Apple acquires its first ever gaming studio!?

Apple acquires its first ever gaming studio!? And it’s not a super studio, it’s a 2 person indie studio called RAC7 behind one of their successful Apple Arcade games.I wonder what the motivations for this are? Is it part of a trend where Apple starts building its own games and strengthening its ecosystem further?Is this because of the Epic Games vs Apple court case, which is now changing the ecosystem and will hit Apple hard in their traditional 30% IAP pocket?Is it maybe to acquire a cool piece of tech they can apply to the store or other games, which we don’t know about? Here you - Rac7 Apple Arcade page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmcufCv-99A&ab_channel=Apple

John Wright May 27

Analysis

Match Villains: A Dracula-Led Heist Into the Most Brutal Market in Mobile

We’ve said it before, and unfortunately it keeps getting more true with time: this is the absolute worst moment to launch a new Match-3 game. User acquisition costs are no longer “high”, they’re absurd. The casual puzzle market, particularly Match-3, has turned into a battlefield where only the best-funded and most patient teams can survive. And even those often struggle to do so profitably. We mentioned this fact when we analyzed Dream’s wild Royal Kingdom campaign. It is the most extreme (and recent) symptom of a market pushing studios to try everything to make it work. Imagine having to cast a list that includes LeBron James, Kevin Hart, and Jimmy Fallon despite having arguably the best switcher engine in the market… While it’ll take a long time to know whether that absurdly expensive campaign actually paid off, the fact that […]

Ahmetcan Demirel May 27

Highlights

What’s wrong with 5-0 Poker from Mobile Brain?

Want to know what's wrong with 5-0 Poker from Mobile Brain? Prepare for a deep dive into first hour of gameplay, but beware - the game is highly addictive! The message texts are poorly written, looking like a bad localization job. The formatting is odd, as if not written by a person — or at least never reviewed by one. The tutorial is good and clearly explains the rules. But linking to YouTube is questionable. Will it take the player out of the game and interrupt the session? It doesn’t seem like a good idea to direct players away from the game during the tutorial. A strange decision, in my opinion, is using four colors for suits: in addition to red and black, there’s blue and green. I’m no poker purist, but I’ve never seen this before. It feels odd […]

Michael Khripin May 27

Highlights

Burny Games: Integrating AI Agents into Mobile Game Dev

Just sat down with the engineering team at Burny Games about integrating AI into internal development processes – from research and architecture to testing and documentation. Infrastructure Engineer Elena Shtogrina and Product Technical Lead Vitalii Sukhomlyn share current solutions, technology limitations, and tips for those just starting out. Got a concise Q&A about how they're integrating AI Agents into Mobile Game Development. About Burny Games Burny Games is a Ukrainian Mobile Games Publisher founded in 2022, specializing in the puzzle genre. Its flagship title, Colorwood Sort, has 25 million downloads and over 50% first-day retention. Other popular games include Colorwood Words, Colorwood Blocks, and Playdoku. Since 2022, the studio has become Ukraine’s fastest-growing mobile game company. As of May 2025, total downloads exceeded 48 million, with 5 million monthly active users. Revenue in 2024 grew fivefold. The team includes 115 […]

Gamigion May 27

Analysis

The Definitive Mobile Game Tech Market Map

This comprehensive overview highlights the key infrastructure and service providers that empower mobile game development, operations, and growth. This map covers 12 categories, from game engines and backend services to ad mediation, customer support, and data infrastructure. Whether you're a studio evaluating tools or an investor exploring the space, this map offers a concise overview of the most important players in the mobile game tech ecosystem. Below, we introduce each category and provide succinct overviews of the featured companies. 🧱 Game Engines Unity: The dominant engine for mobile games; widely adopted for its robust tooling, asset store, and cross-platform support. Unreal Engine: Known for high-fidelity rendering, though less common in mobile than console/PC. Cocos Creator: Lightweight and especially popular in Asia, great for 2D and casual games. Godot: Open-source and growing rapidly among indie developers. GameMaker: Accessible 2D engine, often […]

Joseph Kim May 27

Highlights

Jobs in Mobile Gaming: May’24

1111 Jobs in Mobile Gaming 🦄 👉🏻 Data from Gamigion.com/jobs 🕺🏻 Dev 💻 Art 🎨 Product 📱 Marketing 🎯 Business 💰 Data 📈 QA ⚒️ 💻 Dev Unity Client Engineer - Scopely 🇪🇸 Tech Team Lead (Shanghai based) Scopely 🇸🇬 🇨🇳 🇰🇷 🇮🇪 🇪🇸 Engineering Manager - LiveOps Automation Scopely 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 Staff Engineer - Monopoly GO! Scopely 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 Technical Lead, Esports Supercell 🇫🇮 LLM Engineer Supercell 🇫🇮 Senior Gameplay Programmer, Clash Royale Supercell 🇫🇮 Senior Software Engineer II Zynga 🇮🇳 Principal Software Engineer Zynga 🇮🇳 Senior Network Engineer Playtika 🇺🇦 Corporate Development Manager Moon Active 🇮🇱 Full Stack Developer Moon Active 🇮🇱 Automation Developer Moon Active 🇮🇱 Software Engineer (Part-time) Dream Games 🇹🇷 Software Engineer Dream Games 🇹🇷 Game Developer Dream Games 🇹🇷 Senior Software Engineer Dream Games 🇹🇷 SecOps Engineer Dream Games 🇹🇷 Senior Art Engineer, Unity […]

Gamigion May 24

Highlights

RevenueCat raises $50M: Monetizing Mobile Amid AI Boom

RevenueCat, now the backbone of over 70,000 subscription-based mobile apps, just announced a $50M Series C to level up its mission: helping developers make more money, faster. Founded in 2018 as a side project by Jacob Eiting and Miguel Carranza, RevenueCat started as a simple tool to manage in-app subscriptions. Today, it's handling billions in payments and is used by 1 in 3 new subscription apps. Now valued at $500M, the company plans to go far beyond subscriptions. Why It Matters: New funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures (with support from Index, YC, and others) $100M total raised 2,000+ devs already testing RevenueCat’s web billing engine, now a serious Stripe/Chargebee contender CEO Jacob Eiting says: “We want to build the most important software company for apps—by a mile.” What’s Next for RevenueCat: Web billing: After the Apple-Epic ruling, devs […]

Gamigion May 23

Highlights

8 Steam Games That Could Inspire the Next Mobile Hit

The Mobile Ad Monetization Newsletter #23 As the competition in mobile games continues to grow. We’ve noticed an interesting trend. Did you know that some of the most successful mobile games of 2024 and 2025 were actually copies or heavily inspired by Steam games? Check out this list of 8 Steam games that could likely become the next hit on mobile. Schedule I: Kicking off our list is what looks like the biggest game of Steam Q1 2025. This drug empire simulator could really capitalize on the "supermarket simulator" trend, but with a drug twist. Its strategic depth and management elements make it a prime candidate for mobile adaptation. FlyKnight: Staying in the first-person view, we have FlyKnight, an old-school RPG dungeon crawler with intriguing insect visuals. (Though we're already considering the CPIs might be too on this one!). Its concise gameplay […]

Felix Braberg May 23

Highlights

Safety and Fairness in Gaming: PlaySafe ID Secures €1M

PlaySafe ID, a platform designed to safeguard gaming communities by blocking cheaters, bots, and predators, has raised €1 million ($1.12M) in pre-seed funding. The startup’s mission is to bring accountability and fairness to gaming without compromising user privacy. The funding round was led by Early Game Ventures, joined by Hartmann Capital and Overwolf. The investment will support PlaySafe ID’s expansion efforts and integrations with major gaming platforms, with a goal of reaching over 250,000 users in the near term. “This funding allows us to scale quickly, grow our elite team, and work with developers committed to creating safer game environments,” said CEO Andrew Wailes. He noted the urgency of tackling cheating and child safety, especially as new regulations like the Online Safety Act come into play. Andrew Wailes is CEO of PlaySafe ID. PlaySafe ID provides an anonymous, verified digital […]

Gamigion May 23

Highlights

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick: Mobile is now more than 50% of our business

Mobile now brings over 50% of the company’s net bookings. The Zynga deal was a strategic move aligned with Take-Two’s long-term focus on mobile. Highlighting that broader distribution is beneficial, expanding into markets like India & Africa. In a recent appearance on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick highlighted the rising significance of mobile within the company’s long-term strategy. He noted that mobile now contributes to over half of Take-Two’s net bookings. Zelnick pointed to the Zynga acquisition—made nearly three years ago—as a key step in this direction, stating it was driven by the growing importance of mobile. “Today, mobile accounts for just over 50% of our net bookings, and it’s performing very well,” he said. He also stressed the need for a strong mobile presence, especially given that a large share of the player base—particularly older adults and […]

Gamigion May 22

Highlights

Q&A with Roi Glazer, General Manager of Solitaire Grand Harvest

What do you get when you mix solitaire, farming, and The Smurfs? Apparently... a top-grossing mobile game. Also one of my favorite games of all time. Solitaire Grand Harvest, published by Playtika, has quietly grown into the #1 highest-grossing solitaire game in the U.S., with over $1 billion in lifetime revenue and more than 71 million downloads worldwide. Datas from Appmagic At the center of it all is Roy Glazer, General Manager of the game, who’s helped shape its evolution from a card game to a full-blown live ops ecosystem. Solitaire Grand Harvest has been thriving for years — not something every mobile game can say. What do you think is the real secret to its long-term appeal? Solitaire Grand Harvest is the #1 highest-grossing Solitaire game in the U.S., attracting hundreds of thousands of daily players worldwide. Its success […]

Aylin YAZICI May 21

Highlights

Another Turkish Breakout? TaleMonster Grabs $7M from Global VC Giants

Written by our partner, InvestGame. Notable Transactions MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS🤝 US-based mobile game developer Ares Interactive, Inc. has acquired Heroes vs Hordes from Germany-based mobile game publisher Swift Games for an undisclosed sum. Legal documentation changes suggest a potential full acquisition of Swift Games as well. According to AppMagic, Heroes vs Hordes is a mobile roguelike RPG that has generated $31m in IAP revenue. Ares Interactive was founded in 2024 by former Glu Mobile executives. UK-based game distributor Rokky has acquired China-based digital game store ChinaPlay for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is part of Rokky’s strategic expansion into the Chinese market. After the deal, ChinaPlay will distribute game keys directly from Rokky’s publishing partners. France-based esports organization Team Vitality has acquired Indonesia-based esports organization Bigetron by Vitality for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition aims to strengthen Team Vitality’s position […]

Gamigion May 21

Highlights

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