The Ledger #2: GDC leftovers and a $6B MOBA

Five updates left over from GDC, all of them worth carrying into the ledger.

This ledger's GDC leftovers: Unity tunes its engine, not just its ad stack

Ahead of GDC, Unity pushed updates to its rendering pipeline, added Surface Cache global illumination to the Unity 6.7 LTS track, previewed a Platform Toolkit with Steam support, and put an experimental CoreCLR desktop player into testing, while also expanding its in-app purchase platform to handle direct premium content sales. None of that touches Unity Vector or the ad network. It does signal where Unity wants developer goodwill to come from this year.

What it means for buyers: nothing changes in your dashboard this week, though a healthier engine business is the thing propping up Grow's growth story if ad demand cools.

Google Play courts the PC-indie crowd

At GDC, Google Play detailed Game Trials, a try-before-you-buy feature, alongside Buy Once Play Anywhere cross-device pricing, wishlists, in-app Community posts, plus an AI overlay called Play Games Sidekick. The push leans toward paid and PC-style indie titles rather than free-to-play whales.

What it means for buyers: budget store-listing and pricing work around these features before they go mainstream, assuming your title has a premium SKU or cross-device ambitions.

Adjust's numbers back the retention pivot

Adjust's March report found the global paid-to-organic install ratio up 61% year on year, with strategy game sessions up 57%, casual up 37%, and hyper-casual up 31%. ATT opt-in edged up to 39% in the first quarter, from 38% a year earlier.

What it means for buyers: paid traffic is doing more of the acquisition work everywhere, and that raises the cost of getting retention modelling wrong.

Moloco keeps shipping under the radar

Moloco's March changelog added campaign metadata to ad-decision responses, a Max Sales ROAS range control, Smart Selection V2 catalogue filters, and an upgraded machine-learning relevance framework. None of it announced with fanfare.

What it means for buyers: check the changelog directly. Moloco is not surfacing these the way AppLovin surfaces earnings.

ByteDance sells Moonton for $6B

ByteDance has agreed to sell Moonton, maker of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, to Savvy Games Group for $6B, roughly 50% above the near-$4B ByteDance paid for it in 2021. Management stays in place.

What it means for buyers: Savvy now holds stakes in Moonton, Scopely, and, via Scopely, Loom Games. Cross-portfolio UA coordination across that group is worth watching later this year.