Apple’s big moment | PocketGamer.biz
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We’re back from sunny Barcelona where we hosted Pocket Gamer Connects in the city for the first time this week.
It was great to see one of Europe’s most important games hubs come together for two days of networking and insightful talks. Key industry players at the show included Scopely, King, Rovio, FunPlus, Sandsoft, Homa, Metacore, Tilting Point, ID@Xbox and many others.
Once the dust has settled we’ll share the big numbers, but it’s safe to say from early feedback and by every metric that the event was a huge success. A huge thank you to everyone who attended and supported the show.
If you didn’t make it, we’ll have video recordings of a number of sessions from the show live on the PocketGamer.biz YouTube channel in the next few weeks. Don’t forget to check out the PocketGamer.biz site and podcast for more insights and takeaways from the show, too!
A tale of two (other) events
One of the big topics on everyone’s lips (and in the PGC Barcelona schedule!) was of course the Epic Games Vs Apple ruling that has broken open the App Store. Direct-to-consumer has been a trend for a long time now, but Epic CEO Tim Sweeney’s legal crusade, along with pressure on Apple in the EU from the Digital Markets Act, has kicked it into overdrive.
Just this week, a US Court of Appeals rejected Apple’s request to delay the injunction pending appeal. The prognosis looks increasingly dire for the tech giant.
Sweeney has been running victory laps this week during Unreal Fest 2025. He said revenue is “shifting away from useless gatekeepers and middlemen to developers who actually build this stuff”. Tell us how you really feel, Tim.
The Epic Games Store has been installed 40 million times on mobile – 60m shy of its 100m target. But viewing Epic through the lens of the Fortnite company, any method of transferring revenue away from Apple and into its own pockets is surely a win.
All eyes now turn to WWDC next week. Will Apple discuss the elephant in the room and make some big statement announcements to recover its reputation and try to win back developers? Or will it stick its head in the sand and pretend that the world hasn’t changed?
The conference comes at a difficult time for Apple, during what is still an active legal case (by its own design), but seeming inaction on the ruling and its revenue share will be a glaring omission from the show for anyone working in the mobile industry.
It’s going to be a big week.
