According to data compiled from the Digital Transformation Office of Türkiye's presidency on Tuesday, the figure jumped 60% from the same period of last year.

The UK followed it with $158 million, Norway with $60 million, Finland $53 million, and Sweden with $24 million.

While some $600,000 were invested in the Turkish games industry in 2017, the figure rose to $1.8 million in 2018, $8.4 million in 2019, $14.4 million in 2020, and $264 million dollars in 2021.

Istanbul was the second city with the largest number of deals in the gaming industry in Europe last year and ranked 5th globally.

Some 92.3% of internet users play video games in Türkiye, over the world average of 81.9%.

With a volume of $1.2 billion in 2023, mobile games constitute the largest part of the market.

Located in Kocaeli, a province in northwestern Türkiye, the valley's Digital Animation and Game Center (Digiage) will host game developers from 21 countries from Sept. 1-11.

More than 1,000 game enthusiasts from all over the world, including Greece, France, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, and Nigeria, are expected to participate in the International Game Development Summer Camp.

Software developers, designers, screenwriters, publishers, advertisers, and managers in the game ecosystem are expected to attend both in person and online, staying in tents as they design their projects to present to an international jury during the 10-day camp.

"We aim to contribute to value production at the international level in the field of games. Bringing young people from different cultures together is very valuable, as diversity plays an important role in generating original ideas," said Serdar Ibrahimcioglu, the IT Valley's general director.

He underlined that with the event, the Digiage would be imbued with an international dimension, adding that they hoped to host more countries in the future.

Digiage was established to support the Turkish video game development ecosystem by attracting skilled professionals to the sector and contributing to the development of game studios with such camps. After an earlier camp was held online in the winter, this summer camp will be held both online and in person.

The company, however, said it is not blocking access to other communication tools, and they will remain online, saying "the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open" in a Twitter post on Sunday.

Epic Games developed popular video games such as Fortnite, Unreal Engine, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade series.

Another US video game developer Activision Blizzard announced Friday it is suspending new sales of its games in Russia as the war continues.

The company said it raised over $300,000 together with its employees, and it plans to add additional charities for consideration this week.

Activision Blizzard developed popular video games series such as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Candy Crush Saga.

The investment will be used for making casual and social mobile games as well as growing the team of the startup.

The company currently has a team of 30 people and is chaired by CEO Rina Onur Sirinoglu, who was part of Peak Games, which Zynga acquired in June 2020 for $1.8 billion.

Spyke Games received a $5 million pre-seed investment at a $25 million valuation from Griffin Gaming Partners in February 2021.

It released its first game, Royal Riches, for Android and iOS a few months ago.

Griffin's previous investments include initiatives related to the mobile gaming industry such as Discord, AppLoving, N3twork and Skillz.

The country's Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank said on Twitter: "The Turkish gaming industry, whose games are played by billions of people, continues to grow day by day. Proud of our entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem."

AdColony, global advertising, and marketing platform surveyed 1,250 people on mobile games and social media platforms in Europe, Middle East and the Africa (EMEA) region.

While 88 of 100 people play mobile games, 42 of 100 play at least once a day, the survey revealed.

Players said the games have become a part of their daily lives. The time spent on games has increased day by day. Nearly 70% of respondents in the EMEA play for more than three hours a week.

More than 80% of respondents said they are in a good mood while playing and 47% play to make leisure time enjoyable.

But it is not only young people who play. Nearly 80% of adults play in Turkey. Action-adventure games are preferred by Turkish gamers at 49.2%. Puzzles and racing games are also favorable.

The survey revealed that advertisements for mobile games, which have become the biggest socialization tool, have started to turn into online stores.

While 72% of participants said mobile ads they encountered positively affect their shopping, 66% said they preferred to shop in-app.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar

Sony’s first console was released as the PlayStation in Japan in December 1994, and has since sold millions of units worldwide. Its top competitors are Xbox, WII and Nintendo.

* Writing by Seda Sevencan

Epic Games filed for a preliminary injunction that would put its game back in the App Store and restore its developer account. The filing was made in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

It argued that Epic Games is “likely to suffer irreparable harm” in the absence of a preliminary injunction and that “the balance of harms tips sharply in Epic’s favor”.

The filing described the iPhone maker as a “monopolist” that maintains its monopolies by “explicitly prohibiting any competitive entry”.

Late last week, Apple terminated Epic Games’ account on its App Store amid a legal battle over the iPhone maker’s in-app payment guidelines and accusations they constitute a monopoly.

Apple said last week its move will not affect Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, a software tool relied on by hundreds of other app makers.

But the move meant iPhone users will not be able to download “Fortnite” or other Epic titles through the Apple App Store.

“This was a clear warning to any other developer that would dare challenge Apple’s monopolies: follow our rules or we will cut you off from a billion iOS consumers - challenge us and we will destroy your business,” Epic Games said in Friday’s filing.

Apple pulled Epic Games after the popular games creator implemented a feature to let iPhone users make in-app purchases directly, rather than using Apple’s in-app purchase system, which charges commissions of 30%.

Apple had said it would allow “Fortnite” back into the store if Epic removed the direct payment feature. But Epic refused to do so, saying complying with Apple’s request would be “to collude with Apple to maintain their monopoly over in-app payments on iOS.”

The mobile apps were banned because "they are engaged in activities prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," the country's Electronics and Information Technology Ministry said in a statement.

The ban includes the popular mobile game PubG.

According to the ministry, the move “will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users.”

The decision comes amid ongoing heightened tensions between New Delhi and Beijing after both countries on Monday accused each other of violating a “consensus” reached between the two sides after recent clashes at the border in the Himalayan region.

New Delhi and Beijing are witnessing an intense encounter along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a defacto border in the Ladakh region of disputed Jammu and Kashmir, where 20 Indian soldiers were killed in June. Since then a series of meetings has been conducted between the two countries, but without success.

In a retaliatory move, the Indian government had blocked over 50 mobile applications including popular apps with Chinese links in June.

Border tensions between the two countries span over seven decades.

China claims territory in India's northeast, while New Delhi accuses Beijing of occupying its territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the Himalayas, including part of the Ladakh region.

“We are excited to expand into the hyper-casual category with the acquisition of Rollic, one of the fastest growing hyper-casual developers and publishers worldwide in 2020, led by an incredibly creative team,” said Zynga’s Chief Executive Officer Frank Gibeau.

The company revealed it would acquire an 80% stake in Rollic for $168 million in cash, about two months after its $1.8 billion acquisition of Peak, the creator of the popular games Toon Blast and Toy Blast. Zynga will buy the remaining 20% of Rollic over the coming three years, based on its financial performance.

Since it was founded in December 2018 by Burak Vardal, Deniz Basaran and Mehmet Can Yavuz, Rollic has attracted more than 65 million monthly active users and its games have more than 250 million downloads.

Zynga made the announcement as part of its earnings release Wednesday, when it reported the highest revenue in the game developer's history for its second quarter, hitting $452 million.

Mobile games companies have thrived in the past few months as people turn to games to keep themselves entertained during the pandemic.

The final upfront transaction is expected to close on Oct. 1, 2020.

Now, two self-taught Pakistani wonder kids have come up with a bright idea that informs the masses while also allowing them to have a spot of fun.

Nabhan (13) and Kenan (14), who have never attended school, home-schooling included, collaborated to develop a Covid-19 multi-platform game designed to bust the myths and establish the facts on the do's and dont’s regarding the coronavirus, including social distancing.

The tech-savvy duo learned to code, design, create animations, build a website and edit the content all by themselves.

Youtube Embed Migrated From Frola

They started working on “STOP the SPREAD” toward the end of February 2020, completed it in around a month's time and released it online on April 4, the Express Tribune reported.

In order to pass each level, players need to learn the facts, bust the myths and learn about preventive methods and precautions.

The game, which is made up of six levels, allows users to unlock the fifth level only when they prove that they have a firm enough grasp on the facts to apply them in public.

"The children are our future, therefore, we must support and promote the innovative and positive constructive contribution from the children towards the betterment of our society," developers of the game said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) have encouraged people to play video games to prevent the spread of the deadly disease that has gripped the world.

More than 11.46 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 533,224 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

Rovio Entertainment launched "Small Town Murders", a new puzzle game aimed at women over 35, on Wednesday in its latest attempt to reduce its reliance on "Angry Birds".

The Finnish firm's new game combines a murder mystery narrative with so-called match three puzzles, a gaming trend originally initiated in 2012 by King's Candy Crush Saga.

Rovio has sought to diversify before, releasing three games that were not Angry Birds themed since 2015, but none have become global hits in the same way as its 2011 blockbuster.

"We see the Small Town Murders game as an opportunity to expand our portfolio for different kinds of players and to tell different stories," Rovio's Puzzle Studio head Miika Tams said.

Rovio, which listed in 2017, has been making a steady quarterly games revenue of around 60 million euros ($68 million) for the past few years, mostly from Angry Birds games.

But earnings have been hit by rising marketing costs and by its 5G gaming platform Hatch which Rovio has not achieved the interest among investors that it had hoped for.

Until now, Rovio's games have been popular among children, but now it is targeting adults with more money to spend on in-game purchases, such as additional moves or lives to keep playing.

"Women 35-years-old and older are our Puzzle Studio's main target audience. We have seen that women in this age group play this kind of games the most and usually they have the opportunity to spend money on the games," Tams told Reuters. ($1 = 0.8810 euros)

As one of the most famous mobile video games in the world, PUBG Mobile boasts almost 750 million active players, 33 millions of whom are in the Muslim world, according to a report by Gulf News.

The Muslim players considered the new feature of the famous war game not only disrespectful to their Islamic faith but also to all other beliefs.

Players took to social media to raise their voices using the hashtag “uninstall PUBG” to protest the game.

https://twitter.com/PUBGMOBILE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The social media outcry against PUBG was also supported by numerous Muslim intellectuals.

“PUBG has violated Islamic beliefs regarding prostration and bowing to idols, and this is the greatest sin in Islam, because prostrating and bowing is worship and glorification solely and exclusively to Almighty Allah. The special draw of gaming that makes [games] the preferred pastime of so many millions of kids and adults is not just entertainment, it is dangerous because it teaches them polytheism, so they prefer it and become addicted to it,” Bassam Al-Shatti, a professor at the University of Kuwait, told Gulf News.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/uninstallPUBG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“These games are dangerous for Muslims, since they could create generations who do not know Tawhid,” said Rashid Al-Alimi, another professor at the University of Kuwait, citing the concept of the oneliness of the creator or the unity of God, which is called Tawhid by Muslims.

“Islam promotes tolerance, balance, equality, consensus, reformism, and all things that take the middle path to materialize the best interest of people. So Sharia (Islamic law) permits games that have a preponderant interest, such as shooting, racing, swimming, and horse riding,” said Aref Bin Mazyad Al-Suhaimi, a Saudi Islamic scholar.

https://twitter.com/PUBG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

In the same vein, a South Korea-based game company previously came under fire for the same reason.

The game, called “Mysterious Jungle,” offered an option to “pray” in front of totems for exclusive supplies, drawing outrage from Muslim players for its negative effect on the beliefs of players who largely consisted of Muslim children.

"During the last decade, we reached hundreds of millions of people in 193 countries, and our dream was to reach billions," Omer Inonu, Peak's strategy director, told an online news conference Monday, the day the deal was announced.

The US firm bought 100% of the Turkish company for $1.8 billion –including about $900 million in cash and approximately $900 million in Zynga common stock.

"With a very important agreement, Peak will continue its activities with Zynga," Inonu said.

Sidar Sahin, founder of the Turkish firm, will continue to manage Peak Games in Istanbul, and the firms' operation will continue under the Peak brand, Inonu stressed.

Two Peak games – Toy Blast and Toon Blast – are among the top games in the US and Japan, he added.

Peak Games reaches 12 million active users daily and it is expected to surge Zynga’s average mobile daily active users by more than 60%.

- Turkey’s first unicorn

Mustafa Varank, Turkey’s industry and technology minister, said Peak Games was the first Turkish unicorn, meaning a startup company valued at over $1 billion.

This acquisition was a milestone for the country's startup ecosystem, he added.

Ruhsar Pekcan, the country's trade minister, also said that the acquisition was a proud moment for Turkey.

Berat Albayrak, the finance and treasury minister, noted that this agreement is one of the largest acquisitions in Turkish history.

"Peak brings a 100-person strong team and two Forever Franchises, Toon Blast and Toy Blast, that have consistently ranked in the top 10 and top 20 US iPhone grossing games for over two years, respectively," the US-based firm said in a press release.

Established in 2010, Peak Games is the owner of Toon Blast and Toy Blast games, which have over 12 million mobile daily active users (DAUs) on average.

"Peak is expected to grow Zynga’s average mobile DAUs by more than 60% while strengthening Zynga’s international audience," read the press release.

"Peak is one of the world’s best puzzle game makers and we could not be more excited to add such creative and passionate talent to our company,” Grank Gibeau, the CEO of Zynga, said.

Sidar Sahin, the founder of Peak Games, said both firms share the same vision to gather people through games.

"Zynga will acquire 100% of Peak for $1.8 billion, comprised of approximately $900 million in cash and approximately $900 million of Zynga common stock," the press release added.

Zynga has also bought Peak Games' mobile card game for $100 million in 2017.

Quok Games, a team of Middle East Technical Universities' (METU) Technopolis Animation Technologies, and Game Development Center began developing the game in 2018.

Burak Gunes Ozguney, founder of Quok Games, told Anadolu Agency his team had humble beginnings with just three members when it started.

Ozguney said it worked on more than 30 games. "Some of these had potential. Two were also released but none have reached the level of the current game and now our team is four people," he said.

"In the game, the player faces broken devices such as phones and laptops. Here the player repairs these tools with simple mechanics.

"The gamer sometimes changes broken glasses or removes rust but because there are new mechanics every time the player does not get bored easily by the game," he said.

Ozguney said the game moved quickly to the top spot and has been there for five days.

'IT'S-A ME, MARIO'

Mario Kart's mobile outing is the latest title steered by the moustachioed plumber Mario, known for his exaggerated, Italian-accented English. Since his debut in the game Donkey Kong in 1981, Mario has become Nintendo's virtual face and a mark of quality for many of the industry's top-selling titles.

For a factbox on Mario, click the link:

Despite the rise of mobile gaming, Nintendo remains committed to developing its own hardware for its top titles.

"For Nintendo, hardware and software are one," said analyst Hideki Yasuda at Ace Securities.

"It sees smartphones as an optimal way for users to come into contact with its intellectual property and to connect to hardware sales," he said, adding that monetisation of mobile games is a secondary goal.

Mario Kart Tour's release comes ahead of a number of games for Nintendo's hybrid home-handheld Switch console designed to appeal to more casual players, including two Pokemon titles in November and island life simulator Animal Crossing: New Horizons in March.

Analysts expect those games to drive demand for the Switch Lite, a handheld-only version of the device that launched on Friday retailing for a third less than the original.

Nintendo, which is yet to incorporate the new device into its forecasts, expects to sell 18 million Switch units in the year ending March.

Turkey should make children feel accepting of technology and they should be willing to develop technology, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said during the technology and aerospace fair, Teknofest Istanbul.

"Teknofest has a huge role for this aim, I thank everyone who contributed to this event, especially Selcuk Bayraktar [the chairman of the Turkish Technology Team Foundation]," the minister noted.

He added that the fair should be improved and more international participation should be encouraged.

"I think we can turn the fair into an attraction center of Turkey," he added.

The minister visited the fair on Wednesday and observed the activities and events.

- Teknofest Istanbul

Istanbul Ataturk Airport is hosting the six-day festival, co-organized by the Turkish Technology Team Foundation and the Industry and Technology Ministry. Anadolu Agency is the festival’s global communications partner.

The festival will host numerous activities such as aviation shows, seminars, workshops, drone championship, contests, and concerts.

Last year’s premier festival, hosted by the new Istanbul Airport, was visited by over half a million people. This year, it is expected to double attendance, attracting a million visitors.

"There are over 2.5 billion gamers in the world, their gaming expenses rose by 9.6% to reach $152.1 billion year-on-year in 2018," Cengizhan Buyukyurt told Anadolu Agency.

He underlined that the video game sector was one of the fast-growing industries, and it had a huge potential.

Most of the income is received by free online games such as League of Legends and Overwatch, while Turkish companies also created online games which were known in the global area, he noted.

The Turkish gaming market's value was $750 million in 2017, while it was $878 million last year and is expected to reach $970 million in 2019, he stressed.

Tansu Kendirli, the head of Game Developers, Designers, Producers and Publishers Association (Oyunder), highlighted: "The gaming industry is the only sector which reached an annual 10% growth rate in the last two decades."

Touching on e-sports area, Kendirli said investors' interest is raising day by day in this field, which is a new area was born in the gaming industry.

He noted Turkey, of which gaming industry attracts investors, has 35 million gamers and $1 billion gaming exports annually.

Erol Ozmandiraci, a board member of Turkey's E-sport Teams Union, said Turkey's prominent sports clubs Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas established e-sport teams.

Within 10 years, every sports club will establish an e-sport team in Turkey and also in the world, he expressed.

The fair offers a wide range of content, including cosplay context, tournaments, virtual reality experience, drone and robot races, as well as many games on PC, mobile platforms and video games.

This year’s fair will be held at TUYAP Fair and Convention Center in Istanbul’s coastal district of Buyukcekmece on the European side of the city.

The fair hosts game developers, game publishers and some brands interested in the gaming industry.

It offers esports tournaments, autograph sessions, Indie area, conferences, workshops, and community events.

The fair is among the biggest festivals across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa with a high participation, according to the fair's official website.

The fair, which has hosted more than 2.5 million visitors since 2000, will also focus on developments in the digital gaming industry.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Vinod Poojary, the director of Maya Kannadi, or Mirror of Illusion, said the film showcases the crystal-clear “pitfalls of technology addiction”.

The movie will hit the silver screen in the Indian state of Karnataka in October, he said.

Poojary, who also wrote the film's storyline, said the movie unfolds on a college campus where students play the ill-reputed Blue Whale game, also known as the Blue Whale Challenge, and kill themselves. The film's protagonist, a college student named Sandy, tries to solve the mystery behind the deadly game.

“Blue Whale” is a controversial game reportedly developed by a young Russian university student who was later arrested by authorities in 2016. It first appeared on Russian social media platforms three years ago.

The game assigns players -- mostly teens handpicked by some adult administrators -- with various “quests” to perform over a 50-day period.

These quests reportedly include watching horror films and, in some cases, engaging in destructive activities.

Poojary, a Prague Film School graduate, urged youth to seek help when they are confronted with a miscreant while surfing online.

“The virtue of a knife depends on whether it is being used to chop vegetables or murder someone. Technology can be a boon if it is used with care,” he stressed.

He said he read extensively about online games, particularly the Blue Whale game, before writing the storyline.

“The number of lives it had claimed disturbed me. It made me worry about today’s generation. I felt like I needed to jolt and wake up the youth.”

He highlighted that all online games have one thing in common: winning a game provides incomparable gratification to the player.

“However, in such games like Blue Whale and Momo, one cannot move on after winning. Unfortunately, the winning stage is also the death stage.”

Film with a message

One of the leading actors in the film, Prabhu Mundkur, told Anadolu Agency that the message of the film is not to become slaves to technology, which is created by humans.

“We [human beings] have created all these technologies and we must be cautious about the traps, which are again created by humans,” Mundkur said.

Mundkur, a microbiologist turned actor, said he read many articles on the Blue Whale game, met many college students and understood the addiction to mobile phones and online games.

He highlighted that the motive behind the film is to make the younger generation understand the importance of life and to help them avoid falling for such “lame tricks” in the modern world.

The Blue Whale game has reportedly been linked to scores of teen suicides, especially in Russia, prompting the authorities in several countries to issue warnings to parents.

More than 140 people in Turkey and 300 in Russia allegedly killed themselves after playing Blue Whale, and many others were saved at the last minute, according to statistics compiled from local media and reports from parents.

With children now having easy access to the latest gaming technology, their parents are worried that they have become addicted to games, since they spend hours on mobile devices, computers and consoles.

These concerns prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to include gaming disorder on its list of behavioral disorders and mental health conditions in 2018.

Gaming disorder is defined as the “increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities,” according to the WHO.

“Gaming disorder is one of the most common psychiatric problems,” Ercan Dalbudak, an associate professor of psychiatry, told Anadolu Agency in an interview.

Dalbudak said children will fall into the gaming trap when they have a strong desire to play games, continue “playing compulsively despite the negative consequences” and cannot control their behavior.

Stressing that introducing children to screens at an early age is not preferable, he said it would be better to limit their contact with screens until the age of three.

- Adolescents are main at-risk group

“Gaming addiction leads to problems such as isolation from social life, declining academic success and problems at work,” said Dalbudak, adding adolescents ranging in age from 10 to as old as 21 are the main risk group.

His clients are mostly the parents of adolescent children who complain about their children’s excessive gaming habits, especially gambling, he said.

“Gaming disorder is common among those who have an attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, high impulsivity or a tendency towards depression or anxiety,” he added.

Although it is not possible to completely avoid screen exposure in today’s world, families should keep mobile phones, tablets and computers away from their children and prevent them from taking their tablets to their bedrooms, he said.

Speaking about whether it is possible to tackle gaming addiction, he said there are some ways such as diagnosing risky situations at early ages, spending quality time with children, finding activities suitable for their children’s age and intelligence and helping them socialize.

Highlighting that parents should determine and limit screen time, he said they should set up applicable rules.

“Parents should first set up rules for themselves and obey them. They should avoid spending time on screens in front of their children,” Dalbudak suggested.

Contacted by Anadolu Agency, a mother of a nine-year-old boy complained about his excessive gaming habit.

“When we tell him that his playing time with the tablet is over, he immediately gets angry and edgy and gives us the 'sad face'. He refuses to do anything that we ask of him,” she said on condition of anonymity.

She added that her son is shy and communicates less with people compared to his peers.

"He has difficulties playing other games except digital ones with his friends. He gets bored easily. It is not something limited to my son but common with his peers. They do not know how to play outside.”

She added that she encourages him to speak and be socially active with others in real life.

-Traditional vs artificial

Children’s exploration of the world through observing and interacting with others has changed into an artificial experience conducted through tablets and mobile phones, said Bilal Sambur, a professor at Ankara’s Yildirim Beyazit University.

“Until children reach 14 or 15, their use of digital devices must be minimized as much as possible,” Sambur said.

He urged families to set up rules for children to socialize with real people, adding time and continuity are important indicators of gaming addiction.

“If playing one game becomes a standard and continual habit of children, this is also another indication of gaming addiction.”

Bucking the misconception that since some games are beneficial for children they can play those games as much as they want, Sambur said “that is a big illusion. Children could be addicted to all games.”

- ‘Tablets, computers are not babysitters’

“In some games, there are missions like kidnapping, robbery and growth through drug trafficking, and it is determined as a game rule that the level can only be passed if a certain number of drugs are bought or sold,” said Deniz Unay, an Istanbul-based social media specialist.

He said there is an attempt to justify some threatening elements of society by creating perceptions through games.

Emphasizing that the limitation or prohibition of virtual platforms is never a solution, Unay suggested that people of all ages should be educated and informed about these issues.

“I warn families here. Tablets, mobile phones and computers are not your children's babysitters. We must take care of our children. If we leave them vulnerable in an unfamiliar environment, any harm they suffer is directly our fault.”

Last year, Turkey's game software exports rose from $500 million to $1.1 billion, compared to 2017, Ilhan Yılmaz, the CEO of Monster Notebook, told reporters.

Saying that there are 32 million gamers in Turkey, he added: "Around 4.5 million Turkish gamers are hardcore players, who play games through all platforms."

He also said the game industry is a fast-growing sector and Turkish game firms are expanding rapidly.

Several fields will change, not only the game sector, especially thanks to 5G technology, Yilmaz noted.

"Innovations, such as autonomous vehicles and traveling by drones, will change our life significantly," he underlined.

The White Helmets were seen in the two scenes of the trailer of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" which will be released on October 25.

In one scene, White Helmets were shown removing the debris from a building hit by Russian airstrikes in an effort to aid search and rescue teams.

They are seen in another instance carrying injured people to safety on a stretcher.

The White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, which was established in 2013, serves as a volunteer organization operating in parts of Syria.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.

"We want to turn sleep into entertainment," said Tsunekazu Ishihara, chief executive of the Pokemon Company, which helps manage the Pokemon franchise, at an event in Tokyo.

At the same event, Kyoto-based Nintendo Co Ltd said it was developing a sleep-tracking successor to its Pokemon Go Plus device, which allows users to "catch" Pokemon without taking out their smartphones.

Augmented reality smartphone game "Pokemon Go", developed by San Francisco-based Niantic Inc, became a worldwide phenomenon after its launch in 2016 as players spilled out from living rooms onto the streets to hunt for Pokemon.

The Pokemon Company was set up with investment from gaming companies Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures. Spanning products including videos games, movies and soft toys, Pokemon is a home-grown contender for a Disney-style pop culture empire.

The first two Pokemon titles launched on the Nintendo Game Boy handheld console in 1996. Since then, the game series has sold more than 340 million units worldwide.

Pokemon Sleep will use data points like how long the user slept and when they awoke, to change gameplay - though the Pokemon Company did not elaborate on how gameplay would change.

The title could help entrench Pokemon's appeal beyond core gamers and tap into a growing market for health-tracking services.

Nintendo has been trying to attract casual fans of Pokemon Go to its hybrid Switch games device with two beginner-friendly "Pokemon Let's Go" titles, which have sold more than 10 million copies as at the end of March.

It will release two fully fledged Pokemon titles for the device in late 2019.

Pokemon's global appeal is reflected in the success of movie "Pokemon Detective Pikachu", which has taken more than $120 million at box offices in North America. The move features the yellow Pikachu character - often the face of Pokemon - as a Sherlock Holmes-like crime-buster, complete with deerstalker.

A sequel to the Detective Pokemon game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console will be released for the Switch, the Pokemon Company said.

Pokemon's success comes as Nintendo expands the range of outlets for its popular characters, with Italian plumber Mario to feature at a Nintendo-themed land under construction at Osaka's Universal Studios Japan theme park.

At Wednesday's event in Tokyo, Chinese partner NetEase Inc - which will launch a local version of mobile game Pokemon Quest - also said it aims to bring more Pokemon games to China.

Nintendo is also working with Chinese gaming leader Tencent Holdings Ltd to launch its Switch device in the country.

The new app called “Haris'ul Aqsa (Protector of the Aqsa), which was designed about a year ago, is now available for all IOS and Android-supported devices.It has been downloaded by 37,000 smartphone users since it was launched two weeks ago.

Video: Protector of Aqsa: Game developed for youth to recognize Al-Aqsa Mosque

Game players can pass to the next level after answering 250 questions about history and receive new titles of "Guard," "Servant" and "Mentor” in four separated stages.

If players succeed in correctly answering all the questions, they win the key of Al-Maghreb gate in the southeast corner of the mosque's compound, which has been controlled by the Israeli forces since the Israel first occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.

For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount", claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

This year, the fourth edition of the event was organized on an area of 18,000 square meters (193,000 square feet) area at the Eurasia Show and Art Center.

Gaming tournaments with the prizes, cosplay contests, events for professionals as well as areas for a playground, shopping, retro-games will highlight the four-day event.

The event is also being attended by video game and technology giants such as Dell, HP, Sony, Fortnite, Nintendo, and Microsoft.

Several professionals and experts from the sector will deliver speeches at the GIST conferences during the four days.

Last year, more than 90,000 people visited the expo, while over 100,000 visitors are expected to be hosted this year.

Small-scale game developers and firms are opening booths freely to become part of the expo.

The expo was organized by France-based GL Events, which has so far arranged over 4,000 international events including the 2012 London Olympics and Cannes Movie Festival.

With more than $1 billion game exports last year, Turkey is a key player in the sector with its young population.

The move underscores how a company that started as an online bookseller is making forays into brick-and-mortar retail to capture a greater share of shoppers' spending.

For months, the world's largest online retailer has been expanding Amazon Go, where customers scan their smartphones at a turnstile to enter, and then cameras identify what they take from the shelves. When shoppers are finished, they simply leave the store and Amazon bills their credit cards on file.

Amazon has opened seven of the stores to the public since January: in Chicago, San Francisco and its hometown Seattle, mostly catering to workers in nearby offices looking for a quick lunch.

Amazon is evaluating top U.S. airports for new locations, according to public records requests to several airport operators.

"The lead for Amazon Go requested a meeting," read a June 27 email from a technology adviser who supports Los Angeles International, the second-busiest airport in the country, to a concessions official. "Interested?"

"Yes. Thanks!" the concessions official replied.

A few hundred miles north, in the heart of Silicon Valley, an account manager at Amazon's cloud unit asked San Jose International Airport for a meeting and referenced Amazon Go, as "one of many possibilities we can discuss."

After the June meeting took place, during which Amazon discussed how the stores work, an airport information technology manager wrote: "I am looking forward to moving forward with the Amazon Go technology at the airport."

Officials from both airports have since told Reuters they had no further correspondence about Amazon Go and that the retailer would have to undergo a competitive bid process to become a concessionaire, as is typical. The company's cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, has been in touch with airports for other purposes. The status of the Amazon Go effort is unclear.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment.

A person familiar with the strategy confirmed that Amazon is studying how to get the checkout-free stores into airports and that an employee with experience in business development was assigned to the task.

"Think about how you can expose your brand," the person familiar with the matter said, on condition of anonymity. "You'll be able to build broad awareness just being in a dozen of the best airports."

More than 350 million passengers boarded flights at the country's top 12 airports last year, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.

Operating in airports will present new challenges for Amazon Go.

Workers must gain clearances to staff concessions after security checkpoints, and square footage in busy sections of an airport can be expensive to lease. What is more, many airports are publicly run and require would-be concessionaires to put in public bids for retail space.

If "you do a deal, it's almost like they go back out and shop it," said Kazuko Morgan, vice chairman at real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. She was not speaking with reference to Amazon.

"Not only do your terms become public knowledge, someone can come in at the last hour and block you," she said.

That has not stopped airports from trying to court the online retailer. In September, a concessions manager for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport emailed the vice president in charge of Amazon Go, asking for a partnership "on the first Airport Amazon Go location."

The airport did not immediately comment on whether the concessions manager got a response.

You only get one life.

But winning is not the objective of Razor Wire, nor is its rudimentary, top-down design complete with chunky pixels intended to please lovers of retro computer games.

Instead, Razor Wire is the project of a Slovenian human rights group which hopes to raise awareness of the hardship and despair migrants face and help its campaign for the government to dismantle a wire fence on the Slovenian-Croatian border. "The wire fence has been standing on the Slovenian border for three years and it seems like we stopped caring, it seems like we have accepted it as a given reality," said Maja Cimerman, a project manager at the NGO "Today is a New Day".

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"It has not made crossings impossible ... but more dangerous," Cimerman said.

Nine migrants drowned while trying to cross the Kolpa river last year, she added, a figure confirmed by a police spokeswoman. Those killed may not have known how to swim or were surprised by deep water or strong currents, the spokeswoman said.

Sections of the fence first went up in 2015, when hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and other regions passed through the Balkans and Slovenia on their way to wealthier Western European states.

The Balkan route was sealed off in 2016 and the number of illegal crossings into Slovenia has decreased sharply, to about 8,000 in the first ten months of this year, compared to almost 500,000 in the period from October 2015 to March 2016.

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But the fence is still standing and now covers about 179 km (111 miles) of the 670-km-long border with Croatia.

Although not as strong as in neighbouring Hungary for instance, anti-immigration sentiment has been on the rise in Slovenia since the 2015 migrant crisis. In June, the anti-immigrant SDS party scored a landslide victory in a parliamentary election but was forced into the opposition after failing to form a coalition government.

Inspiration for the game came from the migrants themselves, Cimerman said.

"Many refugees... call their experience "the game" because it has many traps and obstacles. They have to travel at night, they have to avoid the police, they are often robbed or their documents are taken away by the police, and often or regularly they are sent back to refugee camps," she said.

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There is no happy ending to Razor Wire: when the player manages to cross the Kolpa river and finally reaches the Slovenian border, he is greeted by a sign depicting razor wire and cannot go any further.

"Many of them have tried "the game" 10 times or more and they continue trying till they enter Europe," she said.

Cimerman said refugees were a useful scapegoat for the government.

"It's easier for the government to deal with migrants and to create a sense that refugees are a threat to us than actually dealing with real problems," she said.

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Pokemon Go was rolled out to iPhone and Android smartphone users in the United States, Australia and New Zealand on July 6.

The free game is already installed on more than 5 percent of all Android devices in the U.S., data analyst firm SimilarWeb noted in a report Monday.

The game will likely overtake Twitter for active daily users very soon and is already used for a longer period per day than Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook Messenger.

The average Pokemon Go user in the U.S. played the game for more than 43 minutes on July 8, said SimilarWeb. Snapchat is used an average of roughly 23 minutes per day.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the ferociously popular game is expected to roll out in Europe and Asia by the end of the week.

On the Japanese stock exchange Monday, the game added $7.5 billion in market value to Nintendo, Pokemon's original creators. The increase is Nintendo's greatest one-day surge since 1983.

The essence of the game is fairly simple – users walk around in the real world and attempt to find little imaginary animals known as Pokemon.

Created by game designing firm Niantic, Pokemon Go uses augmented reality, GPS and digital maps to make it appear as if users are catching the creatures in their backyard, kitchen or office.

Niantic was actually spun off from Google in 2015. The company was apparently caught unawares by the extreme popularity of Pokemon Go and the first days of the game's release have been marred by server issues and slowdowns.

The game has also been linked to some injuries, mostly due to players tripping or running into objects.

“Please remember to be safe and alert at all times,” Niantic said in a statement Monday. “We are humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response to Pokémon Go and greatly appreciate the support of our fans.”

Istanbul recently hosted a major gaming summit which attracted thousands of players, designers and industry figures to Turkey's largest city.

And Turkey has produced award-winning games for cellphones and PCs.

Total revenue of Turkey's digital game industry hit $464 million in 2015, forming part of a $91-billion industry worldwide, according to a report published by Turkish Game Developers' Association.

The popularity of gaming in Turkey can be partly explained by the high number of Internet users -- roughly 41.3 million out of a population of 78 million. Over 54 percent of these online Turks play games.

However, despite Turkey's nearly half-billion-dollar market size, foreign digital game companies have obtained 95 percent of the total revenue.

The Turkish Game Developers Association data show that the country's game industry needs to be improved to take advantage of the domestic market's potential.

“There is serious consumption in Turkey … People love to play games", one expert tells Anadolu Agency.

Guven Catak is a professor of computer architecture at Istanbul-based Bahcesehir University. Catak -- who is also the founder and director of the college's Game Design Graduate Program -- said:

“The reason why the Turkish sector's output is not enough is that there is no strong 'production line' in the game industry."

Catak claimed that although the Turkish game industry accelerated in the last five years it is an “interdisciplinary zone" which requires art, design and technology, and musical skills.

“Creating a game only is not enough; it must be marketed," Prof. Catak said.

Today's products appeal to the visual and auditory senses; even the characters' costumes in the game can be commercialized.

Therefore, programmers, designers, scenarists, musicians, marketers must work together if a game is to succeed.

Prof. Catak said this production-line approach should to be stretched to improve Turkey's position, adding that the “first phase of the production line is academic education".

There are several academic programs about game creation, in Ankara and Istanbul based universities -- mostly post-graduate degrees -- which aim to provide for the needs of the Turkish game industry.

Alongside higher study, secondary-school education is important to improve the gaming sector because intermediate staff have a crucial role in the industry, Catak said.

Turkey can take Germany as an example. It has two-year vocational high schools to train the people the sector needs in its 'production line'.

According to Newzoo -- a leading research company in the game market -- Turkey is sixteenth in a list of total national game revenue, on $464.3 million with a 78.6 million population.

However, Germany -- with 80 million people -- was fifth with games revenue of $3.6 billion; the U.K. was in sixth place with $3.5 billion and a 64.7-million-strong population.

-Government help

Prof. Catak said that government policies must match the sector's needs -- regulations should encourage game developers.

Catak gave Canada as an example. The North American country changed policies nearly 10 years ago to provide tax allowances to game developers.

This prompted many Europe-based game creators to shift to Canada to lower costs.

Consequently, Canada's game industry revenue has risen to $1.8 billion despite only having a 35.9 million population.

In Turkey, game studios, developers, software companies and designers have established two associations in Ankara and Istanbul.

“They have become a communication tool between the sector and the government … they are trying to fit the regulations to the industry," Catak said.

These advocates play a significant role in the global market as they organize exhibitions, conferences and open-space meetings.

They represent Turkish industry in the international arena by participating in events abroad.

Catak said that Turkey would be a partner country of the Game Developers' Conference -- to be held in Germany in August 2016 -- which is the largest industry event in Europe.

Turkey had held only one comprehensive game exhibition before 2016: 'Gamex' organized by the Oyunder Association.

Istanbul hosted a second leading game exhibition -- Gaming Istanbul -- with over 300 software companies, game developers and leading businesses from the sector in early February.

The organizer of the Istanbul expo, GL Exhibitions Turkey's CEO Mustafa Gurbuz, told Anadolu Agency that: “Turkey would be a country that links Asia and Africa and Europe in the digital marketplace".

Gurbuz said that Turkey had potential to be a 'hub' in the digital game industry with 22.5 million gamers and an annual growth rate of 7.8 percent.

Gaming Istanbul collected hundreds of national and international game studios, software creators and even academic institutions.

Gurbuz said the expo would be repeated next year “with b2b meetings to develop cooperation among game firms".

These fairs, which are repeated every year, could raise the prospects for the potential game market in Turkey.

"Turkey is the biggest digital game marketplace in Europe with more than 77 million people, 40 percent of whom have an Internet connection at home," said Bartosz Skwarczek.

Skwarczek, CEO and co-founder of G2A.com, the world's fastest-growing online video game distribution marketplace, spoke to Anadolu Agency during the Istanbul expo.

Skwarczek said that Turkey had the potential in digital game market in terms of the number of players: “There are 22.5 million gamers in Turkey. I believe this can be much more."

"Twenty-five percent of Turkish players are under the age of 25 … It means that every year new players come and play."

However, while Turkey stood at sixteenth position in the total revenue list of the world's game industry in 2015, China was first with $22.2 billion and the U.S. followed on $21.9 billion.

A reason why the Turkish digital game market is not profitable -- despite a huge number of gamers -- is that the money spent per gamer is very low.

“The purchase investment per customer is $30 in Turkey, compared to Poland, for instance, where it is about $60, $120 in Taiwan [and] higher in the U.S. and Japan," Skwarczek said.

The worldwide digital game industry's total revenue last year -- $91 billion -- overtook the music and film sectors combined, according to a recent report published by the Ankara-based Digital Game Developers' Association.

That digital game sector is now punching at the same weight as some heavy and conventional industries.

For instance, Turkey's income on hazelnut production was $2.8 billion in 2015, accounting for 75 percent of the world's hazelnut production and employing over 300,000 people.

However, the total income of Supercell, a Finland-based video game company that owns just three mobile games [Hay Day, Clash of Clans and Boom Beach] was $1.5 billion last year.

Despite this, Supercell has only 180 employees.

-Turkish games

Turkey has some outstanding game companies; one of those is Peak Games, which produces global-scale mobile offerings; it is very successful in its business and marketing phases, Prof. Catak said.

It has released 18 products up to now and had 30 million monthly active users last year.

Another popular Turkish company is TaleWorlds, creator of the Mount amp; Blade series -- medieval role-playing games.

Released in 2007 the series has been a “huge success story," Prof. Catak says.

“It is a company that has been created from nothing and now sold millions having achieved significant turnover," Catak added.

Several well-known video-game magazines across the world have praised Mount amp; Blade; Metacritic selected the game as the sixth most-shared PC game in 2010.

TaleWorlds announced in July 2015 that the game series has sold six million units worldwide; this is the highest number for a Turkish-made games.

So the market is there, the potential is there. As the games industry continues to overtake Hollywood the only question is this: what next for Turkish designers and gamers?