TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: PUBG Mobile Revenue Passes USD$1 Billion (£803.6m); Unity Acquires DeltaDNA; French Court's Steam Second Hand Sales Ruling Contradicts EU Law, Says Trade Body

PUBG Mobile Revenue Passes USD$1 Billion (£803.6m) Milestone

Tencent's PUBG Mobile has cleared USD$1bn (£803.6m) in revenue since undergoing a re-brand in the tech giant's home territory of China.

That's according to Sensor Tower data, which points to 540% year-on-year growth since the battle royale game was pulled in China back in May, and rapidly relaunched as 'Game for Peace'. PUBG Mobile is the smartphone version of Fortnite's great battle royale genre rival PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Now PUBG Mobile - or Game for Peace, depending on your territory - is the first battle royale game to pass the USD$1bn (£803.6m) revenue milestone across iOS and Android.

"Thanks in (large) part to its re-release in Tencent’s home market, PUBG Mobile has grown its gross revenue from approximately USD$25m [£20.1m] in August 2018 to slightly more than USD$160m [£128.7m]  last month, an increase of about 540 percent," read Sensor Tower's blog on the data.

Interestingly, even discounting the impact of the game's success in China, as of August monthly PUBG Mobile revenue has more than doubled year-on-year.

Unity Acquires DeltaDNA

Game engine and services specialist Unity has acquired the UK-based game live-ops outfit deltaDNA for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will see the deltaDNA toolset integrated with the Unity Editor.

“Today’s acquisition of deltaDNA builds on Unity’s commitment to enabling developer success at all stages of the game life cycle, from creation onwards,” said Ingrid Lestiyo, general manager of monetisation at Unity Technologies. “DeltaDNA helps developers deeply understand their players, optimise their games and increase revenue. We’re excited to welcome deltaDNA into the Unity family, and to extend the reach of their real-time engagement capabilities to creators around the world.”

French Court's Steam Second Hand Sales Ruling Contradicts EU Law, Says Trade Body

The European video game industry trade body Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) has said a recent ruling by a French court that assert Steam user's right to resell their games in fact contradicts EU law.

“This French ruling flies in the face of established EU law which recognises the need to protect digital downloads from the ease of reproduction allowed by the internet," said Simon Little, CEO of ISFE Far from supporting gamers, this ruling, if it stands, would dramatically and negatively impact investment in the creation, production and publication of, not just video games, but of the entire output of the digital entertainment sector in Europe. If Europe’s creators cannot protect their investments and their intellectual property, the impact on both industry and consumers will be disastrous.”

The ISFE believes court ruling the should be overturned on appeal.