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Kabam (formerly Watercooler, Inc.) is an interactive entertainment company founded in 2006 and headquartered in Vancouver, BC. with offices in Montréal, QC, San Francisco, CA and Austin, Texas. The company creates, develops and publishes massively multiplayer social games (MMSG's) such as ''
Marvel Contest of Champions ''Marvel Contest of Champions'' is a 2014 fighting video game developed and published by Kabam. It was released on December 10, 2014, for iOS and Android. The fighting game is primarily set in the Marvel Universe. The game is strongly based o ...
'' and '' Transformers: Forged to Fight'' for mobile devices. 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 Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
games for mobile devices, and
social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
s. The company's previous investors included Alibaba, Canaan Partners, Google, MGM, Intel, Pinnacle Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Warner Bros. and others. 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 Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
of
virtual currency Virtual currency, or virtual money, is a digital currency that is largely unregulated and issued and usually controlled by its developers and used and accepted electronically among the members of a specific virtual community. In 2014, the Europ ...
. In late 2009, Kabam launched ''Kingdoms of Camelot'', one of the first successful strategy games on
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, but in June 2010, the number of players began constantly shrinking. As of April 2015, Kabam announced a shift in its focus to developing AAA mobile games.


History

Kabam was founded in 2006 as Watercooler by Kevin Chou, Michael Li,
Holly Liu Holly Liu is an American businesswoman and venture capitalist. She is the co-founder of the mobile gaming company Kabam. She is currently Non-Executive Director and Strategic Adviser to Animoca's board of directors. Education She studied at the ...
, and Wayne Chan, the company started off focused on building community apps for sports and entertainment fans, amassing more than 25 million users on
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
and other social networks. In October 2009 Watercooler, secured $5.5 million in Series B funding from
Betfair Betfair is a British Gambling, gambling company which operates the world's largest online betting exchange. Its product offering also includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Founded in 2000, the business is split ...
, 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, Watercooler, launched '' Kingdoms of Camelot'' on Facebook. On August 3, 2010, Watercooler changed its name to Kabam. On September 19, 2012, CEO Kevin Chou announced that Kabam was considering an
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
. A secondary stock sale was agreed at the end of 2013 which valued the company at $700 million, it was also announced at this time that four of its games – led by ''Kingdoms of Camelot'' – grossed more than $100 million, with $360 million in revenues for 2013. In June 2014, Kabam hired former EA Mobile VP Aaron Loeb as Senior Vice President of its North American Studios (San Francisco and Vancouver), while at EA Mobile he worked on The Simpsons: Tapped Out and Monopoly Slots, Kabam hoped he would provide a link to Hollywood Studios. Also in June, Kabam shut down servers for ''The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age''.
Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...
announced in July 2014 that it planned to invest $120 million in Kabam, giving the company a $1 billion valuation. This allowed its games to be distributed through Alibaba's apps, including Mobile Taobao and the Laiwang messaging app. 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 Machine Zone, Inc. (MZ) is an American privately held technology company, founded in 2008 and based in Palo Alto, California. The company is best known for its widely advertised freemium mobile MMO strategy games '' Game of War: Fire Age'' and ' ...
, 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, Kabam, Disney Interactive, Lucasfilm launch Star Wars: Uprising In September 2015, Nick Earl, president of worldwide studios, resigned.
Mike Verdu Michael Verdu (born December 28, 1964) is an American manager and producer and author of computer games. Life Verdu was born on December 28, 1964. His father worked for a trade union, his mother was a dance instructor. Michael visited the Ren ...
was promoted to president of Kabam Studios and chief creative officer in charge of the publisher's game design and game quality.
Aaron Loeb According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of ...
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 ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...
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''. On June 23, 2016, Kabam announced that they would be selling
Realm of the Mad God ''Realm of the Mad God '' is a massively multiplayer online shooter video game co-created by Wild Shadow Studios and currently owned and developed by DECA Games. It was in public beta from January 2010 and the browser version launched on June 2 ...
to DECA Games. In July 2016, Kabam announces that Marvel Contest of Champions hit $100 million in gross revenue in seven months, the fastest of any game in Kabam history (The Hobbit was next fastest at 13 months). In November 2016, Kabam appoints Jeff Howell to the newly created position, Chief Technology Officer. In June 2016, Kabam partners with Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox to Develop a Groundbreaking New Avatar Mobile Game. In August 2016, Kabam and Hasbro team up to develop a Transformers mobile game. The title was released on April 5, 2017. In October 2016, Kabam Vancouver announced planning for a new location, TechVibes. As of March 1, 2017, Kabam was acquired by
Netmarble Netmarble Corp. (Hangul, Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer. It is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk. Overview Netmarble developed ''Lineage 2 Revolution ...
. In 2017, Tim Fields was named as CEO of Kabam. On August 17, 2020, Kabam released ''
Marvel Realm of Champions ''Marvel Realm of Champions'' was a mobile fighting game developed by Kabam as a spinoff for their other Marvel game '' Contest of Champions''. The free-to-play game with in-game Store purchases launched globally on December 16, 2020. On January 13 ...
'', a spin-off of their hit game
Marvel Contest of Champions ''Marvel Contest of Champions'' is a 2014 fighting video game developed and published by Kabam. It was released on December 10, 2014, for iOS and Android. The fighting game is primarily set in the Marvel Universe. The game is strongly based o ...
. That game would go on to shut down on March 31, 2022. On January 17, 2022, Kabam announced that Mr. Seungwon Lee from Netmarble is assuming the role of CEO at Kabam. Kabam and
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
announced that
Disney Mirrorverse ''Disney Mirrorverse'' is a 2022 mobile role-playing game developed and produced as a collaboration between Disney and Kabam. The crossover game was released on June 23, 2022, for iOS and Android. A teaser trailer for the game was released on M ...
was established on June 23, 2022.


Company acquisitions


Games and platforms


Games developed or acquired by Kabam


Games developed by 3rd parties and distributed by Kabam

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.


References


External links

* {{Official website, https://www.kabam.com/ Video game companies of the United States Video game companies of Canada Mobile game companies Video game companies established in 2006 Video game development companies