Raising investment in 2025 and Pokémon Go’s $8.8 billion milestone | Week in Views

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The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of…

So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we’ve created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.

Aonic on the state of games investment in 2025 and tips for raising funds

Over the past six months, anecdotally, it’s felt like more investment cash has worked its way back into the games industry.

We’ve been reporting on a host of news stories – just this past week, Circle Games raised $7.25 million, Million Victories secured $40m, Gamezop received $4m, and Global Worldwide closed an “oversubscribed” funding round.

Make no mistake – it’s still tough out there. The atmosphere at this week’s Develop: Brighton would turn fairly glum when it came to the topic of the state of the industry, particularly in the wake of Microsoft’s mass layoffs and the back of a tough few years.

I hosted a fireside chat with Aonic co-founder and chief product officer Olliver Heins on stage at the show, who has experience both obtaining investment and providing funds for other studios.

When he raised money for his first company, Heins said he contacted 700 different investors in three months. Meanwhile at Aonic, securing the company’s recent €152 million ($160m) raise took a year, with the funds set to be deployed on M&A and supporting its current portfolio.

He said investment was making its way back into the industry, but it’s much more selective. 

“They’re much more focused on doing the right due diligence,” he said. “Years ago you could go to an investor and say ‘hey, I used to work for Blizzard 20 years ago’, ‘oh, here’s your cheque’. The games industry, particularly with Covid, was so hyped, it was very easy to get big, big investments.

“Now, you still can get big investments, but they also learned they need to be knowledgeable about the industry.”

For tips on navigating the current investment landscape, be sure to check out the full article.

Pokémon Go celebrates ninth anniversary and $8.8bn in gross player spending

Pokémon Go celebrated its ninth anniversary on July 6th, a major achievement for any mobile game – let alone one of the biggest in the world, continuing to average almost $1 billion in player spending every year.

That’s based on AppMagic estimates of Google Play and App Store revenue, so Go’s true earnings are likely higher still. But from these stores alone, the AR giant has still achieved a colossal $8.8bn in its lifetime.

Of course, this was also Go’s first anniversary to be celebrated under Scopely’s ownership.

It was a fairly predictable event – Pokémon wearing party hats, appearances from old classics Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, and new celebratory attire for players’ avatars. But of all things, the latest piece of artwork did grab my attention, quietly featuring two Paradox Pokémon from Switch games Scarlet and Violet.

Great Tusk and Iron Valiant made appearances in the promotional piece – historic and futuristic variants of Donphan – all but confirming these creatures will be making their way to the game, and opening the floodgates to more Paradox Pokémon thereafter.

I suppose that’s fitting for Go’s 10th year, to look at the past and future both.