Mobile Games News Review | Week of 7-13 March 2022

Check out the weekly recap of mobile gaming news on Android and iOS for the week of March 7 to 13, 2022! We'll let you read it all below. ⬇️

miHoYo update: Genshin and Honkai news

1️⃣ After the peregrinations of Genshin Impact in Val Thorens, another miHoYo license invades real spaces abroad. An art exhibition is thus given in honour of Honkai Impact 3rd around the world for the 4 years of the Honkai universe. The exhibition launched on March 11 in Berlin and will then follow in New York and even Sao Paulo, with other destinations to be revealed later. The exhibition features no less than 300 official artworks to showcase the epic atmosphere of the title in a creative light.

2️⃣ Still at miHoYo, we're offering you the chance to participate in the posterity of Honkai Impact 3rd. You can now sign up as a beta tester for Honkai Star Rail, the new title in the license, via the Galaxy Explorer Program set up by the Chinese developer for a second round of beta test.

And for Genshin, as future updates become clearer, an Apple iPad Air advert has fans reacting as the woman on the screen uses electro attacks against an electro boss that visibly displays "immune". I might as well say that purple on purple looks good to sell, but it's pretty dumb for the gameplay. You'll have to beat a boss as immune as Gwen in the League of Legends Rift for a while to get through it. But, you'll tell me, it's no worse than the scene where Horizon Zero Dawn is presented as a multiplayer in the Netflix series Lupin...

Pre-registration and new mobile games

3️⃣ For pre-registration... Also on the list is Brave Soul: Frozen Dungeon, an RPG from Unlock Games that is only available for Android players. The title is presented as a gacha with more than 100 heroes linked to the main storyline and PvP options to compete with other players. The same goes for Summoners War: Chronicles , which has opened its pre-registrations in Thailand for a closed beta. This top-down RPG will unlock the secrets of many dungeons in real time. Unfortunately, its secrets won't be open to Western players for a while... If you want to play a recent Com2Us title, I'm afraid you'll have to settle for Valkyrie Rush. 😂

4️⃣ On the new release side, we're treated to a colourful runner called Axolotl Stars, for a Fall Guys-like rendition on mobile. On a completely different note, enjoy a childhood in the 90′ with a PC game port to Android called Growing Up. This narrative game features twenty characters, relationships to develop, a skill tree to specialise in as you grow from a child to an 18 year old adult. Unlock the different endings of your adventure by living or reliving the joys of the 90′. The game Phobias present in Indonesia makes its debut in the rest of the world soon (see trailer). This gacha mixes opening boosters and arena combat between Phobies, monsters born from all fears and present in the number of 120.

Error300 Games is busy with the launch of Mosaic Chronicles, a sublime puzzle game with fantasy stained glass windows to piece together. Launching on Android and iOS, the title features a first storyline "A bit of horoscope" and will then be expanded with a second storyline (already available on the Steam PC version) "The Lucky Knot".

Finally, the retro fighting game Fatal Fury becomes available on Android and iOS with its 16 legendary fighters.

Niantic news: buyout, Niantic Days and Campfire

5️⃣ In the style of Pokémon GO, Niantic is launching its Niantic Days, which kicks off with a launch event this weekend, on 13 March, and will be held once a month thereafter until July 2022. These events will take place in over 20 IRL locations, mainly in Germany and the UK, against 200 different virtual spaces from 11am to 5pm, with free merchandise to be collected. Simultaneously, the firm is acquiring 8th Wall, a company at the forefront of augmented reality web technologies, to support its ideas of IRL metavers with mixed reality.

In addition, there are rumours that Niantic is producing a game called Campfire. Niantic's efforts in creating a new licence have not been publicly presented since Ingress, almost a decade ago. While the studio is focused on its mobile adaptations Pokémon GO and Pikmin Bloom and its planned augmented reality solutions for developers, these rumours were born out of a trademark application form and no more is known at this time.

Updates, patches and special collaborations

6️⃣ Karma and Shen join the Summoner's Rift in the Season 5 start of the ranked Wild Rift.

7️⃣ As the 1. 9 update looms on the horizon and is set to be released on March 18, FPS players are treated to a PUBG mobile x Warframe collaboration. The partnership follows content deals between PUBG and Arcane as well as Battle Royale and k-pop group BTS.

8️⃣ The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross is offering free draws to its players as a login reward to celebrate its two-year anniversary on mobile! The game also features a new hero festival and better drops.

9️⃣ FunPlus has also signed a partnership with Orlando Bloom for King of Avalon. Sometimes an elf archer and sometimes a loyal pirate, the Hollywood actor will be available as a playable character under the nameOrlando the Nightshard.

🔟 Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel has surpassed 20 million downloads since its release in late January. To celebrate passing the popularity milestones at such a speed, the game is getting an additional story, a new portal with its dedicated rewards and multiple single player F2P missions.

Esport mobile and decisions for Eastern Europe

1️⃣1️⃣ Attention fans of e-sports performance and mobile gaming tournaments! Snapdragon is teaming up with ESL to offer the Snapdragon Pro Series 2022, a major mobile competition. The event is scheduled to begin in April 2022 and will feature a cash prize of US$2 million. The deal signed between the two entities featured in this trailer commits them over several years to growesport mobile to a scale never before seen. It also takes the game out of the realm of self-run tournaments and offers events across multiple games from different studios.

The thrill of competitive gaming and the excitement of elite competition will now be available at any time, from the pocket of any player around the globe. This will give all players the opportunity to become champions.

Snapdragon Pro Series Trailer

In addition, the leak of the Call of Duty mobile roadmap for itsesport 2022 Champions season has particularly delighted players of this FPS on smartphone. This week also saw the confirmation of the leak on the upcoming release of CoD Warzone mobile!

1️⃣2️⃣ Ukraine / Russia - Rovio (Angry Birds) is pulling out of the Russian and Belarusian markets on Playstore and Appstore. Here Rovio follows the path set by the anti-war decisions in Ukraine made by Mojang and Supercell. On the one hand, Rovio is removing its games from the stores, preventing downloads and not offering any more updates in these countries. On the other hand, all advertising spaces visible to its current players in the designated countries will be filled with UNICEF promotions instead of the usual ads. It is expected that other studios will take similar measures in the coming days and weeks until the situation in Eastern Europe calms down.

Thank you for reading this week's news to the end, and see you next week!