China’s iOS App Store Overtakes US in Spending

China’s iOS App Store Overtakes US in Spending

Mobile analytics firm App Annie said that Chinese consumers spent USD 1.7 billion on Apple-sanctioned mobile apps in the third quarter, or about 15% higher than the nearly USD 1.45 billion spent by Americans during the same period. This is particularly remarkable considering the new regulations requiring licenses for all mobile games launched after July 1, 2016. We had heard that there was a decrease in volume in August on the China App store, but then we heard that there was unprecedented volume more recently. By our observations, mobile game developers have not run into any problems posting their games to the China App Store despite the new regulations. Could there be a foreign game loophole? We are looking into it. But, even if there is currently, we would expect it to be shut solidly January 1st when all of the regulations are firmly in effect.

Nintendo’s Reveal of the Switch

Nintendo released their newest console that blends home-based hardware and hand-held devices – the Switch. China already has a handheld of the same innovative design. While it’s not exactly the same, the similarities between Nintendo’s Switch and Aikun Electronics’ Morphus X300 are surprising! Polygon has a great overview of the biggest Switch questions to date.

France’s Paris Saint-Germain Football Club Launches Elite eSports Team

According to InsideGamesAsia, the reigning Ligue 1 champions announced their first three signings for their eSports team to take part in the ‘League of Legends’ European Challenger Series next year as well as the popular FIFA franchise. PSG’s League of Legends (LoL) team will be based in Berlin, where the official LoL league is held and the group is expected to ultimately include a coach, seven players and two analysts. In light of the football head’s resignation from China’s team , it was also just announced that Italy’s Marcello Lippi will be coaching the team going forward. eSports and real world sports are morphing more closely together all the time.

The Philippine’s Most Played Games Studio Success Abroad

Much like Vietnam’s Flappy Bird, the Philippines’ Flippy mobile game is becoming a runaway success globally – pointing to Southeast Asia’s increasing grasp on the mobile game development scene. In countries around the world, especially those in Europe (UK, Germany, Spain and more), Flippy has beaten out long-standing giants like Pokemon Go, Temple Run and Color Switch. The studio was founded in September and it is one to watch.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! @ZhugeEx is Niko analyst Daniel Ahmad – his opinions are his own and he has a very informative blog and Twitter feed. Here are a few of our tweets from last week: