Kabam
Company
Documents about Kabam
Weekly Industry Brief: Google Play Fees, Kingshot Ads, and Funding
The mobile gaming industry experienced significant shifts in late June 2026, characterized by major regulatory changes, substantial capital investments, and strategic corporate restructuring.
- Google Play will open up billing options and lower store fees for developers in the US, EU, and UK starting June 30, with other regions to follow.
- AppsFlyer received a $1 billion investment from Google, Unity, Meta, and Moloco, valuing the ad measurement firm at approximately $2.7 billion.
- Kabam, the developer of Marvel Contest of Champions, is undergoing layoffs and downsizing its Los Angeles office to streamline operations.
The Ares Gameplan: UA Financing, Non-US Developers, and Kim Kardashian
Ares Interactive is positioning itself as a successor to Glu Mobile, leveraging a strategic focus on user acquisition (UA) financing and partnerships with non-US development studios.
- Ares Interactive has secured $70 million in funding to expand its portfolio of cross-platform free-to-play games.
- The company is led by founder Niccolo de Masi and executive Mike DeLaet, both of whom are former Glu Mobile veterans, leading to industry comparisons of Ares as 'Glu 2.0'.
- Ares is actively exploring the development of a celebrity-licensed game similar to the success of 'Kim Kardashian: Hollywood'.
Essential Facts Videos: Canada
The Essential Facts Videos series, released by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) in November 2022, presents a series of video profiles that showcase the Canadian video game industry’s growth and talent pipeline.
- The Canadian video game industry generates a $5.5 billion annual contribution to the national GDP.
- The ESAC released a video series in November 2022 profiling five major studios: Other Ocean Interactive, Ubisoft Toronto, Eidos Montréal, EA Bioware, and Kabam.
- The content is designed to influence policymakers and legislators by highlighting the economic benefits and innovation potential of the domestic gaming sector.
Transformers: Forged to Fight - A Game Worth Paying $750M For?
This analysis evaluates the commercial and design viability of Transformers: Forged to Fight, released by Kabam’s Vancouver studio following Netmarble’s $750 million acquisition of the developer.
- Netmarble acquired Kabam’s Vancouver studio for $750 million in February 2017, primarily driven by the success of the studio's breakout hit, Marvel: Contest of Champions.
- Marvel: Contest of Champions generated over $100 million in revenue within its first seven months of release, establishing a high-performing template for mobile fighting games.
- Transformers: Forged to Fight evolves the Contest of Champions framework by introducing ranged combat and sidestepping mechanics, creating a more complex metagame that requires strategic character selection.
The Logic and Sorcery Behind Mobile Game Company Valuations
The valuation of mobile game companies is driven by a combination of strategic business models and the extreme revenue disparities inherent in the freemium market.
- Mobile game company valuations follow a Pareto distribution where revenue scales exponentially with chart position, leading to a valuation range of $600M–$800M for Top 20 companies and $100M–$200M for Top 30 companies.
- Kabam achieved a $700M valuation by evolving into a development-publishing hybrid, which offers more scalable cash flow than pure content-focused studios.
- Hasbro acquired a 70% stake in Backflip Studios for $112M, valuing the company at $160M, a figure that reflects the market's assessment of a consistent Top 30 grossing developer.
King vs. Kabam on the Road to IPO
As of May 2013, King and Kabam emerged as the primary candidates for a post-Zynga initial public offering within the Western gaming sector.
- King and Kabam are the primary candidates for a post-Zynga gaming IPO, with both companies successfully transitioning from 100% web-based revenue in 2011 to approximately 50% mobile revenue by early 2013.
- King leads in scale and monetization, with a projected 2013 revenue run rate of $524 million and a user base of 66 million, compared to Kabam’s projected revenue of over $200 million.
- King’s growth is driven by a high-volume release strategy of a 'couple of games per quarter' and the massive success of Candy Crush Saga, which generates an estimated $1.5–2 million in gross daily revenue.