Notes from the field on alternative app stores, OEM channels, telecom distribution, web-native formats and everything else that sits outside the standard route to market for mobile games.
Jest raised $7M to distribute games over SMS and RCS. Its own docs set a 90/10 split, one message per user per day and no rewarded ads — here is who should test it.
Listing a game on Onside's alternative iOS marketplace: eligibility, the submission flow, Onside's 10% commission stacked on Apple's fees, and EU vs Japan deltas.
Poki, CrazyGames, GameDistribution, Playgama, Telegram: the published revenue shares, payout thresholds and purchase gates behind HTML5 game monetization in 2026.
Playgama's Bridge SDK ships one HTML5 build to 20 documented portals. The published splits, the catalogue gates, and the exclusivity it costs — before you sign.
WebGPU is now default in Chrome, Safari 26 and iOS. A genre-by-genre readiness guide to which mobile titles should ship web-native in 2026 — and which should not.
A market-by-market SEA distribution playbook: OEM preloads, carrier billing and alt stores across Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines — for publishers going beyond Google Play.
KYLN bundles Huawei, Samsung and Xiaomi OEM distribution with user acquisition on one platform. How the aggregator model compares to direct OEM deals for mid-size studios.
Entitlements, notarization, builds and fees: the step-by-step checklist for listing a game on an alternative iOS marketplace in the EU, and what changes vs the App Store.
Transsion's Tecno, Infinix and itel brands took 48% of African smartphone shipments in 2025. Palmstore is their built-in store — the distribution playbook for studios.
Aptoide is the first Apple-approved third-party iOS marketplace with native IAP, at 10-20% vs 30%. What its model means for EU game publishers.
What Google Play's 2026 billing-choice policy really charges: service fee tiers, subscription rates, console fees, and alternative billing math for paid apps.
A practical game distribution framework for building a multi-channel stack: layer stores, OEM, carrier billing and web-native, and sequence them by studio stage.