When the Tomb Raider reboot landed back in 2013, it did something risky. It took an icon who had spent decades as an untouchable, dual-pistol-wielding force of nature, and broke her. Gone were Lara Croft's guns akimbo and her wink-at-the-camera cockiness in favour of a makeshift bow and a desperate, mud-caked struggle to stay alive on the island of Yamatai.
In 2021, Facebook became Meta and the company claimed its focus would be to " life." It launched Horizon Worlds, a VR metaverse that people could explore and create worlds in. It looked bad and wasn't great, but it was supposedly the future. Five years later, Meta's metaverse is ditching VR and spinning Worlds into a Roblox clone after burning $70+ billion on virtual and augmented reality.
Instead of attempting to make the 3D social platform work for both VR and mobile, Meta is "explicitly separating" its "Quest VR platform from our Worlds platform" and "shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile," Samantha Ryan, Reality Labs' VP of content, says in a blog post. The new approach sets Meta up to better compete with platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, which also offer user-generated experiences that can be played on your phone.
The Jericho-based company was purchased by ARB Interactive for more than $7 million in a bankruptcy court action. Miami-based ARB specializes in mobile gaming and was one of three bidders in the auction, which was held last summer, according to court filings. PCH's new chief executive, Owen O'Donoghue, has announced a plan for Prize Protection Program guarantees going forward after the bankruptcy filing stopped payments to some sweepstakes winners.
Shares of AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP), the volatile, mobile game-focused adtech stock, were moving lower last month as the company faced another short-seller attack, software valuations came under scrutiny due to threats from AI, and Google unleashed a new platform for AI game creation, which was seen as a threat to gaming stocks. As a result, AppLovin stock fell sharply last month, closing January down 30%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Among these insights is the confirmation that the perception of who mobile gamers are (young, male, unmotivated, etc.) is completely wrong. The research shows a 50/50 split in gender and the ubiquity of mobile games among all age groups, not just young people. The survey shows that even those with significantly higher education and those in the upper echelons of household incomes are engaging with mobile games.
I first encountered the Freecash app after clicking on a sponsored TikTok video with dubious claims. The advertisement didn't promote this app by name, rather it showed a young woman expressing her excitement about seemingly getting hired by TikTok at $35 an hour to watch videos on her "For You" page. When I tapped the link to "order now," it sent me to a website with TikTok and Freecash logos, featuring a download link for the Freecash app.
"We believe that gamers want to find new content that is personalized to them," said the VP of Samsung Games Services. He continued: "We want to bring content to users and make it immediately available for them to play. We have instant plays where, through our cloud streaming technology, we can take Android-native games and put them in the cloud, so that when users want to try them, they don't have to go through the friction of downloading them first."
The X5 Alteron controller gets the best of both worlds: GameSir's ergonomic engineering that makes it the first choice for gamers, and Hyperkin's knack for designing retro controllers. What sets the modular controller apart is the swappable module system that allows gamers to completely change the layout from symmetrical to asymmetrical thumbsticks, to changing the D-pad and face buttons. Designer: GameSir and Hyperkin
OhSnap won our hearts (and a best of CES award) last year with the MCON, its tiny Bluetooth game pad that magnetically connects to your phone. At the time, we tried a pre-production unit, but in the year since the MCON has been finalized and went on sale last month. I just got a chance to try the final version here at CES, and just a quick demo was enough to convince me that OhSnap has made some solid refinements over the last year.
A new controller from 8BitDo has been announced for smartphones, and this add-on will make your phone resemble a next-gen Game Boy. At CES 2026, 8BitDo showed off the FlipPad, a gamepad that connects to a smartphone via its USB-C port. Details on the FlipPad are scarce for now, but 8BitDo says it will support both iOS and Android devices.
The hybrid controller features a miniature direct-drive steering wheel positioned in the center, delivering force feedback and 1080-degree rotation for immersive racing game action. Designer: Gamesir For racing sim fans, the quandary has always been to either choose a portable setup, or go for more detailed but bulky setups. This gamepad hits the sweet spot for casual gamers like me who always wanted something that's compact.
Mario Kart World topped charts for months after the Switch 2 came out. Part of that is console bundles inflating the numbers, but Mario Kart was always going to sell regardless. Donkey Kong Bonanza performed well too, both games got good reviews and people actually bought them instead of just talking about them online. EA Sports FC 25 keeps showing up in sales data because football games always sell in the UK.
Integrated social features allow users to share their achievements interact with other players and participate in community challenges thus creating an enriching social dimension and fostering long-term engagement on the platform. Interface design automatically adapts to various screen sizes and device orientations delivering optimal visual experience across desktop tablet and mobile devices through native apps or web browsers. Technical infrastructure is built on distributed server networks ensuring fast loading times smooth navigation and responsive performance even during high-traffic periods maintaining consistent user experience quality.
On December 22, Sega and Rovio will unleash Toho's iconic monster on Dr. Eggman's Toy World with a new stage: Godzilla Survival. The goal of that stage is simple. Players simply have to survive a Godzilla attack in the middle of the ocean while running from boat to boat. Trust us, you don't want to be stuck when Godzilla unleashes his atomic fire. Players will only get a single respawn on this stage, so run as if your virtual life depends upon it. Because it does.
The smartphone should have ushered in the next generation of Game Boy-like handhelds. They're always in our pocket. They're powerful enough to play so many games, past and present. They have pretty screens with high refresh rates (at least the latest iPhones finally do). So what's the problem? Well, part of it is the games (really, the lack of varied, quality original titles). The other issue at play is the awkward touch-based controls eating up valuable screen real estate.
The smartphone in your pocket can be a surprisingly versatile gaming device, but admittedly, touchscreen controls aren't the best. Fortunately, there's a wide range of accessories that you can equip to your phone, and this new magnetic case from MCon looks like it'll hit the Goldilocks zone for functionality and compact design. Now available to preorder for $145 (was $150), the MCon is designed to fit "most" phones using its magnetic clamps.
Abxylute, a company known for its Android-based handhelds, has announced a new compact mobile controller for smartphones. Unlike controllers from companies like Backbone and 8BitDo that use an expanding mechanism to clamp onto phones, Abxylute's smaller and lighter M4 Snap-On controller uses a Q-shaped mount to magnetically attach to mobile devices that are compatible with Apple's MagSafe or the Qi2 standard, which now includes Google's Pixel 10 series.
TapNation, the mobile game publisher behind Thief Puzzle and , has partnered with ad quality leader AppHarbr to elevate player experiences and maximise ad performance. With real-time ad quality controls, TapNation prevents disruptive creatives from ever reaching players, eliminating unskippable ads and preserving seamless gameplay. While ads fuel revenue and enable progression through rewarded play, poor ad quality creates friction from intrusive creatives and aggressive templates to app crashes. This leads to complaints, churn, and negative reviews that undermine long-term growth.
Life is a series of battles, and I just lost my last one against four gyoza on a skewer. It was an unexpected blow, because honestly, who could have expected me - a springy, respectably proportioned hot dog - to lose against a seemingly inflexible spear of small, unassuming dumplings? This is my struggle in Sausage Legend: Arena, a mobile game with a very simple premise: duel with other players' sausages and win.
Things really took off when [Steve] Jobs and Apple launched the original iPhone in 2007, which going back to that day, actually, it was a closed ecosystem. There was no app store when Apple launched the iPhone. That first year in 2007, which is when I became interested in gaming as a business, a team of coders cracked the phone,
There's the saying, "good artists copy, great ones steal." And then there's whatever Ananta is doing. The upcoming open-world RPG from NetEase developer Naked Rain is going viral again thanks to new footage from Tokyo Game Show 2025. While it might look like the latest round of Genshin Impact-inspired mobile anime slop, the developer has confirmed it won't be relying on exploitative gambling mechanics to earn its keep. It will, however, be ripping off Spider-Man in every way it can.
