Sanrio and Bandai Namco Entertainment team up for Hello Kitty ♥ PAC-MAN, a mobile game app and a limited edition merchandise collection including t-shirts, caps, socks, tote bags, pins, and collectible figures.
SEGA Networks and WWE partner for WWE Tap Mania, a worldwide mobile game app that features a roster of past and present WWE Superstars facing off in the ring in high-octane live events and daily challenges.
Apple adds Disney and Pixar characters to its bank of stickers in its Clip social media/video app. The app allows users to edit and modify videos with stickers and overlays in a similar way to Snapchat.
Educational game platform Kahoot!, part of Disney’s Accelerator program, has boosted its series A funding round with an additional $10 million. The platform launched in 2013, offering educators accessible tools for creating educational games. Kahoot! has a public library of 20 million shared games, with 50 million users across 180 countries accessing the platform every month.
A new study from Sesame Workshop’s Joan Ganz Cooney Center shows that while all parents are interested in finding high-quality kids apps, the way they actually discover apps may vary depending on income. Middle and higher income parents were more likely to choose apps according to “relational” sources such as friends, family, and teachers. Lower-income parents were more likely to download fewer apps and to pick them from app stores including the search bar, app descriptions, app store rankings, and consumer reviews as their primary sources of information. The report concludes that the high degree of engagement between lower-income parents and their child in the selection of apps at the outset is perhaps why they are somewhat less likely than middle- or higher-income parents to test out an app themselves before letting their children use it.
Netflix’s subscriber growth is being largely fueled by mobile sign-ups, according to mobile app analytics specialist App Annie. Netflix added some 5.2 million new subs worldwide in Q2 of 2017, and now boasts over 100 million streaming subs, with more international than domestic.
Amazon is reportedly working on launching its own messaging app, Anytime, according to AFTV News. Anytime appears to be “an all-in-one feature rich service that could even rival social networks,” with a focus on messaging, voice and video calls, and photo sharing, with users able to apply filters to pictures and videos, @mention other users, use sticker and Gifs, and play games.