Mobile Gaming Digest – April 2023
🪄WGAMES Updates
This April, WGAMES had a successful streak by launching numerous exciting games and promotions for our players.
Some of the recent updates are as follows:
A new game, this time featuring the goddess of love, Aphrodite
Another thrilling new game, Farmyard Fortune
Coin Multiplier, a promo that gives players a chance to boost their Coin balance
The amazing new promo, Speed Run, challenges players to finish the current Journey within a given short time
📌 Featured Article
Exploring the Rapidly Changing Landscape of Social Casinos: Trends, Regulations & the Impact of COVID-19
Changes in consumer behavior, technical advancements and regulatory adjustments have contributed to major changes within social casinos in recent years. Social casinos are online platforms that provide users with free-to-play games like slots, poker and blackjack, allowing them to experience the excitement of gambling without risking real money.
Today, we will look at the main trends and changes that are shaping the social casino landscape.
🚀 Industry News
Are Super-Apps Coming to the U.S. Market?
For more than a decade, the Asian tech ecosystem has been dominated by “super-apps”: platforms such as WeChat, Alipay and Meituan that offer an enormous network of services all in one integrated app. In contrast, analogous services in the U.S. have remained largely distributed, with a larger array of apps and websites each offering users a smaller subset of functionalities.
What’s Next for Hypercasual Marketing in 2023?
Earlier this year Azur Games and Google Ads joined up to discuss the development and monetization of the popular hyper-casual games model. During the meetup, Google's industry manager Anastasia Selchuk gave a presentation focused on the present and future marketing of hypercasual.
Hypercasual Games Are Shrinking While Hybrid Casual Is on the Rise
The hypercasual games market share has shrunk by almost 20% percentage points in the past year. Still, hybrid casual games are on the rise, according to a report by mobile growth acceleration platform Liftoff. The research is part of Liftoff‘s 2023 Casual Gaming Apps Report, revealing which mobile game genres and subgenres drive the most installs and the latest trends shaking up the casual gaming mobile market.
🌎 Around the Web
4 Technologies That Aren't That Big Today but Will Likely Be Massive in 20 Years
The concept of smartphones and electric cars seemed like a pipe dream 20 years ago, but today, nearly 6.92 billion people, or 86.4% of the global population, have personal smartphones. Governments worldwide are moving toward a green future by encouraging the use of electric cars instead of vehicles with combustible engines.
TikTok is Testing an In-App Tool that Creates Generative AI Avatars
TikTok is experimenting with a new tool that allows users to create generative AI avatars, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The new tool was first spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. The tool isn’t broadly available, and is currently being tested in a few select markets, the company said. With this test product, TikTok is building a Lensa-like app directly within its platform.
It’s Time To Walk Away From Legs in VR
The early days of VR’s (relatively recent) revival were characterized by attempts to highlight the things that differentiated it from other mediums. How it could function as “the ultimate empathy machine” according to Chris Milk, CEO of the recently Meta-acquired Within. Or how it realized the potential of science fiction’s vision of virtual worlds and the next evolution of the internet — a fact we still haven’t quite shaken.