Jobs Digest: Moves at Scopely, Small Giant, Lego, Miniclip, PlaySide, Voodoo, Supercell, More
The mobile gaming sector saw a wave of senior hires, with Scopely adding a senior VP to steer its live‑game portfolio and Lego appointing Space Ape Games founder John Earner as an advisor for its new digital play division. Krafton announced its first chief AI officer, underscoring a push toward artificial‑intelligence‑driven experiences, while Voodoo recruited a former CEO to lead midcore product development. Other notable moves include Netflix hiring a former YouTube marketer for games marketing and several studios bolstering marketing, analytics, and creative teams.
February’s Top Mobile Game Downloads
February’s mobile game download chart was topped by Block Blast, which stayed ahead of Free Fire by roughly four million installs despite a second consecutive month‑on‑month decline. Free Fire continued to generate over 20 million downloads, while Roblox slipped below the...
Supercell and King Alumni Antihero Raise $4.5m to Launch Extraction Shooter Misfitz
Antihero Studios, founded by former Supercell and King veterans, secured $4.5 million in pre‑seed funding from a16z, Laton and Sisu. The studio’s first title, Misfitz, is an extraction‑shooter that mixes Brawl Stars‑style gameplay with collaborative‑versus‑betrayal mechanics. Over 70,000 players have already...
Supercell Teams with UK Studio Playabit for Hay Day Match
Supercell has partnered with UK‑based Playabit to launch Hay Day Match, a puzzle‑style spin‑off of its flagship farming game. The title will debut later this month in three emerging‑market regions: India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Playabit, founded in 2021 with...
New ‘TikTok for Games’ Firm Minit Lands $2m
Minit Games, a Hamburg startup specializing in instant‑play HTML5 titles, announced a $2 million pre‑seed round led by LVP and Sony Innovation Fund, with several angel investors joining. The company is building a TikTok‑style, algorithmically curated feed where bite‑sized games load...
41 Layoffs at Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride Maker Halfbrick
Australian game developer Halfbrick, known for Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, announced it is cutting 41 jobs. The layoffs include redundancies in its Australian operations and the termination of several international engagements. The cuts come as the studio navigates a...
Tencent Set to Buy Stake in Block Blast Maker Hungry Studio
Tencent is in talks to acquire a small equity stake in Hungry Studio, the Hong‑Kong developer behind the hyper‑popular mobile title Block Blast. The game now boasts 70 million daily active users and 300 million monthly users, up from 40 million DAU a...
Jobs Digest: Reshuffles at Xbox and Unity Plus Moves at Rovio, Hoyoverse, Google, Stillfront and More
Microsoft Gaming announced a top‑level reshuffle, with former CoreAI president Asha Sharma taking over as EVP and CEO and veteran Matt Booty becoming EVP and chief content officer. Unity added Bernard Kim to its board while co‑founder David Helgason and...
Spencer and Bond Out at Microsoft Gaming as AI Exec Sharma Takes Over
Microsoft Gaming announced a leadership overhaul as longtime Xbox chief Phil Spencer retired and COO Sarah Bond departed. Asha Sharma, former head of Microsoft’s CoreAI division and veteran of Instacart and Meta, was appointed CEO of the entire gaming portfolio,...
The Ares Gameplan Is Built on UA Financing, Non-US Devs – and Kim Kardashian, Sort Of
Ares Interactive announced a $70 million raise to broaden its cross‑platform free‑to‑play portfolio, adding former Glu executives and high‑profile advisors. The funding enabled the acqui‑hire of 7th Inning, which will launch the baseball title Baseball Hits 26 in March, and the outright...
Honkai: Star Rail Fans Think It Got Caught up in Political Tensions Between Japan and China
Hoyoverse postponed Honkai: Star Rail’s major 4.0 update by two weeks. The official notice cited “better experience,” but no further details were given. Fans and leakers argue the delay aims to strip Japanese‑inspired elements after rising China‑Japan tensions. The move...
New Game Digest: Tomb Raider, EA Sports FC Tactical, Paranormasight, Oceanhorn, More
The weekly digest highlights a wave of mobile and cross‑platform releases, including Tomb Raider’s first mobile entry at $19.99 and the upcoming Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse launching Feb 19 on Switch, PC, iOS and Android. EA Sports FC Tactical will be pulled...
