ArcheAge War, Palworld, Ex Astris: this week's mobile games recap

In this Recap, find out about the announcement of the mobile puzzle game The House of Nikola Tesla for 2024, the release of Ex Astris, an RPG with enchanting graphics, the Palworld phenomenon and its potential mobile port, Death Stranding Director's Cut and a whole host of other news, which we'll be looking at together today.

The best mobile games announcements and releases, from ArcheAge War to Ponpu

The start of the year is packed with announcements for the whole of 2024. Get ready for some big releases and an expanded catalogue of games from today's biggest publishers.

• ArcheAge War's release date this summer: Kakao Games' title will offer a cross-platform experience with the familiar races and world of ArcheAge. Riding your exotic steeds, explore the legacy of Delphinad and the Lost Continent on Android, iOS and PC.

• Release of Ex Astris on 27 February: This Gryphline-published RPG with a huge universe and sci-fi focus invites you to explore the world of Allindo and travel from star to star as you follow the story and fight in semi-real time, with tactical phases and animation in fantastic settings.

• Palworld developers recruit for mobile games: This explosive title has opened up job vacancies in Tokyo for Unity developers, with a particular focus on mobile. Perhaps Palworld's success will bring it to Android and iOS, but there's no guarantee.

In addition to the big titles, the visual novel Methods: Detective Competition, Ponpu and Yuppie Psycho will be released as a Crunchyroll subscription, and the alchemist game Atelier Resleriana will be released worldwide. For the month of February, don't miss the release dates for iLLANG on 8 February and Please, Touch the Artwork 2 on 19 February.

Early bird and test phases, Death Stranding iOS at the forefront

Superheroes and cute creatures are mixing it up at the end of January thanks to various early accesses on phones. Here's our pick of the pre-registrations and betas that marked the week on Android and iOS.

• Pre-registration for Bleach: Soul Reaper in South-East Asia: the well-known mobile game opens pre-registration for its mobile version in SEA.

• Dreamster World enters regional early access on Android: In addition to Palworld, another Pokémon-inspired game is in our news. Dreamster World by Yiqiao Wang offers players the chance to become a Dreamio trainer on a remote island on the Play Store.

• Death Stranding Director's Cut goes on pre-registration: Norman Reedus will soon have his face on our small smartphone screens with the arrival of Death Stranding Director's Cut on iPhone 15, following in the footsteps of the recent triple-A releases on Apple devices. Pre-registration for the game has just opened, and it's expected to hit phones on 31 January.

• DC: Dark Legion enters beta in selected regions: Decorate your Batcave, create your superhero line-up and dominate all hazards in PvE and PvP in the DC Dark Legions regional beta open to all.

These mobile games are joined by early access for Minuscule Survival on Android in the US, the soft launch of Candy Crush Blast in the Philippines and the preparation of an HD mode for Old School RuneScape.

Industry news: over 5,000 redundancies, Asus ROG Ally 2 and 20 Krafton games in the pipeline

2024 is already shaping up to be a dark year for employees in the video games industry. The horizon is full of clouds, but a few games are managing to pull through, like Fortnite.

• 20 projects in the pipeline at Krafton: At its in-house Krafton Live Talk, the South Korean company talked about 20 projects currently in development in its editorial line-up, including Project Black Budget, inZOI, the next Subnautica title and Dinkum Mobile. What's more, Krafton is aiming to release Dark and Darker Mobile and inZOI in 2024, so get ready.

• Fortnite returns to iOS in Europe in 2024: Fortnite will return to Apple devices in 2024, in Europe only, with no specific date, thanks to new regulations introduced by the Digital Markets Act.

• 5,000 people have already lost their jobs in video games by 2024: Farhan Noor has set up a site called Video Games Layoffs, which keeps a chronological record of the waves of redundancies. More than 10,000 jobs were eliminated in 2023, and now that we're not even at the end of January of the new year, 2024 already totals 5,000 redundancies. We were at 3,700 before Microsoft announced a tsunami of 1,900 job cuts. It's starting to really sting.

As for portable games, the market continues to consolidate. The ASUS ROG Ally 2 is due to arrive in 2024 alongside the MSi Claw and Lenovo Legion GO consoles. And the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2024 event will have a mobile section.