Qatar Development Bank invests in SekGames

Istanbul-based mobile game studio SekGames will use the funding to expand its publishing activities and grow its gaming portfolio. Founded by Ali Osman K., Serkan Çotul, and Alper Kocabiyik in 2020, SekGames continues to make a name for itself in the mobile gaming industry with its innovative projects. Specializing in hybrid casual games, the company aims to deliver fun and immersive experiences for players. SekGames plans to use the funding to expand its game publishing activities and grow its gaming portfolio. The studio, known for successful titles like Police Station Idle, Dream Hospital, Coffee Shop Idle, and Money Print Idle, has been selected for support under the Startup Qatar Investment Program. With nearly 2,000 applications from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Türkiye, and India, SekGames stood out for its innovative approach and growth potential, earning a spot among the 11 selected startups. AppMagic: […]

Ömer Yakabagi March 18

Highlights

Mobile Gaming industry can no longer ignore Women

Studios are closing, successful teams are being laid off, budgets are being squeezed. The market is oversaturated.At least, that’s what we’re being told. What if there was a massive opportunity lying right in front of us?What if we could tap into an audience and generate profits like we did a few years ago, when gaming was at its peak?I believe it’s possible, and games that embrace female players will be the biggest winners. Here’s how we’ll tackle this: looking at the rise of this audience, observing the UA problem, talking about the disparity in leadership, and the blue ocean lying in front of us.The rise of women in mobile gamingLike in most industries, we lack the data and granularity to properly assess the state of women players in mobile gaming. As highlighted in Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a […]

Julie Tonna March 18

Highlights

2025 Unity Gaming Report: Key Findings

The State of Game Development in 2025 The gaming industry remains a global powerhouse, with over 3 billion active players and revenue surpassing $184 billion in 2024. Yet, studios are navigating a turbulent landscape marked by layoffs, closures, and financial uncertainty. Developers are balancing bold creativity with risk mitigation, leveraging technology and strategic decision-making to survive and thrive. 1. Managing Risk by Reducing Costs Studios are prioritizing efficiency. 60% of devs focus on maximizing the value of existing games rather than launching new ones. Strategies include lean teams, debt avoidance, live ops investments, and increased use of efficiency tools. Latin America is an emerging hotspot for game success and market expansion. Studios carefully weigh live update models to keep players engaged without overextending resources. 2. Experimenting with Multiplayer Experiences Multiplayer remains dominant, but approaches are evolving. 64% of studios are […]

Ömer Yakabagi March 18

Journal

Adjust’s new Gaming Report is out, good one!

Adjust’s new gaming report is out. As usual it’s a good one, I decided to go through and give you all my highlights: 1. Mobile is still King, Retention is the battle we all need to fight.• Mobile accounts for 49% of total gaming revenue, compared to both console (28%) and PC (23%).• 1.9 billion players are expected by 2027, showing continued growth.• Retention remains a challenge, with sessions down 0.6% YoY, despite a 4% increase in installs.2. AI Is Reshaping the Mobile Gaming Playbook• AI-driven procedural content generation is revolutionizing game development, making experiences more dynamic and personalized.• AI-powered player retention strategies predict churn and deliver customized incentives to keep users engaged.• AI-driven real-time pricing & ad optimization are improving monetization while enhancing the player experience.3. Cross-Platform Play Is a Must, Not a Luxury• Cross-play drives higher retention, increased […]

John Wright March 17

Journal

Intrinsic Studio Culture: The Key to Successful Games

In the games industry, studio culture often risks on becoming a byproduct of fast-paced development cycles, shifting priorities, and external pressures — leading to extrinsic motivations playing big part in building games. Similarly, given the current economic conditions, especially job market’s situation, there will be extrinsic factors in the play more and more within the industry — as sometimes people just need a job to make a proper living, whilst any type of opportunities just come more rare. While there isn’t nothing wrong with these sides, given the circumstances and that there can be successful businesses focusing fully on the extrinsic side of things on top of the covered circumstances; overall I think that companies can do better on this front to build more sustainable future for the games industry. So, this is where we get to the discussion point […]

Antti Kananen March 16

Highlights

Jobs in Mobile Gaming: 15 March

» 1161 Jobs in Mobile Gaming this week 🤟🏻 👉🏻 Data from Gamigion.com/jobs 🕺🏻 Dev 💻 Art 🎨 Product 📱 Marketing 🎯 Business 💰 Data 📈 QA ⚒️ 💻 Dev Senior Director of Engineering Scopely 🇺🇸 Technical Team Lead (Client) Scopely 🇨🇳 Technical Director Unannounced Title Scopely 🇪🇸 Sr. Director, Engineering - Head of Game Tools Scopely 🇺🇸 Staff Engineer - Monopoly GO! Scopely 🇪🇸 Lead Software Engineer Scopely 🇲🇽 Platform Account Engineer Scopely 🇪🇸 Technical Lead of Analytics Engineering Scopely 🇪🇸 Senior Director, Engineering - Yathzee With Buddies Scopely 🇪🇸 Senior Engineer - Monopoly GO! Scopely 🇪🇸 Senior Software Engineer, Supercell ID Supercell 🇬🇧 Senior Game Programmer, Brawl Stars Supercell 🇫🇮 Senior Game Tech Programmer Supercell 🇫🇮 Software Engineer 2- Full Stack Zynga 🇮🇳 Engineering Manager 2 Zynga 🇮🇳 Software Engineer - Ad Monetization Zynga 🇨🇦 Mobile Game Engineer […]

Gamigion March 15

Highlights

Google Expands Mobile Gaming to PC

Google Play is making all mobile games playable on PC by default! Ahead of the GDC, Google announced new updates for Mobile & PC Gaming, including expanded support for Mobile Games on PC, New Dev tools & Upcoming Game Releases. Mobile Games on PC by Default Google Play will now make all mobile games available on PC automatically. Developers can opt out if they choose. Optimized games will have a special badge, while others will be marked as playable. Google Play Games for PC is also adding support for AMD-based laptops and desktops and integrating into PC start menus. New Developer Tools Google introduced several updates to help developers bring mobile games to PC: A new SDK for native PC games on Google Play Games with in-app purchase support. Updates to Play Console for easier build distribution across mobile and […]

Ömer Yakabagi March 14

Highlights

More Revenue, Less Fees: Samsung’s 80/20 on Galaxy Store

Samsung Revolutionizes Mobile Gaming with 80/20 Revenue Share & Cloud Gaming Innovations Samsung is shaking up the mobile gaming industry with a game-changing 80/20 revenue share model for games on the Galaxy Store. Announced just ahead of the Game Developers Conference, this move significantly undercuts Apple and Google’s standard 30% cut, aligning more closely with Epic Games' developer-friendly 12% model. Empowering Developers with Cloud Gaming Samsung’s mobile cloud gaming platform is redefining how developers scale their businesses. By eliminating the need for downloads, the platform allows players to jump straight into gameplay, enhancing user acquisition, boosting revenue potential, and simplifying game development with an extensive suite of software development kits (SDKs) and tools. Since launching commercially in North America in November 2024, Samsung’s cloud gaming service has already driven significant success. Take Vizor, the developer behind Klondike Adventures—since joining Samsung’s […]

Ömer Yakabagi March 14

Journal

Mobile Gaming Rebounds in 2025 with AI & Emerging Markets

The mobile gaming market is bouncing back in early 2025, showing clear signs of growth, according to Adjust’s latest Gaming App Insights 2025 report. After a turbulent period, the industry is finding its footing again—driven by evolving monetization strategies and AI-powered personalization. Global Gaming App installs rose by 4% YoY in 2024, with emerging markets leading the charge. LATAM saw a 9% increase in installs, while MENA followed closely with 7%. Hyper-casual games dominated install share at 27%, though they struggled with retention, while strategy games surged with an impressive 83% install growth. AI is also reshaping user acquisition, helping developers fine-tune their ad strategies for better engagement. “After a period of market volatility, mobile gaming is back on a growth trajectory,” says Tiahn Wetzler, director of content and insights at Adjust. With mobile-first adoption booming in LATAM and MENA, […]

Ömer Yakabagi March 14

Highlights

Angel Portfolio Playbook: What Failures and One Exit Taught Me

I had been a founder for over 15 years and in 2019, I felt like I wanted to take the leap into the startup investing side. Inspired by Jason Calacanis's book "Angel," I wrote my first check to a game studio founded by former Next Games colleagues of mine. After starting with small $5K investments, I eventually created an angel syndicate with 200+ gaming professionals before launching F4 Fund in 2024. Between 2019-2023, I made 34 angel investments. Note that I’ve stopped doing new angel investments after we started F4 Fund. Currently, in March 2025, the portfolio looks something like this. 1 exit (returned more than 1x of total invested capital) 4 companies doing extremely well, 4 that struggled but are now growing 16 with markups of 30-300% 7 gone to $0 (plus 4 more likely in 2024) 2 survived […]

Joakim Achren March 14

Highlights

Tripledot’s Big Gamble on nearly $1B Acquisition

𝗗𝗜𝗚𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗢𝗥 𝗗𝗜𝗘: 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗼𝘁’𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲 Tripledot’s nearly $1B acquisition of Applovin's studios is a massive gamble but reflects the shrinking pool in the hyper-to-hybrid publisher game. With this move, Tripledot radically shifts from 1% IAP to majority reliance. Meanwhile, peers like Voodoo and Homa slug through slow hyper-to-hybrid transitions. Rather than incremental growth, Tripledot opted for transformative growth overnight, betting they will learn, grow, and wield a zoo of studios and genres. Tripledot's filings reveal an astounding 98% ad revenue share, which brought in over $300M last year. Yet margins languished at a frustrating 15%, explaining the strategic necessity of shifting toward IAP and hybridcasual for better cost leverage and valuations. This is another reminder that gaming's unique economics differ significantly from traditional subscription models like Netflix or even software more broadly.Eric Seufert’s recent "Economics of Mobile Gaming" highlights […]

Phillip Black March 14

Journal

Alternative App Stores: The Post-DMA Opportunity

In the world of alternative app stores, all eyes have been on the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Last week marked the deadline for compliance by @Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. However, predictably, no substantial changes have been made, and the status quo persists. While pressure from the European Commission or other governments may eventually force some movement like in Brazil recently, Google and Apple have historically found ways to implement half-measures that prolong their dominance. A prime example is Apple, which introduced a “core technology fee” on every download (among other dissuasive measures), making alternative app stores financially unviable for both the app store and the developers. Another example is Korea’s mandate requiring Play Store to allow third-party billing. Google complied "technically" by allowing and reducing its revenue share from 30% to 26% (!?), rendering third-party payment adoption […]

Laurent Pawlowski March 12

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