#GamingBusiness

Telecom Meets Gaming: Siyata’s Bold Entry into the $126B Market. Siyata Mobile, a cellular communications provider, is finalizing a $160 million reverse merger with game developer Core Gaming. This move will transition Siyata into the $126 billion mobile gaming sector, with Core Gaming’s shareholders potentially acquiring up to 90% ownership in the newly merged company. Siyata’s existing shareholders are assured a minimum 10% stake, possibly through a special stock dividend. Core Gaming CEO Aitan Zacharin will lead the combined company, aiming for $100 million in revenue and profitability by 2025. Siyata’s Push-to-Talk division will remain operational as a subsidiary under Marc Seelenfreund. As detailed in Siyata’s SEC filing, the deal will be completed remotely within three business days of meeting the conditions outlined in Article VI, unless both parties decide otherwise. No public notice is required for the closing, and […]

Apple announced that U.S. App Store generated $406 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024. Remarkably, over 90% of these earnings were commission-free, meaning developers retained the majority of their revenue. The App Store has seen tremendous growth, nearly tripling in size from $142B in 2019. In the same five-year span, earnings for U.S.-based developers more than doubled, with small developers seeing a 76% income increase between 2021 and 2024. Breakdown of 2024 App Store Sales: $277B from physical goods and services $75B from in-app advertising $53B from digital goods and services Key growth sectors include food and grocery delivery, travel bookings, and enterprise apps. Spending on general retail and grocery delivery has surged fourfold, with food delivery now surpassing ride-hailing in App Store revenue. The App Store’s global reach enabled U.S. developers to rank in the Top 5 […]

Turborilla? Gaming Studio Behind Mad Skills Franchise, 200M+ Downloads Drives Toward Future. Founded in 2009, Turborilla AB is a Swedish game studio best known for the Mad Skills Motocross and Mad Skills BMX franchises, downloaded over 200 million times on mobile. The company builds physics-based racing games that challenge players while celebrating the culture of action sports. Today Turborilla AB, an Umeå-based independent gaming studio, is gearing up for a game-changing chapter with the announcement of London native John Wright as Chief Executive Officer. This move by the Board of Directors proves Turborilla’s commitment to push the boundaries and thrive in the competitive gaming landscape. Wright brings to Turborilla nearly 15 years of industry knowledge. Most recently as the Vice President of Mobile Games at Kwalee, he was instrumental in scaling the company past one billion lifetime downloads while leading a […]

Scopely has officially completed its acquisition of Niantic’s gaming division as of May 29, 2025. Earlier, we wrote about this here. Also, check out Jakub's take. With this deal, several major titles and services have joined the Scopely portfolio, including: Pokémon GO Pikmin Bloom Monster Hunter Now Campfire Wayfarer Alongside these games and community-focused platforms, over 400 Niantic employees will be transitioning to Scopely. So far, operations appear to be continuing without disruption. Niantic has also reached out to members of the Community Creator Program with following: “We are happy to share with you that Niantic’s game business is officially part of Scopely now that the deal has been finalized. It’s business as usual for the Pokémon GO, Pikmin Bloom and Monster Hunter Now teams. We have a lot of exciting content lined up for the rest of the year […]

$2B+ in Fraud Blocked: In 2024 alone, Apple stopped over $2 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions. 1.9M+ Risky Apps Blocked: Over 1.9 million app submissions were rejected for violating security, privacy, or quality standards. Massive App Review Scale: Apple reviewed 7.7 million apps, rejecting 43K for hidden features, 320K for spam/clones, and 400K for privacy violations. Account Enforcement: 146K developer accounts terminated for fraud. 711M customer account creations blocked; 129M accounts deactivated. Pirate App Crackdown: Blocked 10K+ pirate apps and stopped 4.6M illicit installs outside official stores. Rating Manipulation Prevention: Processed 1.2B+ reviews, removed 143M+ fake reviews. Removed 7,400+ apps from charts and 9,500+ from search results. Payment Security: Detected 4.7M stolen cards, banned 1.6M accounts. 420K+ apps use Apple Pay/StoreKit for secure transactions. Bottom Line Apple continues to invest heavily in fraud prevention, protecting users and developers with strict […]

UA costs rose to $60m, accounting for 61% of net sales. Embracer Group’s mobile division saw a 31% YoY drop in net revenue, reaching SEK 943 million ($98 million) in Q4 FY2025. For the full year, mobile game sales declined by 9% to SEK 5.35 billion ($553 million). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the mobile segment jumped to SEK 8.2 billion ($856 million), but adjusted EBIT fell significantly to SEK 91 million ($9.5 million), largely due to the $1.2 billion sale of Easybrain to Miniclip. User acquisition (UA) costs rose to SEK 575 million ($60 million), making up 61% of net sales—an increase from 35% the previous year. Install numbers dropped from 248 million to 204 million, though daily and monthly active users stayed consistent at 28 million and 222 million, respectively. Despite the revenue and install declines, […]