With Portside Game Assembly, Gamecity Hamburg is welcoming studio heads and directors from successful indie game studios on a conference ship and other extraordinary locations in Hamburg on June 27. Benjamin Laulan, Co-Founder of Evil Empire, (Dead Cells, The Rogue Prince of Persia) will give a keynote on the Triple-i Initiative started by the French studio. At the Triple-i Showcase 2024, over 30 “iii games” were announced in 45 minutes, and 150,000 views were achieved on YouTube alone. Further speaker on board is Philomena Schwab, Founder of Stray Fawn Studio (Dungeon Clawler, The Wandering Village).

Portside Game Assembly celebrates its premiere as B2B-conference for international indie game leaders on June 27. There will be no direct ticket sales for the conference; instead, a curated list of participants will ensure that only studio heads and decision makers attend the conference on board a ship sailing through the port of Hamburg.

At the same time, the Networking Brunch and the Games Industry Party are open as networking events for interested contacts from the games industry to bring platform holders, publishers, and game companies into contact with the international conference participants. Studio leads from Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, France, Spain, Canada, the USA, and Germany are already on board for the conference.

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Portside Game Assembly is set to be a platform for decision makers and studio leads to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and face the challenges of the games industry through collaboration.

As the first announced talk of the conference, Benjamin Laulan (Co-Founder of Evil Empire) will present a keynote on the Triple-i Initiative and how to create your own announcement space and talk directly to your audience when you can’t really relate to other existing showcases. In addition, Philomena Schwab (Founder of Stray Fawn Studio & Publishing) will give a short talk about ways for game idea validation.

The program of the Portside Game Assembly will consist of keynotes, short talks, and roundtables.

Selection of already confirmed participants:

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• Evil Empire (Dead Cells, The Rogue Prince of Persia) / France
• Stray Fawn Studio (Dungeon Clawler, The Wandering Village) / Switzerland
• The Game Kitchen (Blasphemous I & II) / Spain
• Toukana Interactive (Dorfromantik)/ Germany
• Ghostship Publishing (Deep Rock Galactic) / Denmark
• Landfall Games (Content Warning, Totally Accurate Battle Simulator) / Sweden
• Chasing Carrots (Halls of Torment) / Germany
• Foulball Hangover (Hydroneer) / UK
• Siege Camp (Foxhole) / Canada

Significant industry first will see game launch from day one across 5 alternative stores in addition to Apple and Google.

Flexion, the games marketing company, announces a partnership with preeminent developer King to market new game Candy Crush Solitaire^© in alternative app stores.

Expected to be one of the exciting game announcements of the year, Candy Crush Solitaire^© will be available on the Amazon Appstore, Samsung Galaxy Store, Huawei App Gallery, Xiaomi GetApps and ONE store from the get-go thanks to Flexion’s expertise and technology. The game launches globally across platforms on 6 February and is already available for preregistration in all the stores.

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Flexion has had a partnership with King since June 2024 to market Candy Crush Saga^© on the alternative stores. With this latest deal, both companies are breaking new ground with concurrent launches, taking them to the leading edge of games marketing.

“This is the first time King will launch simultaneously across such a wide range of platforms,” says Jens Lauritzson, Flexion’s CEO. “King has recognised that mobile audiences come from a more diverse range of markets these days, and we are thrilled to be able to help them reach those markets. Flexion has brought to the partnership the tech, experience and expertise to ensure the ultimate in user choice.”

Commenting on the deal, Benjamin Pommeraud, General Manager of Strategic Initiatives at King, says: “We’re excited to partner with Flexion to make Candy Crush Solitaire available to more players. As our first expansion of the Candy universe into a new genre, this collaboration reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality experiences that are accessible to everyone, no matter where they choose to play.”