August saw major shakeups in the mobile game market, notably the launch of Epic’s Game Store on mobile devices, which opened Fortnite and Fall Guys to millions of potential new players. What does the arrival of Epic’s Game Store say about the future of alternative app stores, and do these stores have the power to rival the Google Play and the App Store?
Last month also introduced some major updates to the biggest mobile games. Ad monetization in Merge Mansion continued its rollout to selected accounts, Squad Busters removed some key items that were proving controversial with players because of their ‘pay-to-win’ element, and State of Survival upped its minigame ante with the introduction of a new digging minigame and a kitten-themed Match3 event.
Speaking of Match3, the relatively new release Truck Star from Century Games is racing ahead as it continues to scale in an incredibly competitive genre. What can the game teach us about finding success in the Match3 market? And what can the surprising performances of Love and Deep Space in the US and Marvel Snap in China teach us about growing games in new markets?
You can find more information about the biggest mobile game updates, developments, and game launches from August below, available exclusively on the GameRefinery platform.
Angry Birds: Dream Blast added a limited-time Super Bomb win streak event with similar mechanics to the “super lightball” permanent win streak in Royal Match. During the event, players could transform their normal bomb into a super bomb by beating ten main progression levels, but this doesn’t need to be in a row. The super bomb doubles the effect of a regular bomb power-up in levels and lasts until the player plays a level, incentivizing them to pay for continues or extra moves to extend the streak.
After the collaboration, the game also added a super lightball win streak event, Shiny Windmill, which is similar to the super lightball win streak in Angry Birds. Players could activate the booster by completing five levels and keep it active by holding their win streak. The booster works similarly to the game’s Windmill booster but can be used once at any time during a level.
