Mobile Gaming Today: Beyond China & AI Wars
Moin Fam,
Seen the hot news? Smt big, PRETTY BIG 👇🏻
🇨🇳 China’s AI Revolution: Manus, the Game-Changer
While we’re all busy watching American AI Stars ChatGPT & Musk’s Grok, China just dropped Manus, ‘Game-changer Super-smart AI’.
Chinese call it “First General AI agent.” » Better? “OpenAI-killer” 😅
👌🏻 Top Gaming Content
» Collectible Albums: Motivation for Players
Casual games thrive on simplicity, but long-term engagement needs fresh incentives. Collectible albums deliver just that, turning virtual card collecting into a compelling progression system that boosts Retention & Monetization without disrupting gameplay.
Hits like Monopoly Go & Royal Match prove their power, and as Devs refine the concept, new variations will emerge.
The secret? Refreshing albums with Quality Content & Meaningful Goals.
🤟🏻 Game of the Week
» Game About Digging A Hole ⛏️
Yes, Steam PC. 😅 Why so important?
Maybe the next Supermarket Manager trend that also went from steam and then fully exploded on mobile. 😎
Already seen a few mobile clones, but we’re still waiting for the big one. The idea of the original PC game is pretty interesting but not fully fleshed out as the game has only 3 hours gameplay, so get your shovels ready and go digging. ⛏️
💵 Game Investments
» 🦄 $900M Deal: Tripledot Buys AppLovin’s Games
- Back then, AppLovin paid $600M for only 2 Studios.
- Machine Zone for $500M in 2020 & PeopleFun for $100M in 2018.
There’s more: Lion Studios, ZenLife, Magic Tavern, Belka, Clipwire, Athena & Leyi.
» 🍔 Miniclip acquired Lessmore, makers of ‘We Are Warriors & Eatventure’
Eatventure has racked up 69.3M downloads and nearly $28M in IAP since its 2022 launch, while We Are Warriors has hit 36.3M installs, earning close to $10M.
» 🎲 Reality Games Raises €4.3M: Bringing Monopoly to Life
CEO Zbigniew Woznowski: We aim to reimagine Monopoly not just as a game but as a platform that bridges players with real-world retail offers and experiences.”
» 🧩 Hybridcasual Puzzler: Triple Tap secures $1.2M
The studio, founded by former Crazy Labs & Super Huge Studios veterans, is setting its sights on US & European markets.
» 🇸🇦 Saudi Game Studio, Lobah secured $12M
Massive $12M from Riyadh, fueling the country’s ambitious National Gaming Strategy. Lobah Play is a dynamic platform for Game Publishing, Networking & Monetization.
» 🇮🇳 Indian Game Publisher, Felicity Games secures $3M
$1M ARR & 1M+ downloads of its key titles, Seek & Find and Nova Solitaire.
» 🎰 Nazara Completes $12M Sale of OpenPlay to Moonshine
We shall check India’s booming Real-money Gaming Market. ♠️
More » InvestGame
🤟🏻 Industry Highlights
» ⭐️ Mobile Gaming Leaders: Feb’25
Global Charts, Hypercasual Wars, Top Trending & New Games, Ad Creatives, UA World & More.
» 🙀 Copycat Game Went Viral on iOS
For Mobile Game & HTML5 Devs, this story is a cautionary tale; success on one platform can lead to exploitation on another.
» 🌜 Mobile Game Publishing: Strategies for Success in 2025
Written by our dear friend, John Wright. 🕺🏻 Covered the current scene pretty well.
- Navigating Growing Funding Challenges
- Empowering Lean Teams to Focus on Game Dev
- Leveraging Publisher Expertise and Technology
» 🍏 Apple Live Activities being used in a Mobile Game
First time seeing Apple’s Live Activities being used in a mobile game, not just for engagement but for monetization!
🦄 Mobile Game Marketing
» 💰Vita Mahjong scaled past $150K a Day
65M Downloads in a year. The story? Lezgo.
» ⚡️ App Store Changes after iOS 18.4
Big changes here, from App Tags & Natural Language Search to review summaries.
» 😶🌫️ Careful when uploading one unique size in META
Another step towards fully automated campaigns where we lose the control.
» 📊 Influencer Management Funnel?
Beyond Availability, Affordability & Responsiveness
» 😾 Your New Ad Network Isn’t Into You?
Size Matters, Quality of Traffic, Publisher Reputation & More.
» ❤️🔥 Love & Deepspace made $30M last month
#1 Interactive Story Game. Makes 10x more than Chapters, the #2.
😶🌫️ AI World
» 👾 Microsoft to Work on 3D Gaming Experiences for Copilot
Microsoft is pushing Copilot beyond chat and into the world of AI-driven gaming, with a strong focus on 3D experiences and possibly even mobile gaming.
» 💰 Welevel raises $5.7M to Revolutionize Procedural Game Dev
To compete with giant studios, Welevel leverages AI to streamline production without making compromises on quality & creativity. AI? “World-building, NPC behavior & quest generation”.
🇨🇳 New Rival for DeepSeek: Alibaba’s QwQ-32b
Who’s next in AI Wars? Welcome, Ali Baba.
💰 Anthropic raises $3.5B at $61.5B valuation
Jup, you’re so right. Not millions, BILLIONS.
🐐 GOAT: Gaming Podcast
WAS FUN! 🐐 Sneak Peek?
How John escaped the monotonous world of finance to ROCK’n GAMES. 🤟🏻
His powerful wisdom on choosing happiness over a paycheck, family over a career, and passion over expectations. :))
Much More… Just Come & John us! 🤟🏻
🌿 Game Jobs
Help & Hope for the industry folks.
Thanks for reading! Sharing is caring ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
