Space Ape raises $7M, Monster Strike bests Puzzle & Dragons, and should wearables be subsidised?

Such is the pace of the mobile games' industry, despite the loaming holiday season, there's no let up when it comes to news.

Of course, Pocket Gamer is partly responsible, given our PG Connect London 2015 conference (13-14 January) is mere weeks away.

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UA remains a key issue for the industry, with Tapdaq's Dom Bracher pointed out that it's just too expensive for small developers, while Pocket Gems is looking to get around this cost issue laterally thanks to its licensing of the Night at the Museum.

Still, if you've got the money, it does work. Wargaming generated 500,000 of the 10 million installs of World of Tanks Blitz on iOS from its advertising campaign with dmp. It's now switching to promote the Android version.

We'd expect to see lots of UA companies clustering around London developer Space Ape too, given it's just raised $7 million for its forthcoming title Rival Kingdoms.

But, just perhaps, we shouldn't all be so bullish. As Carter Dotson argues in his Stateside column, the rise of mobile gaming is the byproduct of dramatic shifts in technology usage that weren't linked to gaming. Future shifts might not have such a positive impact.

• The East Meets West track will feature speakers from Perfect World, Gumi, Kabam, King and Reliance.
• Biodroid's Ricardo Flores Santos discussed the need to balance innovation and investment.
• Is your game unique enough to breakout, asks Pixel Toys' CEO Andy Wafer?

• In our studio profile, we spoke to Danish studio Set Snail - best known for its Daddy Long Legs physics game - about embracing the experimental side of game development.
• Our Statesider, Carter Dotson argued that the continued rise and rise of mobile gaming is not guaranteed.
• We asked out Mobile Mavens if promotional events like Red and Black Friday drive monetisation?
• Spanner Spencer argued that OEMs, game devs and health companies should combine to make wearables a success.
• PlayScreen's William D. Volk explained How rethinking a 5 year-­old game in the context of a clone led to current release Impossible Hex.
• Alistair Aitcheson revealed how to create crazy-fun gameplay without confusing your players.

• 94% of independent developers can't afford to acquire users through mobile advertising, reported Tapdaq's Dom Bracher.
• This week's Charticle compared a tale of two IPs - Candy Crush Soda Saga vs. Vainglory.
• Disney reacted to F2P concerns with subscription tie-in for Club Penguin Puffle Wild.
• Pocket Gems hopes to find cheaper UA with its Night at the Museum game.
• AppLovin's Mark Rosner argued that it pays to pay attention to retention.
• Mixi's Monster Strike finally snatched the Japanese #1 top grossing spot from GungHo's Puzzle & Dragons.
• Following an advertising campaign that generated 500,000 iOS installs, Wargaming unleashed its Android campaign for World of Tanks Blitz.
• As UA extends from launch into lifecycle, you need sharper analytics, says Adjust's Japanese MD Shawn Bonham.

• Unity's deal with APM bought hundreds of thousands of music tracks to Unity Asset Store.
• Promising to revolutionise your data, Omniata launches Data Apps.
• DeltaDNA dropped price of its analytics for indies at launch by 90% to $100 a month.

• UA platform Ad2games raised $9 million for global expansion.
• Mobile strategy developer Space Ape raised $7 million for its follow up to Samuari Siege.
• Spanish developer A Crowd of Monsters raised $550,000.
• Game Insight hired ex-Unity evangelist Oleg Pridiuk to push its high-end 3D gaming.
• Rovio shut down its Tampere studio as it confirmed 110 job losses.
• Vainglory dev Super Evil hired George 'Zekent' Liu as its video community manager.

• Tag Games (Dundee) is hiring senior and junior roles for coding, artist and design.
• GREE (San Francisco) is looking for a director of engineering.
• PlayQ (Santa Monica) is looking to hire a creative director.
• Innogames (Hamburg) is looking for community managers.

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