The end of Free-to-Play Mobile Games?

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In today’s newsletter: Fruit Ninja developer “Halfbrick” moves away from free-to-play, 4 great premium games go on sale, MMORPG Black Desert Mobile releases huge expansion, and we’re still running a giveaway.

🎮 Top Story: Halfbrick Ends Free-to-Play

Move over, Play Pass and Apple Arcade - there’s a new fruit subscription service in town!

In a surprise move, Fruit Ninja and JetPack Joyride creator Halfbrick is moving away from free-to-play on mobile. Instead, they’re bundling all their games into the newly launched subscription service, “Halfbrick+”.

At launch, the service only features 5 games, including Fruit Ninja Classic - all available without ads and iAPs. New games are promised on a monthly basis, but are we (mobile gamers) actually interested in another subscription service?

So far, Netflix Games, Play Pass, and Apple Arcade have had a hard time reaching the mainstream mobile gaming audience. So Halfbrick definitely have an uphill battle ahead of them.

Still, any attempt at moving away from games full of ads and in-app purchases is welcomed. And maybe a bit of experimentation is exactly what we need.

There’s no info on the subscription price yet, and as reported by mobilegamer.biz, all Halfbrick games will continue to be released as stand-alone free-to-play titles too.

📢 Mobile Gaming News

Check out the latest mobile gaming news from around the web.

• Metria, an upcoming RPG from the developer of Toram Online opens for pre-registration on Android & iOS

• Fruit Ninja & JetPack Joyride creator Halfbrick moves away from free-to-play by launching a subscription service with all its games

• Mortal Kombat: Onslaught is now available for pre-registration

• Tapnation just reached 1 billion downloads across its library of games - so I suppose the “Hypercasual” genre is still kicking!

• Pokémon GO hosts a detective-themed event to celebrate the release of Detective Pikachu Returns

• The MMORPG Black Desert Mobile releases its largest-ever expansion called Land of the Morning Light

🔥 Fresh Reviews

Check out some of the latest games reviewed on MiniReview. The links below take you to the MiniReview app on Android, but we're very soon launching a website version so everyone can read them regardless of platform.

🔑 We’re (still) hosting a giveaway!

Join our giveaway for a chance to win keys for Dead Cells or Streets of Rage 4. By doing so, you can help us spread the word of MiniReview 💜

🚀 New releases

• Elderand (Android & iOS)

• Retro Bowl College (Android & iOS)

• Underground Blossom (Android & iOS)

• Baseball Stars 2 ACA NEOGEO (Android & iOS)

• Elderand (Android & iOS)

• Necro-Smith (Android & iOS)

• RubbyTron (iOS only)

🏷 Games on sale

• $3.99 $0.79 The Almost Gone (Android & iOS)

• $0.99 FREE Colossatron (Android & iOS)

• $1.99 $0.99 Quest of Dungeons (Android & iOS)

• $3.99 $1.99 Doki Doki Ragnarok (Android & iOS)

🤔 Community Poll

Last week’s poll results:
Do you ever play mobile games using a controller?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes (23)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ No (20)