9 growth hacks, Osmo gets $12 million, Apple's transition, and Unity's not for sale
The past 7 days in bite-sized portions
Sometimes, there are weeks when all news is created equal. This was not one of those weeks.
No, this week clearly belonged to Apple - as does any week when the Cupertino giant decides it wants to launch a new product - with the firm lifting the lid on the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3.
Even though you can probably only think about getting your hands on one of those slick new iPads right now, you should probably come back to reality for long enough to read our Week That Was, because there's still a heap of non-Apple news to digest.
Indeed, Japanese developer GungHo revealed that from 20 October to 2 November its mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons will feature several crossovers with Rovio's Angry Birds franchise.
Staying in the East, the LINE messaging app made its global debut on iPad, while Final Fantasy creator Sakaguchi's first free-to-play title, Terra Battle, hit 500,000 downloads.
As always, there's more when that came from, so why not end your week with a healthy dose of Week that Was?
Industry Voices- Nicholas Lovell called upon UK policy makers to create a political environment that is friendly towards the rapidly evolving free-to-play market.
- David B. Hoppe from Gamma Law spoke about crowdfunding as an investment opportunity for games.
- Wooga's marketing head explained why understanding market research is essential in turning your game become a hit.
- Japanese developer GungHo Online announced that from 20 October to 2 November its mobile hit Puzzle & Dragons will feature several crossovers with Rovio's globally recognised Angry Birds series.
- Final Fantasy's Sakaguchi first F2P game Terra Battle hit 500,000 downloads.
- Angry Birds made its return in our most recent look at the official UK App Store Charts.
- Supercell appears to be planing a 'Rovio', with the firm looking to hire merchandising experts.
- CRM platform Helpshift has announced the introduction of a free product tier designed to help indie game developers benefit from its platform.
- The LINE messaging app for iPad launched worldwide.
- Amazon revealed it will attempt to attract more consumers to both its Fire phone and Fire tablets with the launch of three new games, all developed in-house at Amazon Game Studios.
- Fresh reports suggested that Google plans to introduce app trials to its Google Play store in order to allow users to try before they buy.
- The mayor of Vilnius - Arturas Zuokas – announced the construction of Vilnius Tech Park, a tech hub for startups and other businesses involved in the ICT industry within Lithuania.
- Apple added the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 to its ever expanding iPad lineup.
- Animoca closed a $10 million joint venture deal for the Star Girl franchise.
- Google was rumoured to be investing in Magic Leap's 'cinematic reality'.
- Unity dismissed rumours suggesting the firm was preparing to sell up, with company co-founder and CTO Joachim Ante explaining that it is "best to be an independent company".
- Gamevil partners with 8elements to open southeast Asia office in Singapore.
- Vrvana canceled its Totem virtual reality headset Kickstarter campaign.