The ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak has been at the forefront of global news for weeks and has even made its way into the mobile gaming world. The virus has affected the industry in unprecedented ways including event cancellations, production delays, and increases in mobile game downloads. China’s population has been encouraged to stay at home so certain games have seen huge rises in activity as a result. In related news, AdColony has an update on the cancellation of our GDC activities. Get all the details in this week’s Mobile Monday!
Update From AdColony on GDC
The unexpected impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak on the mobile gaming industry is a story that is evolving daily. As developments arose, AdColony announced that we would withdraw our participation and cancel our events for Game Developers Conference (GDC). This difficult decision was made in consideration of the health and well-being of our employees and partners.
Soon after, the GDC event team announced their plans to postpone the conference with dates to be determined. Every year, the AdColony team looks forward to meeting up with new and old friends at our annual party in San Francisco. We hope to have details on rescheduled events once GDC shares new dates.
Mahjong Titles See Boosts in China During the Coronavirus Outbreak
Kalle Heikkinen from GameRefinery recently touched on how the coronavirus outbreak has affected mobile gaming in a guest article in Pocket Gamer. In addition to event cancellations, delayed production lines have created financial setbacks for several companies in the industry. In contrast, some developers are seeing boosts in gaming activity because of the virus.
In China, residents have been encouraged to confine themselves to their own homes, thus resulting in an increased demand for mobile gaming. Kalle states that mahjong and doudizhu (a popular Chinese card game) games have jumped to the top-grossing ranks. The three Mahjong titles, Sichuan Mahjong, QQMahjong, and Haling Mahjong, have all seen an impressive rise in downloads and revenues. Sichuan Mahjong, in particular, has seen a huge increase in activity with a 660% rise in downloads resulting in its first-ever appearance in the top 200 grossing titles on iOS in China. As the overall coronavirus story develops, the mobile gaming world will also be paying close attention as the outbreak effects the industry.
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