Mobile Games News Review | Week of June 27 - July 3, 2022

Check out the weekly round-up of mobile gaming news on Android and iOS for the week of June 27 to July 3, 2022! On the agenda this week: a trailer for Avatar Reckoning, the League of Legends Esports Manager beta, the acquisition of a major mobile studio, big changes at Niantic and much more to discover in this recap. We'll let you read all about it below. ⬇️

New mobile games

1️⃣ Let's start this recap with the colourful but wild world of Pandora. This week, the upcoming mobile game Avatar Reckoning unveils a trailer Cinematic to build up the hype. These never-before-seen images from Tencent and Archosaur Games ' MMORPG give a better view of the beautiful landscapes you'll be able to explore as a Na' Vi in PvE or PvP quests. Some of the areas are already known, but others will appear for the first time in the second film in the saga, Waterway. You can already sign up for the beta to be notified of test in your area, but it is likely that Avatar Reckoning will not be released worldwide until 2023.

2️⃣ On the side of planned releases, we find. Aether Gazer, an anime-style action-RPG set in a dystopian sci-fi universe. This week, Yostar Games announced that they would officially publish this title that surfs the most trendy themes. Aether Gazer offers you to create a squad of three characters with unique movements and abilities. During battles, you will control one of the characters while the AI will take care of the other two. The title is aimed at both casual and competitive gamers and is expected to be released in the last quarter of 2022.

3️⃣ If none of the Jurassic Park or Jurassic World games of the past few years have been able to completely convince me, it's not the release of Jurassic World Primal Ops on Android and iOS that will raise the bar. In this game, you play as a dinosaur breeder and rescuer around the world. After choosing from one of the three available trainers, you'll go out and face poachers to rescue endangered dinos and collect DNA fragments in a gacha system to painfully grow your Dinodex.

Even as a fan of this universe and anything that comes close to a mutant dinosaur, you will probably find it hard to enjoy the immersion. Indeed, the title is weighed down withslow movement and your involvement in the fighting is limited to playing the necromancer by summoning minions and sending them to be slaughtered for you. Jurassic World Primal Ops clearly lacks dynamism and will force you to systematically hide rather than take part in the action, which proves to be quite frustrating in the long run. Finally, this title, available for free on Android and iOS, has a rather short energy bar that you'll have to reload through ads.

4️⃣ While Diablo Immortal is playing leech on its community, other games are turning to the new El Dorado of monetization: NFTs. The first production from Azra Games studio, Legions & Legends is shaping up to be an action-oriented, blockchain-based gacha with unique heroes to collect. Even if the title doesn't offer any visuals other than those of its official website and teaser, we know that NFT will be the first to arrive, with a sale organized this summer, even before the release of the game. As for the gameplay, this world mixing magic and technology will offer an experience close to Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and will propose you to trade your heroes against Ethereum.

5️⃣ If you're like me and every time you check out a big LoL event like MSI or Worlds, you have an essential need to get back into the game when you barely touch the game the rest of the year, all to rage after ten games, then I may have found a vaccine to save you. In addition to the usual fantasy leagues, you'll soon have the opportunity to play League of Legends Esports Manager.

With a few announcements, we learn that Tencent is handling the publishing in China and that Riot Games is focusing on the global release of the game. While a beta will take place in July in China, we don't yet know the global release date of the title. One thing is for sure, however, and that is that part of the revenues from the application should be used to fund regional leagues, notably the LPL. Moreover, the game's statistics will be updated regularly to reflect real-life e-sports events.

6️⃣ For fans of racing games with tricks or good thrills, there's a new game you might like. Named Descenders, this all-downhill mountain bike simulation is coming to Android and iOS for 10 euros. Extreme sports fans will surely have recognised this game which was released on PC and Xbox in 2019 before appearing in Game Pass. This time, all controls are adapted to the touchscreen for a nice dynamic feel with this official port.

7️⃣ 4X strategy game, Era of Conquest will begin its beta next month. With an almost perfectly identical style to Rise of Kingdoms, this title which has already been available in China for several months will soon be given a worldwide release.

You know the drill: to build an empire strong enough to dominate your opponents, you'll need to train armies and commanders, build buildings, research technology, complete missions, kill camps in PvE and join forces with other players to take a slice of the server map in the name of your alliance. Nothing new under the sun, but if you missed out on Rise of Kingdoms, perhaps Era of Conquest will interest you, with its battles of up to 6,000 deployed units.

Niantic news and Nintendo game revenues

8️⃣ End of production and cancellation for 4 Niantic games this week. Far from being finished, the games Hamlet, Blue Sky, Snowball and Transformers: Heavy Metal are actually cancelled. Hamlet was to be a narrative interactivity project with a theatre company. Blue Sky and Snowball will remain a mystery as we had no concrete information on these two titles, but Transformers had already announced its release and we told you about the game in June 2021. The reason for these cancellations is primarily economic as Niantic is laying off just under 10% of its employees. Even if Pokémon GO reaches a high status among the most profitable mobile games, we remember the closure of Wizards Unite's servers and we must admit that Niantic's games follow each other with what appears above all as a skin on a gameplay already seen. Via a press release, the vice-president of communications at Niantic Labs explains that they wish to consolidate their already well established games and focus on upcoming projects such as Peridot and NBA All-World.

I have to admit that Niantic's communication sometimes leaves me confused, with trailers that don't represent the game experience at all and press releases that are partly aimed at the pros but also at the general public, which makes the whole thing a bit confusing. On the news side, it's Campfire 's turn to make its debut. Without actually being a game, the title offers to gather your friends from all Niantic games in one place, like an internal social network. You can also take advantage of geolocation services to find other players and organise local events and gatherings.

9️⃣ With the presentation of NBA All-World, I finally realised that Niantic was too far into the metaverse for me. Billed as a " real-world NBA game for casual and hyper NBA fans that empowers players to show off their individual style", this title doesn't reveal much unless I don't understand what it's about. With this partnership between the NBA and Niantic, players will get to wear "current NBA fashion-inspired apparel with the games," according to the release. Honestly, I'll skip the rest, but there's nothing to retain from all this except that Niantic is pushing to demonstrate its originality and will offer an immersive basketball game, thought in the dynamics of the metaverse, with official licenses. Basketball fans, get ready for a new skin augmented reality game or hold on to your hopes.

🔟 You probably know this, but Nintendo licensed games have found their audience on mobile. So it's no surprise to find out via a Sensor Tower report that these titles are making big bucks. With this little point on the numbers, it may come as a surprise to discover Fire Emblem Heroes at the top of the Nintendo game revenue rankings, with 1 billion spent by gamersrs, but half of that figure is made by Japanese gamers, a market that doesn't fully reach us in the French-speaking world. Also, although it may seem like Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are on par, the cute life simulation game on mobile has been around for a year and a half longer than Mario Kart Tour, for the same figures. And for those who missed the news last year, Dr. Mario World closed in November 2021.

Mobile game updates of the week and Sybo takeover

1️⃣1️⃣ Let's move on to the updates of the week. And we start with TFT which was already in last week's recap. This time, the 12.12b patch comes to catch up with the 12.12 of the previous week because the effects of the first patch were not enough to prevent the current meta from focusing too much on a few compositions. This patch is much more substantial than Riot's usual planned interim updates. The major changes in the TFT 12.12b patch affect Assassins, some Dracomancers, jump mechanics and a nice Diana nerf, but full details of this update can be found in our detailed article.

1️⃣2️⃣ For the summer, PUBG Mobile companions are out. In addition to the hawk you already know, the in-game shop reveals new pets to adopt such as a plush toy, a dog and even a cat. If you'd like to know how to get them and their costumes, check out our article in the description. Otherwise, for the pleasure of your eyes, discover all the costumes of these new companions, such as the lion, the gangster or even the rabbit, before going to pet these little virtual creatures in PUBG Mobile.

1️⃣3️⃣ For Supercell, updates are also in the pipeline. With the arrival of July, we also discover the arrival of custom Clash Royale banners. It must be said that Clash Royale profiles are almost interchangeable except for the nickname and emotes, so this summer update is obviously welcome. Displayed at the start of the game, the banners have three different custom layers: the decoration, the background and three badges to place. The badges are offered as rewards for achievements, while you'll need to collect frames and decorations by opening banner chests to decorate your profile all summer.

1️⃣4️⃣ On another Supercell game, CoC troop training is becoming free. I'm obviously referring to Clash of Clans, which made this announcement within the week. No more spending Gold, Elixir and Black Elixir to train your best army. 9 years after the launch of Clash of Clans, this fundamental change shakes up the original codes to offer players new strategies and push them to rethink their game plan. However, the formation times and the number of slots required to form your units do not change. With all that extra elixir on your hands, you can now spend it instead of gold to reinforce your walls once you reach Town Hall 5. With Clan Capital last month, Supercell is making some big decisions for their original game and giving a second wind to what has become a classic game experience.

1️⃣5️⃣ Meanwhile, Clash of Clans and Hay Day are inviting themselves for their 10th anniversary in Brawl Stars Season 13. The late June Brawl Talk reveals the depths of the ocean, a new Otis brawler, a Penny redesign, a new game mode and skins in addition to some balancing and content changes. Taking into account player suggestions, the developers have also decided to add new challenges in the update. Full details of this Brawl Talk can be found on the official game website.

1️⃣6️⃣ Finally, we wrap up the week's mobile gaming news with the acquisition of Sybo, which is among the biggest European mobile deals ever. Sybo is the developer and publisher of Subway Surfers, one of the most popular games on Android and iOS since its release in 2012 and the first mobile game to reach one billion downloads on Google Play. This week, the studio is being acquired by Miniclip, another mobile giant known for 8-ball Pool and Agar.io, and it is hoped that its work will be boosted by the acquisition. It is not known how much the acquisition cost, but Sybo has a daily player base of almost 30 million people worldwide.