streams, improve gameplay and increase player retention with uninterrupted ads.
Play and Earn mobile game studio VIKER has announced the completion of an investment round. The company stated that its total revenue from investments has now reached $4.1 million. Chris Lee and Ben Holmes acted as super angel investors, while Animoca Brands, Initial Capital and IVC were among the contributors. VIKER’s games have already crossed the 50 million download mark. The studio mainly focuses on trivia, puzzle and card games and has games like Solitaire, Missing Letters, Wordy, Millionaire Daily Win, Wheel of Trivia, Amazeballs, Sudoku, Wheel of Crypto and Balls King.
Unity has announced that it has completed its merger with ironSource. With the $4.4 billion merger, the two companies have come together to create an end-to-end platform for developers to create and monetize games. As part of the partnership, Unity will use ironSource’s expertise, tools and talent to help developers easily create and publish games.
Turkish independent mobile game studio Vertigo Games’ Critical Strike showed 477% revenue growth compared to last year. The multiplayer FPS game has amassed over one million downloads, with a 213% increase in this area between November 2021 and November 2022. The company is currently working on its next game, Project X.
Turkish mobile game company Fortune Mine Games has launched its new casual game Cuisine Master. Cuisine Master focuses on earning coins and social attractions as players can sabotage and rob their friends. Earned coins can be spent on building a restaurant and progressing to see world cuisine. Players also need to protect their restaurant from sabotage and robberies.
Domestic mobile game startup POW Games, which was founded in 2021 by Şeyhmus Ölker and Burak Göncü to develop hybrid casual puzzle games, announced that it has sold two games it developed to UK-based Matchingham Games, its partner and publisher, for 10 million pounds. Founded in 2021, POW Games has two different games, Food Match 3D and Tile Match: Home Design Puzzle. The company’s first game, Food Match, has reached more than 2 million users on iOS and Android platforms. Tile Match, which has been in soft-launch for a while, has a high income expectation due to the data it has reached and the success of games with similar mechanics.
The TIGA Games Industry Awards 2022 took place last night at the historic Church House Westminster in London. It was the first in-person award for TIGA since the COVID-19 pandemic, attended by over 300 gaming industry VIPs. Kwalee has won several TIGA awards in the past, including Outstanding Leadership in 2020, Best Puzzle Game in 2019.
Candy Crush Saga was first released in November 2012 and celebrates its tenth anniversary with lots of new content for players to look forward to. Candy Crush Saga has been downloaded more than three billion times since its release in 2012, making it the most downloaded casual game of all time. More than five trillion levels have been completed since its debut. The series has more than 200 million monthly active users and remains the top-grossing game franchise in the US for 21 consecutive quarters. King, the developer behind the Candy Crush series, was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2016. The developer has had several hit games, including Farm Heroes Saga, Candy Crush Soda, Bubble Witch Saga, and Pet Rescue Saga. King’s games are played by 240 million monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2022.
Appodeal released version 3.0 and is now available for download from Unity Package Manager. The Appodeal SDK version 3.0 will further accelerate Appodeal’s mission to enable mobile app creators to build and grow successful mobile app businesses. The update emphasizes supporting the development of publishers and giving them access to the tools and features necessary for the high performance and smooth operations of the application.
ACE Games, which completed its previous investment round with a valuation of 25 million, received an investment of 25 million dollars after a 1.5-year hiatus. Ace Games’ investment of 25 million dollars came from Playtika, which made a public offering with a valuation of 11.4 billion dollars in January of last year. In 2020, Ace Games launched Serial Burglar and Prison Life! With the game Mix and Drink, it took the first place in the US App Store. Ace Games is currently available in the application stores with the game called Fiona’s Farm. Stating that it has an unrivaled reputation for scaling, Ace Games founder and CEO Hakan Baş added that they are excited to work with Playtika as an investor and partner.
Conclusion
With investments, acquisitions, new partnerships, events and newly released casual games, we had a busy November as the mobile game world. Turkey continues to maintain its reputation in the mobile game industry. See you in the next month’s newsletter. Goodbye.
