10/08/2021 Hot Five: More Embracer acquisitions, a Louis Vuitton NFT mobile game and Tencent stock plummets

The hottest articles of last week

To help you keep on top of a busy news cycle and the latest hot topics in mobile gaming, each week we round up the five most-read stories on PocketGamer.biz.

Read on and digest…

1. Louis Vuitton launching NFT mobile game in August

French fashion brand Louis Vuitton is launching a mobile game with NFTs.

Launched on August 4th, 2021 for iOS and Android devices, Louis: The Game will be part of the company's celebrations for the 200th anniversary of its founder's birth.

2. Embracer makes eight acquisitions, including CrazyLabs

Swedish games publisher Embracer Group has purchased eight new companies, including mobile developer CrazyLabs.

The purchases totalled $315 million making it Embracer’s third-largest purchase this year.

3. Spanish casual startup Unusuall raises $3.6 million, led by Garena

Spanish startup Unusuall has raised $3.6 million (€3 million) in seed funding, which was led by Free Fire publisher Garena.

Unusuall's goal is to create casual mobile games with more social and more exciting experiences.

4. CrazyLabs acquires Firescore Interactive to boost Indian hypercasual ecosystem

Hypercasual publisher CrazyLabs has acquired Indian developer Firescore Interactive,

Founded in August 2018 by Karan Khairajani and Surojit Roy, the Mumbai-based developer has seen its mobile games generate over 200 million downloads.

5. Tencent stock falls by $60 billion following criticism from state media

Tencent has revealed that it will rein in accessibility options it has implemented for minors, following criticism from a state media article that saw $60 billion knocked off the company's valuation.

Following the publishing of the article, Tencent’s share price fell more than 10 per cent - plummeting the Chinese tech giant's stock by almost $60 billion.

The Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey is back for 2021, in association with AdInMo.

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Complete the survey here to be in with a chance of winning and help shape our industry trends report to be published later in the year.
Arts

https://www.pocketgamer.biz/hot-five/77012/hot-five-more-embracer-acquisitions-a-louis-vuitton-nft-mobile-game-and-tencent-stock-plummets/

Interesting NFTs
The Scion
A young figure caught in a moment of distraction, aware only ephemerally of his unconscious being, as it engages in psychological and psychedelic layer spaces. His right arm casually cradles a moray eel; the figure is comfortable but not truly aware of the potentials for danger in such negligence. His shirt reads “Bello” in Pokemon style font, harkening back to a childhood straddling the millennial threshold. To his right side, out of the unconscious deep, shrouded alien heads propagate as a fractal totem, each new iteration a more sophisticated rendering of emotional masking over the cold mystery of the greys. As the scion of the Budgie-Sattva, the young man, in his distraction, is also simultaneously aware of higher levels of self discovery. To his left a psychological topology sets beneath the oracle side of an 8 ball ,hovering; its message a purest concept of acceptance. The “Scion” lettering is in 80’s HeMan style bold declaration. The lower right side of the painting is like a hybrid of melon, feathers, and seeds. The crystals in the background bring light; conducted, refracted, reflected, and dispersed, to balance the dark shadow of the figure’s physical body. The aura of the scion succeeds in layers to point, with a finger, and the crown chakra, toward a center of a mandala existing as nigh pure application of strokes, in essence painterly abstraction, but also revealing hints of the Aura of migraine, and the bi-hemispherical nature of the brain–noting concerns of the possibility of inherited mental disease. Yet the flourish of chakra as it sets against that center is robust, active, coherent, and reveling against all fear. Fundamentally, the piece speaks to the activation of one’s potential to begin to “Know Thyself”, and find greater awareness out of the enigmas of the mind–as an inculcated seed given to the rich soil of one’s own birthright.
CryptoKitties
*waves*! I'm Kitty #345758. I'm often referred to as the Niles Crane of the group. When I'm not braiding people's hair, I'm practicing witchcraft! Can you make my raunchy dreams come true?
CryptoPunk #2338
The CryptoPunks are 10,000 uniquely generated characters. No two are exactly alike, and each one of them can be officially owned by a single person on the Ethereum blockchain. Originally, they could be claimed for free by anybody with an Ethereum wallet, but all 10,000 were quickly claimed. Now they must be purchased from someone via the marketplace that's also embedded in the blockchain.
BTC POWER
BTC POWER
Ethboy
Young Vitalik takes on the role of Picasso’s son Paulo dressed as Harlequin in this artwork but the octahedron Ethereum logo replaces the chequered pattern of the original jester outfit. Leaning against a large chair, the boy genius fiddles with his fingers in a somewhat nervous manner; nevertheless, he stares directly at the viewer with what appears to be a confident, ‘Mona Lisa-like’ smile. Vitalik has no idea what the future has in store for him, but he’s prepared to face any obstacle ahead as he begins life's adventure.