Every cloud has a silver lining

Thursday's must read mobile stories Thursday's Top Mobile Stories [Monetize with ironSource]( Every cloud has a silver lining Melissa Zeloof, VP Marketing at ironSource, argues that we should take the cloud gaming hype with a pinch of salt. Cloud services may remove barriers like access, friction and processing power, but ‘it’s unlikely that that will impact how gamers from casual to hardcore will consume game content, because of the nature of the experience they are looking for’. However, it’s not all doom and gloom: cloud solutions will still contribute to the value of this rapidly growing market and expand the range of possible gaming experiences. [Read the full story on Level Up]( Shooting for the stars Call of Duty has shot down the record books, getting over 100 million downloads for its free-to-play mobile game that was launched at the start of the month. This is the highest number of downloads ever achieved in mobile gaming history, according to Sensor Tower. Considering the game hasn't been released to the Chinese market yet, despite being developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studio in Shenzhen, this is all the more impressive. So far, in-app purchases have generated over $17.7 million in revenue, so it seems Tencent have hit their target and then some. [Read the full story on The Verge]( The casual battleground Mobile e-sports is less developed than PC and console e-sports in North America, however Neo Liu, who leads Tencent Games' publishing in the region, eyes the potential for PUBG’s growth here. The key to this will be unlocking the casual market: ‘We're not trying to pressure them to be pro gamers’, Liu says, ‘because like any sport, it's always a pyramid. The top players are at the very top, but we need a foundation for that where more people can join into and enjoy events.’ Mobile e-sports generated $15.3 billion in 2018 according to [Niko Partners]( with over a third coming from Chinese gamers. If PUBG and other big name titles can bring competitive gaming to the casual mobile gaming masses in the U.S., we could see some serious growth. Get the full story on [GamesIndustry.Biz]( VentureBeat: [StreamLabs/Newzoo: Fortnite still rules Twitch, but hours watched declined in Q3]( The Drum: [Brands are benefiting as mobile gaming explode in Vietnam]( Engadget: [Google plans certification program for Android gaming phones]( Nick Yee, co-founder at Quantic Foundry, breaks down the 12 factors that motivate gamers to keep playing. [Click here]( to listen to the podcast Moonee's hyper-casual game Square Bird rose to #1 in the U.S. with the ironSource growth loop. [Click here]( to read the full case study ironSource provides leading marketing and monetization solutions for app developers [Get the ironSource SDK]( Did a friend forward this to you? [Subscribe]( to the ironSource newsletter We don't like saying goodbye, but if you want to [unsubscribe]( we understand