mobilegamer.biz digest

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:

• The UK advertising regulator seems to have spotted the tip of a very large iceberg and banned some misleading mobile game ads
• Apple called out ‘mobile gaming headwinds’ in its Q4 financials, also referencing the court-ordered changes to the US App Store
• What’s going on at Tetris maker PlayStudios? Quite alot – four studio closures, 177 job cuts, the closure of Tetris Block Party and the threat of being delisted from the Nasdaq
• News of Genshin Impact maker Hoyoverse’s next game: Petit Planet, coming on December 4
• A bit on indie hit The Baby in Yellow, which came out of a game jam, was released on PC and became popular with streamers but has since got most downloads on Android and iOS - 400m installs in total
• Shaun Rutland and David Amor’s new studio has broken cover, and it’s doing ‘interactive generative video’. It’s got people in Europe and China and it’s called Anorak
• This Skillz Vs Papaya stuff rumbles on
• An extended look at Roblox’s financials, which always seem to be weirdly complex
• A bit of speculation around Ubisoft and Tencent’s Assassin’s Creed Jade, which appears to be MIA
• A rattle through our data, jobs and new games digests 
• An unusually large amount of erotic/repulsive heavy breathing because I am holding the mic too close to my mouth

#70, 5/11/26. Supported by Xsolla

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 look at those viral videos that claim to have reverse-engineered Block Blast, Subway Surfers and Candy Crush Saga to reveal their monetisation secrets
• A quick look at the games being optimised for Apple’s new iPhone Duo - its new foldable phone. It’s mostly indies with a smattering of midsized developers in there too
• Tencent wants to make its creature collector Roco Kingdom into a Pokémon-sized hit in the west - it’s already massive in China and is getting a worldwide launch next year
• EA cofounder Bing Gordon has a few thoughts on why EA effectively missed mobile, what Zynga got right plus bonus thoughts on AI in gamedev and other bits and bobs
• Tencent-owned Timi is closing Pokemon Unite after earning about $75m in lifetime value
• Stillfront has a new boss Marcus Jacobs, whose first job is to stop declining revenue and profits, as revealed in its Q3 financials
• Supercell has been hit with a cyberattack which breached its internal video platform, so some staff and partners’ info may have been leaked, but no player data, it seems
• Fortnite has returned to the Australian App Store after a court ruling, and Apple is being forced to open up further down under in the next few months. Bonza!
• A quick rattle through our data and new game digests
• Two sections recorded in a Morrisons car park amid a light drizzle – can you guess which ones?

#69, 29/10/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 rattle through that story about AI-made games and apps clogging up Apple’s app review process, slowing approvals down badly - Google’s Play Store review seems fine though
• EA is cutting 400 jobs as it gets absorbed into Saudi ownership - it’s not clear how this affected mobile but it’s all quite baffling and bleak
• Merge Mansion and Metacore are now officially part of Supercell
• Hasbro has earned another $40m+ from Monopoly Go  
• An aggressively edited section about Netflix Games which at the time of recording suggested that about 60 games staff had been let go but we since learned might not be the case
• Wargaming’s cofounder has raised $10m to grow Mika Games, which looks like another UA finance-type firm
• Meaty round-ups from our data, jobs and new game digests
• A surprising amount of background car noise

#68, 22/10/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 about 20 minutes.

In this episode:

• Thoughts on the big Rovio interview from this week, which included news on new Angry Birds and Sonic games plus a swipe at Apple and Google
• A bit on Miniclip’s new ad network, which was built with the help of Tencent and Easybrain
• Supercell is officially closing Squad Busters in December
• Ubisoft looks set to close its Helsinki studio, Trials maker RedLynx
• No Man’s Sky is coming to iOS and Monster Hunter Rise might be coming to Netflix games
• A look at the combined Paramount-Warner mobile game portfolio, now they’re merging to become Skydance
• A load of new features for the Google Play store
• Ubisoft is closing Rainbow Six Mobile and Fingersoft is closing Lego Hill Climb Adventures
• Google is in yet more legal trouble, and is facing a £1bn trial in the UK over its 30% IAP cut
• Your usual serving of data nuggets, including a load of investment news and stats from Sensor Tower, Aream and more

#67, 15/10/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 about 20 minutes.

In this episode:

• Thoughts on Google Playground, which also seems to be powered by Unity’s Spark tech. It may well flop completely or destroy game development as we know it, we shall see
• AppLovin’s lawyers are busy, with two lawsuits ongoing with Unity and San Diego County about data collection and adult content respectively
• Scopely seems to be making a Genshin Impact contender with the Marvel IP, which is exciting. It’s apparently codenamed Project Comet
• A bit on Thatgamepublisher, the makers of Journey and Sky who are seeking similarly indie-style mobile games to publish
• Crossy Road Rush is coming to Apple Arcade in November, alongside two other games
• A rattle through September’s top download and top grossing charts, plus some loose analysis
• Quick bits on the closure of Reigns studio Nerial, Special Effect’s One Special Day and some more EU regulation stuff
• Your usual nuggets from our jobs, data and new games digests.
• Some ruthless editing as I tried to get everything into a tight 20 minutes

#66, 08/10/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 brief history of Mario Kart Tour, which Nintendo killed this week after earning an estimated $270m
• King and Mojang have spruced up Minecraft Blast and quietly put it back into soft launch
• Zynga founder Mark Pincus has claimed that he had agreed to buy Supercell for $400m in 2012 – but the board blocked the deal
• Supercell has put its underperforming monster hunting game Mo co back into beta - meaning there will be relatively little brand new content added to the game until some “big changes” get made in the next update, coming later this year
• King averted those strikes at its Malmo and Stockholm offices right at the last minute by signing a deal with two Swedish unions
• Some chat about Meta’s Horizon Create app, which suggests the tech giant sees Instagram and Facebook as potential games platforms
• YouTube Playables – a range of YouTube-native webgames, essentially – are now live in over 50 countries. IAP monetisation is coming soon too, apparently, though YouTube is being very quiet about it all
• Gameloft is closing Minion Rush after a 13-year(!) run
• Tencent and Capcom’s Monster Hunter mobile game is coming October 29, pre-orders are live now
• Trophy Games bought Airlines Manager maker Playrion for what looks like a bargain $2.5m
• AI firm General Intuition, which trains its models on gameplay footage from sister firm Medal, got another monster funding round – $220m
• Your regular news nuggets from our soft launch, new games and data digests
• A passing ambulance making a right old racket

#65, 01/10/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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:

• Vita Mahjong, Amaze Go and Meowdoku maker Oakever Games has already lost one copyright infringement case against Block Blast maker Hungry Studio, and is now fighting another. And sources suggest that's the tip of the iceberg…
• King seems to have again dodged taking too much damage from Xbox’s latest cuts and restructuring – but is still facing strike action later this week
• Hipster Whale could be reviving or reimagining a load of Atari classics after it was acquired by the firm earlier this year
• With GTA 6 looming large we spoke to ChillBase, the maker of GTA-like One State, about how it’s doing and how Rockstar’s blockbuster might affect its business
• A double dose of collab news: Kpop Demon Hunters and Ghostbusters are coming to Monopoly Go, and Brawl Stars and Duolingo are doing a fun crossover
• Doki Doki Literature Club is returning to Android as an Epic Games Store exclusive after Google removed it from the Play Store due to its depiction of sensitive themes
• New EU proposals intended to protect children playing online games, enforce the use of age assurance tools and ban addictive design features have been met with both support and skepticism from trade body Video Games Europe
• All your regular news nuggets from our jobs, data and new games columns
• Surprisingly competent pronunciation work when referencing the founders of Oakever Games and ChillBase, which I'm actually quite pleased with

#64, 17/09/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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:

• Some thoughts and speculation on that potential Saudi-owned gaming supergroup including EA, Scopely, Moonton and more
• More right-wing weirdos are making games: this time it’s the UK’s Reform party with their ‘stop the boats’ game
• A bit on the potential strikes at King’s Stockholm and Malmo offices later this month
• A rattle through a popular story about Mattel’s mobile gaming ambitions
• New Roblox tech will allow creators to export their games as native mobile, PC or console titles, but details are vague
• A word on that commission calculator I knocked up with Claude, which will give you an idea of how much Apple, Google or a typical web store will take from you, depending on your circumstances
• A summary of our chat with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who brought Lumines to mobile and could bring more of his games to iOS and Android
• Yet more Apple news, this time it’s a load of EU trade bodies and pressure groups complaining about the new EU App Store terms
• News nuggets from our regular data digest, new games and soft launch updates
• Limited ambient sounds this time but an exciting police car siren midway through, and the potentially very wrong pronunciation of ‘Sulake’

#64, 17/09/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 another Apple-heavy episode:

• A brisk look at the games being shown off on Apple’s new foldable, iPhone Duo
• News from Lego’s lowkey mobile gaming arm, which has swooped in for Chrome Valley Customs maker Offroad Games 
• New App Store boss Eddy Cue and new Apple CEO John Ternus reportedly want to make even more money from the App Store
• Job cuts at Star Stable, but we’re still not sure exactly how many
• Trailmix has a new CEO
• A rattle through the top downloads and top grossing games from August, according to AppMagic
• A quick, begrudging look at those appalling MAGA games that take inspiration from Snake, Flappy Bird and Tetris
• News nuggets from our data, jobs and new game digests

#63, 10/09/26. Supported by Xsolla.

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 unusually Apple-heavy episode:

• A run-through of the App Store team’s tips and tricks on getting featured. They also pushed the ‘try before you buy’ model for premium games
• A story on how Apple is earning less from its App Store after opening up to outside payments (and therefore losing its 30% cut). Plus of course a rant on the topic from Tim Sweeney
• A rattle through the App Store’s new leadership after Phil Schiller stepped away, Eddy Cue took over and there was a slight reshuffling under them
• Interesting stuff from NC, the Korean MMO giant formerly known as NCsoft, which has already spent $300m buying up mobile game studios and wants to buy more
• A quick update on the soft launch for Overwatch Rush, a new Blizzard-made game, and a bit of context on its other mobile games
• Metacore will officially become part of Supercell by the end of the month, adding Merge Mansion to the Clash of Clans maker’s portfolio
• Yahoo Games is quietly building a games business, starting with daily webgames, just like the NYT and LinkedIn
• A quick story about a former COD: Black Ops designer who built and shipped an extraction shooter in seven weeks (without using AI)
• Thrilling news nuggets from our regular data, soft launch and new games digests
• The familiar background noise of the Hertfordshire suburbs: tweeting birds, cars driving by and your host getting surprisingly out of breath from a walk up a slight hill

#62, 03/09/26.Supported by Xsolla.