Kabam

Kabam

Kabam
Type	Private
Founded	2006
Key people	Kevin Chou (Co-Founder & CEO) Kent Wakeford (COO) Steve Klei (CFO)
Revenue	360 million
Employees	825 (April 20th, 2015)
Website	www.kabam.com

Kabam (formerly Watercooler, Inc.) is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company developed and published massively multiplayer social games (MMSG’s) such as Kingdoms of Camelot and other mobile games Star Wars: Uprising and Marvel: Contest of Champions. Before expanding into gaming, Kabam established itself as a social applications developer with entertainment and sports communities totaling more than 60 million users. Kabam markets freemium games for mobile devices, social networking services, its own web site, and other game sites.

The company has focused on developing "real games," or games with immersive gameplay mechanics akin to more traditional MMOs with an emphasis on the spending and gambling of virtual currency. In late 2009, Kabam launched Kingdoms of Camelot, one of the first successful strategy games on Facebook, but in June 2010, the number of players began constantly shrinking.

As of April 2015, Kabam has announced a shift in its focus to developing AAA mobile games.

History

Founded in 2006 by Kevin Chou, Michael Li, Holly Liu, and Wayne Chan, the company originally focused on building community apps for sports and entertainment fans, amassing more than 25 million users on Facebook and other social networks.

In October 2009, Kabam, then Watercooler, secured $5.5 million in Series B funding from Betfair, the world’s largest Internet betting exchange, and Canaan Partners, which participated in the company’s Series A funding in 2007.

On November 2, 2009, Kabam, then Watercooler, launched Kingdoms of Camelot on Facebook.

On August 3, 2010, Watercooler changed its name to Kabam.

On October 22, 2010, Kabam acquired WonderHill.

On December 5, 2011, Kabam announced it was promoting Andrew Sheppard from chief product officer to president of its worldwide studio operations.

On December 20, 2011 Kabam acquired Gravity Bear, creator of the Battle Punks social game on Facebook.

On June 19, 2012, Kabam acquired Wild Shadow Studios, developers of Realm of the Mad God.

On January 27, 2012, Kabam acquired Fearless Studios, a company founded by ex-LucasArts employees.

In August 2012, Wayne Chan, one of Kabam's co-founders, left the company.

On September 19, 2012, CEO Chou announced that Kabam was considering an IPO.

On December 3, 2013, Kabam acquired Balanced Worlds.

On January 15, 2013, Kabam acquired Exploding Barrel Games.

On November 4, 2013, Kabam shut down servers for Imperium Galactic Wars.

At the end of 2013, a secondary stock sale valued the company at $700 million and four of its games – led by Kingdoms of Camelot – grossed more than $100 million by the end of 2013, with $360 million in revenues for 2013.

On March 10, 2014, Kabam acquired Phoenix Age.

As of March 31, 2014, Kabam games are no longer available via the Yahoo! Games platform.

On June 20, 2014, Kabam shut down servers for The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age.

In July 2014, Alibaba was investing $120 million in Kabam, which now has a $1 billion valuation. Kabam will be able to distribute the mobile games through Alibaba's apps.

In August 2014, Andrew Sheppard, president of Kabam’s worldwide game studios, left to join rival free-to-play gaming company GREE. Nick Earl, a veteran of Electronic Arts, was appointed the new president of worldwide studios in November.

On January 12, 2015, Kabam acquired TapZen and Magic Pixel Games.

As of April 2015, Kabam is only focused on developing AAA mobile games. As a result, a number of Kabam games were shut down, older Kabam games transferred to other companies and Kabam support for third-party games decreased.

On August 13, 2015, Machine Zone, maker of Game of War: Fire Age, sued Kabam for trade secret theft. The conflict was resolved to both companies' satisfaction a month later on September 10.

In September 2015, Nick Earl, president of worldwide studios, resigned. Mike Verdu was promoted to president of Kabam Studios and chief creative officer in charge of the publisher’s game design and game quality. Aaron Loeb was promoted to president of Kabam Studios and live services in charge of service quality.

On January 7, 2016, Kabam announced it had sold its legacy games and third party-published games to Chinese publisher GAEA Mobile. As the downsizing in April 2015, Kabam shut down a number of older games that were not transferred.

On February 22, 2016, Kabam laid off 8 percent of its company workforce. Kevin Chou, Kabam's chief executive, said in an exclusive interview with GamesBeat that the company will focus on free-to-play massively multiplayer mobile games such as its current hits, Marvel: Contest of Champions and Star Wars: Uprising. That means Kabam will put less emphasis on single-player games such as Fast & Furious.

Games and platforms

Games developed or acquired by Kabam

	Title	Platform	Original Developer	Available to Play	Release Date	Shutdown Date	Notes
1.	Fantasy Football	facebook	Watercooler	No	2009/07/01	2010/10
2.	$20K Football Challenge	facebook	Watercooler	No	2009/08	2010/10
3.	2010 Bracket Challenge	facebook	Watercooler	No	2009/10/01	2010/10
4.	Kingdoms of Camelot	facebook	Watercooler	Yes	2009/11/06		Transferred to RockYou and supported by RockYou as of the beginning of April 2015, though Kabam still hosts the game and Kabam Rewards still apply to the game.
5.	Noodle	facebook	Watercooler	No	2009/11/12	2010/10
6.	Sweet World	facebook	Watercooler	No	2010/04/28	2011/01/31
7.	Epic Goal	facebook	Watercooler	No	2010/06/01	2010/11
8.	SI Fantasy Football	facebook, Web	Kabam	No	2010/08/06	2011/04
9.	GreenSpot	MySpace	WonderHill	No	2009	2010/12/02
10.	Dog World	MySpace, facebook	WonderHill	No	2009	2010
11.	Enchanted Gardens	facebook	WonderHill	No	2009/10/12	2010
12.	Furry Farm	facebook	WonderHill	No	2010/03/19	2010/12/01
13.	Tattoo City	facebook	WonderHill	No	2010/06/16	2010/12/01
14.	Dragons of Atlantis	facebook	WonderHill	Yes	2010/10/06		Transferred to RockYou and supported by RockYou as of the beginning of April 2015, though Kabam still hosts the game and Kabam Rewards still apply to the game.
15.	Battle Punks	facebook	Gravity Bear Studio	No	2010/03/02	2012/03	Date is for beta release, server unresponsiveness by March 2012 was not announced and remains unresolved
16.	Realm Of The Mad God	Web, Kongregate, Steam	Wild Shadow Studios, Spry Fox	Yes	2010/01/10		Date is for beta release
17.	Bomb Buddies	facebook	Balanced Worlds Studio	No	2012/05/25	2013/06	Server unresponsiveness by June 2013 was not announced and remains unresolved
18.	Castle Age	facebook	Phoenix Age	Yes	2009/02
19.	Castle Age HD	iOS	Phoenix Age	Yes	2011/12/15
20.	Underworld Empire	iOS & Android	Phoenix Age	Yes	2013/01/15
21.	DDTank2	Web	7Road	No	2013/05/02	2015/03/05
22.	This Means War	iOS & Android	Magic Pixel Games, TapZen	Yes	2014/06/26
23.	Hero Force	facebook	Kabam	No	2010/08/01	2011/04/29
24.	Glory of Rome	facebook	Kabam	Yes	2010/10/23		Transferred to RockYou and supported by RockYou as of the beginning of April 2015, though Kabam still hosts the game and Kabam Rewards still apply to the game.
25.	Global Warfare	facebook, Web	Kabam	No	2011/03/18	2012/11/30
26.	Samurai Dynasty	facebook	Kabam	No	2011/03/29	2011/11/15	Date is for beta release
27.	Edgeworld	facebook	Kabam	Yes	2011/05/18		Transferred to RockYou and supported by RockYou as of the beginning of April 2015, though Kabam still hosts the game and Kabam Rewards still apply to the game.
28.	The Godfather: Five Families	facebook, Kongregate, Web	Kabam	Yes	2011/09/07		Date is for beta release. Transferred to RockYou and supported by RockYou as of the beginning of April 2015, though Kabam still hosts the game and Kabam Rewards still apply to the game.
29.	Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2011/11/21
30.	Thirst of Night	Web	Kabam	No	2011/12	2013/01/31
31.	Final Eden	Web	Kabam	No	2012/01/27	2012/11/27
32.	Mobile Command: Crisis in Europe	iOS	Kabam	No	2012/04/04	2012/10/08	Date for beta release, limited to Canada
33.	Arcane Empires	iOS, Android & facebook	Kabam	Yes	2012/06/26		Date is for beta release, limited to Canada
34.	Legend Four	iOS	Kabam	No	2012/07/21	2013
35.	Trojan War	Web	Kabam	No	2012/09/03	2012/11/19
36.	Battle Shard	Web	Kabam	No	2012/09/12	2012/12/04	Date is for beta release
37.	Kabam Slots	iOS & Android	Kabam	No	2012/09/20	2014
38.	The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle Earth	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2012/10/16
39.	The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age	facebook, Web	Kabam	No	2012/11/06	2014/06/20
40.	Edgeworld Mobile	iOS	Kabam	No	2012/11/06	2013/06/24	Date is for beta release, limited to Canada
41.	Legend Four HD	iOS	Kabam	No	2012/12/10	2013
42.	Lich Defense	Android	Kabam	No	2013/02/01	2013
43.	Blastron	iOS, Android & facebook	Kabam	No	2013/01/03	2014
44.	Farland Wars	Android	Kabam	No	2013/03/06	2013
45.	Dark District	iOS	Kabam	No	2013/03/29	2014/07/21	Date for beta release, limited to Canada
46.	Battle Dodgers	iOS, Android	Kabam	Yes	2013/04/06		Published and supported by Galaxy Pest Control. Android version is no longer available.
47.	Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2013/04/16		Date is for beta release
48.	Fast & Furious 6: The Game	iOS, Android & facebook	Exploding Barrel Games	No	2013/05/15	2015/06/30
49.	Imperium: Galactic War	facebook, Web	Kabam	No	2013/05/22	2013/11/04
50.	Order of Elements	iOS	Kabam	No	2013/05/31	2013/11/11
51.	Galactic War: Legacy	Android	Kabam	No	2013/06/12	2013/07	Loading issues occurred by July 2013
52.	Heroes of Camelot	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2013/06/27		Date for beta release
53.	Runes of War	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2013/08/26		Date is for beta release
54.	Eternal Uprising: End of Days	iOS & Android	Kabam	No	2013/09/23	2014
55.	Blast Zone!	iOS	Kabam	No	2013/10/08	2014/08/28	Date is for beta release
56.	Blood Crown	Web	Kabam	No	2013/12	2014/08/05
57.	Wartune: Hall of Heroes	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/03/06
58.	Angel Alliance	Web	Kabam	Yes	2014/03/11		Date is for beta release
59.	Ravenmarch: Empire in Flames	facebook	Kabam	No	2014/04/04	2016/02/16	Then supported by 37GAMES by June 1, 2015, but game suffers from long periods of broken facebook login
60.	Spirit Lords (Spirit Storm)	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/05/07
61.	Divine Might	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/05/09		Date for beta release
62.	Blades of Excalibur	facebook & Web	Kabam	No	2014/06/04	2015/04
63.	The Lord of the Rings: Legends of Middle-earth	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/09/18		Date for beta release
64.	Metal Skies	iOS & Android	Kabam	No	2014/08/05	2015/03/06	Date for beta release
65.	Marvel: Contest of Champions	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/10/02		Date for beta release
66.	The Hunger Games: Panem Rising	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2014/10/10		Date is for beta release
67.	Creature Academy	iOS & Android	Kabam	No	2014/10/29	2015/04/10	Date for beta release
68.	Fast & Furious: Legacy	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2015/01/23		Date for beta release
69.	Star Wars: Uprising	iOS & Android	Kabam	Yes	2015/07/08		Date for beta release
70.	MARVEL United	iOS & Android	Kabam	No	2015/07/09	2016/01/03	Date for beta release, Android beta only available in Denmark and Sweden

Games developed by 3rd parties and distributed by Kabam

	Title	Platform	Original Developer	Available to Play	Release Date	Shutdown Date	Notes
01.	Ministry of War	Kongregate, Web	SnailGames	Yes	2010/08	2014/02/28
02.	Geomon	iOS	EsperCorp, Loki Studios	No	2010/10/01	2013/04/17
03.	Nadirim	Web	Digital Reality, Twisted Tribe Ltd.	No	2010/12/08	2013/06/30	Date is for beta release
04.	Dungeon Overlord	facebook, Kongregate, Web	Nightowl Games	Yes	2011	2014/02/28
05.	Shadowland Online	Web	ZQGame	Yes	2011/08/08	2016/02/16	Date is for beta release
06.	Castlot	Web	Power Hosts Technology	Yes	2011/09	2016/01/27	Date is for beta release
07.	Book of Heroes	iOS & Android	Venan Games	Yes	2011/12/01
08.	Clash Of the Dragons	Kongregate, Web	5th Planet Games	No	2011/12	2014/10/30
09.	BloodRealm	Kongregate, Facebook, Steam, iOS, Android & Web	RedPoint Labs & Making Fun, Inc.	Yes	2012/04	2014/09/11	Date is for beta release
10.	Rise of the Warriors	iOS	The Monkey Twins Studios	Yes	2012/06/28	2013
11.	Age of Chaos	iOS	LVL6	No	2012/08/05	2013
12.	My Singing Monsters	Android, iOS & Web	Big Blue Bubble	Yes	2012/09/04	2013/02
13.	Wrath of Olympus	iOS	Chocobotsgames, mekalabo	No	2012/12/07	2014
14.	Reign of Conquerors	iOS & Android	Minoraxis	Yes	2012/12/19	2014	Date is for beta release
15.	Invincible Armada	facebook	Neowiz Games	No	2012/12/20	2014/02/28
16.	Kings of the Realm	Web, iOS & Android	DigitGame Studios	Yes	2013/04/12	2016/01/27	Kabam published mobile versions of the game on September 2, 2014 but the different versions were never cross-platform compatible. The mobile versions stopped working by January 2015 and Kabam forum support ended on February 9, 2015.
17.	Puzzle Trooper	iOS & Android	gumi	Yes	2013/06/21	2014/04/30	Date is for beta release
18.	Moonrise	Steam, iOS	Undead Labs, Kabam	No	2014/12/03	2015/12/31	After limited releases in Canada, Denmark and Sweden, a beta was launched on Steam in early March with Early Access on May 27 before Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs, announced the game's closure. Android and iOS were the original planned platforms for the worldwide release, but the Android version was never released as the game closed while in beta.
19.	Slot Galaxy	facebook	Galaxy Star Entertainment	Yes	2012/03/23	2013
20.	Slots Tycoon	iOS	Zipline Games	Yes	2012/05/23	2013
21.	Slot Galaxy HD Slot Machines	Android	Tap Slots	Yes	2012/12/16	2013
22.	Texas Hold'em Poker	Web		Yes?	?	2013
23.	Galaxy Online 2	facebook, Web	I Got Games	Yes	2010	2016/02/16
24.	Wings of Destiny	facebook, Web	I Got Games	Yes	2012/09/13	2016/02/16
25.	Call of Gods	Kongregate, Web	Biyojoy Network Technology	Yes	2010	2016/02/16
26.	Glory of Gods	Kongregate, Web	Biyojoy Network Technology	Yes	2012/12/03	2014/02/28
27.	Pirates: Tides of Fortune	Web	Plarium	Yes	2012/01/12
28.	Stormfall: Age of War	facebook, Web	Plarium	Yes	2012/11/01
29.	Crystal Saga	Kongregate, Web	Reality Squared Games	Yes	2011/08	2016/02/12	All character whom filed a ticket to reality squared games got their characters transferred to r2games.com under one of their servers
30.	Yitien	Web	Reality Squared Games	Yes	2013/04/09	2016/02/12	Date is for beta release
31.	Demon Slayer (Wartune)	facebook, Web	Reality Squared Games	Yes	2012/08/13
32.	Wartune	facebook, Web	Reality Squared Games	Yes	2012/08/13		Yahoo! version of the game was shut down on March 31, 2014 and progress transfer to other versions of the game was not possible.

Notes: Release date denotes when a game is first available to play, including closed and open beta releases. For games that are developed by other studios and distributed by Kabam, the shutdown date is when Kabam discontinued their support of the games. Those games may still be distributed by other publishers, or available to play on servers hosted by companies other than Kabam.

External links

• Official website