A change at the top for Unity, 12 top funding tips, and whatever happened to tablet gaming?
The past 7 days in bite-sized portions
It doesn't take a genius to realise what the biggest story of this week was, with former EA man John Riccitiello replacing David Helgason as the CEO of Unity whipping the industry into a frenzy.
The future of Unity has been thrown into doubt following Helgason's departure, however, while some people still believe the firm is preparing to sell, PocketGamer.biz contributing editor Keith Andrew has suggested it's more likely the company will float.
If you can manage to tear yourself away from the Riccitiello riddle for more than a second, you'll see there's been plenty going on outside of the Unity bubble.
Japanese outfit LINE Corporation, for example, revealed that its LINE messaging app now has over 30 million registered users in India
In the world of user acquisition and monetisation, our Chart of the Week took a closer look at the gender gap, revealing that women are more receptive to mobile ads, while our Charticle found out if Rovio's newest recruit, Plunder Pirates, found fame and fortune on the App Store.
By now you should know the drill, so take a seat, whip out your spork, and chow down on our surprisingly spicy Week That Was.
Industry voices- Fiksu's Oliver Clark, speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014, discussed how developers can overcome the dangers of discoverability.
- We spoke to KAMI and Lume developer State of Play to find out how they're handcrafting their own future.
- Picnic Games' David Amor was on hand at Games Funding Forum 2014 to share his top 12 tips for getting your game funded.
- PocketGamer.biz contributing editor Keith Andrew asked: does the firm's CEO switch signal change in direction for Unity?
- Ex-Unity CEO Helgason explained that new frontman John Riccitiello will clarify the company's vision to help developers find an audience.
- Pocket Gems' CCO Daniel Terry spoke about the company's five years of growth.
- Our Wearables Maven group considered the delay in retail VR products.
- Reliance Games CEO Manish Agarwal spoke about making games for the Indian market as well as nurturing local developer talent.
- Statesider Carter Dotson asked, whatever happened to tablet gaming?
User acquisition, retention, and discovery
- LINE announced that its increasingly popular messaging app has over 30 million registered users in India.
- Our Chart of the Week looked at the gender gap, revealing that women click, convert and spend more on mobile ads.
- In last week's Charticle we decided to take a look at one of Rovio's newest recruits, Plunder Pirates, to find out if it could unearth any of the App Stores buried treasure.
- Mobile payments company Bango signed a global agreement with Samsung to bring one-click payments to the Galaxy Apps store.
- Our Reading List looked at Eric Seufert's detailed Freemium Economics: The Savvy Manager’s Guide.
- Market research firm Newzoo's latest Quarterly Global Games Market Update predicted global mobile game revenue will reach $25 billion in 2014.
- Juniper Research predicted that over 100 million smartwatches will have been sold by 2019, before going on to suggest that a 'killer app' may never materialise.
- Lenovo revealed its China-only Google Glass rival alongside its new wearables company.
- Cloud gaming outfit OnLive partnered with Samsung to give Galaxy Note 4 users three months worth of unlimited OnLive gaming for free.
- Gameloft brought Twitch streaming to iOS versions of Heroes of Order & Chaos.
Funding, acquisitions, personnel and shuttering
- Chinese publisher CMGE gained the rights to make Hello Kitty games in China.
- Ever popular development engine Unity announced CEO and co-founder David Helgason is to step down to make way for former EA CEO John Riccitiello.
- Small Giant Games added a $3.1 million investment round to the $750,000 seed round it raised in October 2013.
- Intel Capital invested $28 million in funding to five Chinese wearable tech and Internet of Things firms.
- KongZhong announced a special dividend worth $40 million.
- OurPalm invested $30 million into loss-making subsidiary FingerFun.