King and the Xbox cuts, Meta's 'TikTok for games', alot of Scopely news, game closures, MTG, more

King and the Xbox cuts, Meta's 'TikTok for games', alot of Scopely news, game closures, MTG, more

The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: * Those huge Xbox cuts and some loose talk about King's new place in the hierarchy at Microsoft  * Meta’s new ‘TikTok for games’ app, Pocket, has sneakily soft launched * Three big chunks of Scopely-related news: a new Japan studio, a rebrand of the teams formerly at Niantic and alot of Pokémon Go data as it celebrates 10 years * Some game closures: Mario Kart Tour, Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis and Rumble Arcade * MTG gets an ex-Supercell exec to run marketing at 'Europe's biggest collection of midcore studios' * A load more data, soft launch and new games nuggets * A slightly wearier tone than usual as I walk-and-talk during a frankly ridiculous heatwave #54, 09/07/26. Supported by Xsolla.

eFootball vs EA FC, Apple Arcade stats, Stillfront, Queen, third party app stores, payments, more

The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: * We look at Konami’s quietly very successful mobile game eFootball, which is actually making about three times the IAP of its closest competitor EA FC. But all that money is coming from Japan, currently * Apple Arcade’s top performers by player reviews, a rare bit of data on Apple’s game subscription service from our friends at GameDiscoverCo. Some analysis in there, too * Stillfront is looking for a new CEO after Alexis Bonte stepped down, having overseen what looks like a big restructure * A quick confirmation that our Queen story was indeed correct – its founder offered a comment to Swedish finance publication Breakit, but never responded to our requests * Are developers actually making money on third party app stores? Yes and no, depending on who you ask, and we happened to ask AltStore and Skich * UK regulators could open up Apple and Google’s app store payment systems this year, if its proposals are approved * A rattle through regulars including our data, jobs and new games round-ups * Ambient going-on-a-walk noises including gravel underfoot, light traffic and some yelling schoolchildren #53, 02/07/26. Supported by Xsolla.

Google Play store fees, Kingshot's World Cup ads, AppsFlyer's $1bn raise, Kabam layoffs, Ex-King execs kill Queen, more

The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: * Google (re)confirms that it’ll be dropping store fees by around 5% for most folks using the Play Store. Though there are caveats and complications, of course * A cheeky look at Kingshot’s new set of World Cup ads, featuring ex-England and Brazil players  * AppsFlyer attracts a whopping $1bn investment from heavy hitters Google, Meta, Unity and Moloco, possibly to stop AppLovin conquering the world * Kabam lays off staff in its LA office but refuses to clarify how many or why, causing more confusion * Ex-King execs kill Queen, a start-up that has attracted as much as $50m in VC funding and has been been making casual puzzle games in stealth mode since 2022(ish) * A quick bit on Hoyoverse’s next game, Honkai: Nexus Anima, which appears to be Genshin Impact meets Pokémon: a pretty good idea, actually * Another quick fun one on No.10: Full Confidence, the political satire game that got a boost in the run-up to Keir Starmer’s resignation on Monday * Mag Interactive says AI tools could help it test four times more new game ideas per year – it also delivered some solid Q3 results * In data digest we’ve got World Cup and DTC stats, May’s ad charts, Rush Royale hit $500m, UEFN payouts and plenty more * A dash through the latest soft launch update, including Zynga’s take on Coin Master / Monopoly Go, a Rollic UFC game, Sega’s reworking of Sonic Blitz and some usual suspects * In new games we’ve got Pokémon Champions, a new Kingdom Rush game, a new Barbie game and the closure of blockchain game Pudgy Party * A rattle through some of the big companies making moves in the latest jobs digest  * PLUS: an overall drowsiness in my voice and demeanour thanks to the insane heatwave gripping the UK this week #52, 25/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

Amateur devs score hits with 38-0, WWDC reactions, May’s top games, Orna, more

The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: * We run through two stories about football drafting games 38-0 and 38-0-0, each made by amateur developers using AI tools to jump on a trend and quickly land a hit * Some indie app developer reactions from WWDC, where Apple promised free use of its AI models and compute until your app gets 2m installs, though it’s unclear what happens after that * We’ve got a breakdown of May’s top grossing and most downloaded games, according to Appmagic * A quick one about Orna, a location-based game that arrived shortly after Pokémon Go and has outlasted the likes of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Minecraft Earth * Jobs, data and new games nuggets featuring Pixel Flow, Wuthering Waves, Neverness to Everness, Pokémon Go Fest attendance and more * Ambient noise from kids and dog walkers in the beautiful and historic Verulamium Park, next to St Albans Cathedral #51, 18/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.

Why Summer Game Fest is a mobile-free zone, Supercell kills US projects, yet more Xbox chat, EA's mobile misstep, data, more

The mobilegamer.biz podcast is a concise, banter-free digest of what’s driving the mobile games business. Every week, mobilegamer.biz founder and editor Neil Long goes on a walk and tells you what’s going on in under 20 minutes. In this episode: * A bit of a ramble from Summer Game Fest in LA, which had barely any mobile games in it. And actually that makes a lot of sense * News from Supercell US, which has closed one game project and seems to have wound down another * New Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball says that mobile is the biggest and most valuable part of the games business – but his first priority is the console business (the part with the least growth potential, he admits) * EA’s Laura Miele on why fans were unhappy about Command & Conquer Rivals when it launched in 2018 * Metacore confirmed 159 jobs are going in Helsinki, and it’ll be closing its offices in Germany and Sweden * Loads of data nuggets * Ambient background sounds from both Grand Hope Park in downtown LA and our usual stomping ground in Hertfordshire, UK #50, 11/06/26. Supported by Xsolla.