PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple, deputy editor Paige Cook and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 90th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:

• Apple CEO Tim Cook's decision to step down and what his legacy will be.
• The removal of Almedia's FreeCash app and what it means for rewarded UA.
• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's $755m box office.
• How the Pokémon anime looks to be leveraging the mobile games for the new series.
• The importance of government support for games.
• Xbox's decision to cut the cost of Game Pass and remove day-one Call of duty releases from subscriptions.

00:00 - Introduction and Personal Updates08:18 - Tim Cook's Tenure and Apple's Future14:08 - Government Incentives18:36 - Super Mario Movie Success23:42 - The Freecash Controversy29:08 - Xbox Game Pass: Pricing Changes36:57 - Pokemon Anime

** Let's Connect **

👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com

👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform

👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/

👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform

👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

Recorded following Pocket Gamer Connects London, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Nick Poole, CEO of Ukie, for a candid conversation about risk, ambition and what it will take to make the UK the best place to build and scale a games business.

Nick brings a rare perspective to the role. Before leading the UK’s trade body for games, he worked across libraries, museums and chaired Wikimedia UK. His throughline has always been culture, creativity and how institutions shape innovation. Now he’s applying that lens to games.

In this episode, we unpack:

• Why the UK risks becoming an “incubator economy” if it cannot retain IP and talent
• What’s broken in the funding ladder from prototype to scale-up
• Why tax relief is about competitiveness, not handouts
• How risk appetite across the industry has shifted post-2020
• Why studios must build companies, not just games
• What the Games Growth Package, expanded UK Games Fund and new skills initiatives actually mean in practice

Nick is clear: the industry cannot afford to talk itself down. The UK remains one of the most creative and export-driven games markets in the world. But ambition and coordinated action are essential.

We also explore the future of play, the role of generative AI in production pipelines and why automation should unlock creativity, not replace it.

If you are a founder, investor or studio leader navigating 2025–26, this episode is about one thing:

Reclaiming agency.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Pocket Gamer Connects London Highlights

01:14 Guest Intro: Nick Poole's Career Path from Museums to Games

03:57 Understanding Ukie: The Sword and Shield of the UK Games Industry

05:40 Why Historical Government Support for UK Games Has Lacked

07:41 How Studios Can Lobby Effectively: The "Made in the UK" Campaign

11:51 Fixing the "Broken Rungs" in the Game Funding Ladder

14:55 Building the New: Adapting Business Models for 2026 and Beyond

16:14 Tax Reliefs and Fiscal Stimulus: Moving from VGTR to VGEC

22:04 Industrial Strategy: Skills, Trade Missions, and the UK Games Fund

36:58 The Future of AI in Games: Productivity, Curation, and Discovery

Let's Connect

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple, deputy editor Paige Cook and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 89th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:

- Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen's BAFTA Fellowship award.

- Is BAFTA taking mobile gaming seriously?

- Direct-to-consumer revenue hits record highs in Q4

- Playtika up for sale.

- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's blockbuster Box Office numbers.

- Game of Thrones Dragonfire gears up for launch.

- The Division Resurgence's opening salvo.

- What a power shift from West to East means for the games industry.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Pokemon Champions

05:47 BAFTA Games Awards and Recognition for Mobile Games

12:40 The Division Resurgence's Opening Salvo

17:47 Super Mario Galaxy Movie Success

22:17 Record D2C revenue

25:59 The West to East shift

29:44 Game of Thrones Dragonfire

33:20 Playtika up for sale

36:08 Wrap-Up

** Let's Connect **

👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com

👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform

👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/

👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform

👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

Recorded live on-site at GDC, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Robert Burnett, Head of New Content at Skillz, and Jon Radoff, CPO of Beamable, to unpack what just changed for developers building competitive mobile games.

With the acquisition of Beamable, Skillz is pushing into a bigger role: giving developers more control over progression, LiveOps and monetisation inside the game, while still handling the infrastructure that is hardest to build well.

As Jon puts it, the goal is to build “a business operating system for a game studio” so developers can focus on gameplay instead of racking up debt. “If you’re spending any of your effort building the tech instead of the fun, you’re accumulating debt that doesn’t do you any good.”

Skillz also unveiled the Pro SDK at GDC, opening up more control inside Unity for developers who want to build competitive games with richer progression, more flexible monetisation and a stronger live-service layer.

In this episode, Peggy and Craig get into:

• Puzzle Blockz, the first live proof point for the combined platform
• What this shift means for smaller teams that want to move faster without building every part of the stack themselves
• How advertising, IAP and competition can start to work together instead of sitting in separate silos

If you are serious about building competitive mobile games that can keep players and grow revenue, start here.

Chapters

00:00 New Ways for Developers to Monetize

01:34 The Acquisition of Beamable by Skillz

01:59 Solving Pain Points with the Pro SDK

04:46 A Business Operating System for Game Studios

06:27 The Role of AI in Rapid Prototyping

10:14 Economies of Scale in Game Development

11:51 From Vibe Coding to Agentic Systems

16:01 Case Study: The Puzzle Blocks Proof of Concept

22:50 Iterating Based on Real-Time Player Feedback

34:31 The Future Roadmap: Intelligence and Automation

Let's Connect

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 87th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:

- How Unity is copying the AppLovin playbook by shedding its publishing division Supersonic to focus on the Vector growth story.

- The Ninth Circuit's decision to deny Apple's rehearing request in the Epic Games App Store dispute.

- The February mobile game charts.

- Sonic Rumble's quiet rebrand to Sonic Rumble Party.

- Fire Emblem Shadows' slow start to life.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates

07:21 Unity's Strategic Shift in Advertising

11:13 Sonic Rumble's Rebranding and Performance Analysis

16:52 Apple vs. Epic Games: Legal Updates and Implications

19:36 Fire Emblem Shadows Analysis

23:32 February Mobile Game Charts Insights

** Let's Connect **

👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com

👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform

👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/

👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform

👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

This episode is brought to you in partnership with GameAnalytics. PocketGamer.biz Podcast hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow sit down with Falko Boecker, Head of BD & Customer Success at GameAnalytics, to explore a hard truth about the industry:

Studios are not short on data.

They are short on clarity.

Across rising UA costs, privacy shifts, AI disruption and tighter margins, one thing has become non-negotiable: teams must make better decisions, faster.

But collecting data is not the same as using it well.

Falko brings a rare perspective, having worked across journalism, publishing and business development before moving into analytics. His mission has always been to connect creative thinkers with the business side of games, and data is now the bridge.

In this conversation, we unpack:

• Why “data maturity” is not the same as “data sophistication”
• Where studios get stuck when trying to think full funnel
• Why infrastructure matters less than mindset
• How segmentation moves teams beyond surface-level metrics
• What actually changes between pre-launch and live ops
• Why Roblox and fast-moving ecosystems are redefining how teams react to player behaviour

One of the most important takeaways:

Data does not replace creativity. It sharpens it.

As Falko explains, analytics should not be a black box owned by specialists. It should be accessible across design, product and marketing so teams can align around shared goals instead of siloed assumptions.

We also explore how AI is beginning to shift analytics from reactive dashboards to proactive insight, and where humans still need to drive the decisions.

If you are building a game in 2026, this episode is a reminder that success is not about having more dashboards.

It is about asking better questions.

** Let's Connect **

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple, deputy editor Paige Cook and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 87th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:

• The Epic layoffs and how that reframes its Google settlement and years of court battles to reduce mobile platform fees and remove anti-steering policies.
• Savvy Games Group's CEO Brian Ward's thoughts on M&A, China and rising Eastern influence.
• Duolingo's experiments with a tool to lock other apps until daily lessons are complete.
• Our big interview about the development of Wuthering Waves.
• Roblox's decision to take a slice of in-game brand deals with creators under new advertising rules.
• Savvy's acquisition of Mobile Legends developer Moonton from ByteDance.

** Let's Connect **👉🏻 Twitter -   / pgbiz  👉🏻 LinkedIn Group -   / pocketgamer-biz  👉🏻 Facebook -   / pgbiz  👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz 👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-5...👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple, deputy editor Paige Cook and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 86th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.On this week’s show we discuss:- Final thoughts on GDC week and the future of the show.- The recent Google and Epic deal, plus what Epic Games Store GM Steve Allison had to tell us about it.- A visit to King's London studio and comments on its former midcore ambitions.- The BAFTAs continues to sideline mobile games. Are publishers to blame?- PEGI's decision expands age ratings to cover loot boxes and in-game spending.- Fortnite returns to Google Play.** Let's Connect **👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz 👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

Recorded on location at Pocket Gamer Connects London, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Berkley Egenes, CMO at Xsolla, to examine a structural shift in the industry.

Gaming is no longer just entertainment. It is becoming the commerce layer connecting developers, brands, platforms and players.

Xsolla’s recent rebrand reflects that evolution — moving beyond payments to enable publishing, distribution, promotions and marketplace infrastructure designed to help developers launch, grow and win.

In this conversation, Peggy and Berkley break down:

• Why D2C is now a strategic pillar, not a workaround
• How casual games are outperforming expectations in web shop adoption
• Why Southeast Asia is accelerating faster than many Western markets
• How brands, telecoms and super apps are converging around gaming
• What happens when commerce, loyalty and gameplay start to merge

As Berkley puts it, the stereotype of the “gamer” is gone. Everyone is a gamer. That makes gaming the most powerful engagement layer in digital culture.

When attention lives in games, commerce follows.

This episode explores why the next phase of growth may depend less on transactions inside the app — and more on orchestrating an ecosystem around it.

Chapters

00:00 The Evolving Identity of the Gamer

00:40 Xsolla’s Mission in Video Game Commerce

02:53 Exploring Growth in Southeast Asia

05:07 Unique Ad Experiences and Monetization

07:07 Integrating Non-Endemic Brands into Gaming

09:23 Insights from the Xsolla Report

14:41 The Future of the Gaming Industry

Let's Connect

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

In Part 2 of this two-part PocketGamer.biz special, host Peggy Anne Salz continues her conversation with Jon Radoff — CEO of Beamable and one of the early architects of online game infrastructure, long before LiveOps became a discipline and games-as-a-service became the norm.

If Part 1 examined why backend now determines competitive advantage, Part 2 tackles the macro reality reshaping every studio’s growth strategy.

Installs have plateaued. Time spent has stabilised. Revenue growth is no longer coming from incremental user acquisition, but from deeper monetisation of existing players. Sensor Tower calls this the “monetisation-first” era, and the message is clear: scale alone is no longer enough.

As Jon puts it: “Games is a services business now. You don’t ship a product and walk away. You run it.”

In this episode, Peggy and Jon unpack what that actually means in practice:

• Why value per player now matters more than volume

• How retention, loyalty and operational excellence have become the real growth levers

• Where monetisation systems, competition frameworks and identity infrastructure reinforce each other

• Why partnership can become a strategic advantage rather than a loss of control

• Where AI lowers operational barriers — and where trusted infrastructure remains essential

This conversation makes one thing explicit: in a monetisation-first environment, infrastructure is not plumbing. It is strategy.

Together, these two episodes explain not just what the Skillz–Beamable integration represents, but why developers who adapt to this new growth model will be structurally better positioned over the next cycle.

Chapters

00:00 - Content That Would Never See the Light of Day

00:42 - Democratize Game Development

01:26 - Wild West Experience

02:49 - Understand Roblox

03:07 - Lesson for the Broader Game Industry

04:28 - Co-creation with Your Player Population

06:58 - Skillz and Beamable

09:08 - Building Your Own 3D Engine

10:44 - Exclusively Creative Industry

13:40 - English Language Programming

17:48 - Unique Technical Architecture of Games

22:57 - The "1 + 1 Equals 3" Merger

Let's Connect

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

In this PocketGamer.biz episode, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Francesca ReDavid, VP of Product Growth at Mistplay, and Aaron Thandi, Chief Commercial Officer, to examine how rewarded is evolving in what many are calling the monetisation-first era.

For years, rewarded functioned primarily as a UA lever, driving installs and early engagement at scale. But growth dynamics have shifted. Installs have plateaued. Revenue is concentrating deeper in the player journey. Studios are now under pressure to increase lifetime value, not just acquisition volume.

That shift forces a rethink.

Mistplay is preparing to launch a new feature called Playtime Events, designed to combine time-based rewards with contextual in-game milestones. The goal is structural: align rewarded mechanics more closely with how games actually drive engagement and monetisation.

Rather than rewarding time alone, this approach ties incentives to meaningful progression points inside the game experience.

The testing that led to this shift is significant.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why rewarded can no longer operate as a simple traffic channel
• How hybrid playtime-plus-task testing drove a 30% lift in playtime and a 20% increase in D30 ROAS
• Why RPG and strategy titles exposed the limits of generic reward structures
• How contextual milestones can reinforce progression loops rather than distract from them
• What UA, AdMon and Product teams must rethink as monetisation becomes the growth engine

As Francesca explains, rewarded increasingly needs to function as a companion to gameplay — embedded in progression, not layered on top of it.

For studios navigating deeper engagement cycles in 2026, this episode explores why the next phase of rewarded will be defined less by installs and more by alignment with monetisation mechanics.

Chapters

00:00 Driving High Performance and Quality Experience

01:34 The Monetization-First Era

04:01 Rewarding High-Quality Users

05:56 Defining Rewarded

07:50 The History of Mistplay in Rewarded

11:34 Rewarded No Longer a Source of Cheap Traffic

15:12 Time Spent as a Key Indicator

29:39 Playtime and In-Game Events

33:38 Playtime Plus Task Mechanics

48:02 Rewarded's Future: Personalization and ML

** Let's Connect **

👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz

👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk

👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz

👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event