Games industry roundup: Hangar 13 wants to "surprise and disrupt", Blockchain Cuties launches, and an overview of the Roblox Developers Conference

• 1 PC game news and insights

  Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz for the last week.

  'Surprise and delight'? No, 2K's Hangar 13 studio wants to "surprise and disrupt"

  How one studio with just a rather average game to its name has quadrupled in size since 2016.

  Opinion: Care about game developers? Then stop getting angry about studios going exclusive with the Epic Games Store

  The Fortnite firm's platform might not be perfect, but it's letting creators achieve financial stability in an increasingly difficult market.

  2K reaffirms commitment to diverse hiring at Silicon Valley studio

  Developer said building a diverse workforce was vital when it was announced in February, but right now just four women work at the venture, with the other 30 employees being predominantly white men.

  What is new with Devcom 2019?

  Ahead of the Cologne show's third year, PCGamesInsider.biz caught up with managing director Stephan Reichart to find out more.

  How Chinese publisher Dragonest knew that Drodo's Auto Chess was the next big thing

  CEO and founder Loring Lee discusses the big deal.

  
  

• 2 Mobile game news and insights

  Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site Pocketgamer.biz for the last week.

  $100m dev payouts, 1.2 billion hours of engagement a month: What we learned at the Roblox Developers Conference

  PocketGamer.biz got exclusive media access to the event and we've pulled together the key news and stats revealed at the show.

  Fyber launches new ad mediation platform FairBid

  In a statement to PocketGamer.biz, Fyber president Offer Yehudai said the company was in active discussions with all major ad networks about gradually migrating from the waterfall to bidding.

  Angry Birds film sequel currently sits as highest-rated video game movie ever

  Going by the Rotten Tomatoes rating, The Angry Birds Movie 2 had an 82 per cent approval last week, making it the highest-rated video game movie ever. Note: this has since slipped to 79 per cent.

  Report claims Activision Blizzard has avoided taxes on billions

  PocketGamer.biz has discovered official documents that back up some of the claims made in the report. King is facing tax liabilities of approximately $400 million in Sweden - similar to as previously reported - while one of Activision Blizzard's French subsidiaries faces a $652 million bill.

  Take-Two wants to increase its presence in mobile as Social Point makes “meaningful” impact on sales

  It’s difficult to see how precisely how significant a contribution mobile sales actually are for Take-Two. Mobile revenue is included in ‘PC and other’, which saw earnings increase 20 per cent to $106m in Q1. That places the revenue contribution from this group at around 20 per cent.

  
  

• 3 Blockchain game news and insights

  Here are the five hottest stories from our sister-site BlockchainGamer.biz for the last week.

  OpenSea partners with Sky People over initial item sale for anticipated RPG Five Stars

  Following recent deals with blockchain games such as F1 Delta Time, NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced it will be hosting the initial item sale for another anticipated title.

  Blockchain Cuties officially goes live on FOUR blockchains

  The Blockchain Cuties Universe team has plenty to celebrate, it seems. Not only with the ongoing sale related to ‘War of Cutieland,’ but also with the recent introduction and launch of the game on NEO.

  Blockade Games integrates Ethereum and Lightning Network

  Blockade Games, more commonly known as the development team behind Neon District, has announced that it will be integrating across chains this week.

  Top performing dApps – July 2019

  Welcome to this months look into the top performing dApps in the world of Ethereum gaming! We’ve seen a couple of brand new additions over the past few months such as Cheeze Wizards and 0xRacers among others.

  Upland introduces digital currency UPX and its marketplace

  It’s been a couple of months since the development team behind Upland introduced some new features. Among them were its digital marketplace and broader digital currency – UPX. These bring with them a greater depth to just how users play the game.