Casual Connect Europe 2013: Interview with Kabam

Are Kingdoms of Camelot and Arcane Empires competing with each other? President of Kabam Game Studios, Andrew Sheppard, talked to us about their fastest-growing game and a new racing project. 

Andrew Sheppard

You have a large number of projects with similar mechanics whose audiences overlap (Kingdoms of Camelot, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth, Arcane Empires). Don't they take users away from each other? If so, why did you do it? 

We conducted research both on Facebook and in the mobile market, and concluded that you just need to skillfully use targeting and cross-promotion, like showing Kingdoms of Camelot players ads for The Hobbit. Basically, the game performance doesn't suffer from this approach. So, from a business standpoint, this isn't an issue for us.

Based on your experience working with Warner Bros., can you say how much revenue growth a franchise provides? 

I can't give exact numbers, but licensing definitely boosts revenue. It's similar to the console game industry, where, for example, the Spider-Man brand helps sell a game not only to gamers but also to less experienced users, like a dad buying a new game for his son. 

But in our case, with digital distribution, the quality of the franchise is crucial, whether it's an original IP or a well-known movie brand. For example, we've invested a lot in building the Kingdoms of Camelot brand over a long time. And The Hobbit is, of course, a massive franchise. A strong brand can attract a lot of free traffic. However, if a game with a powerful license doesn't satisfy the users, serious problems can arise with the franchise owner.

Kingdoms of Camelot — Kabam's main hit

But acquiring a license like The Hobbit requires significant investments. Can you tell from the initial results if it will pay off? 

So far, I can say that this game has become the fastest growing among all our projects. Interestingly, The Hobbit gained more popularity on Android than Kingdoms of Camelot, while the opposite is true on iOS.

A few days ago, Kabam announced a game based on the sixth Fast and Furious movie (in Russia – "Furious"), and today in your report, you focused quite a bit on racing games. Does this mean your project will also be a racing game? You mainly specialize in strategy games, and this is a new genre for you! 

Yes, that's right. We're banking on both the strength of the IP and the team in Vancouver working on the project. The team includes people who previously worked at EA Black Box and created amazing games like Need For Speed and Skate. By the way, it already looks great. And, as you might have guessed, it will be free-to-play.

The company plans to create at least a competitor to Need for Speed

What do you think are the most important trends of this year?

Firstly, the continued growth of projects for tablets, as their penetration is skyrocketing. I think smartphones have already reached their peak, but tablets still have room to grow. 

Moreover, there's a transitional period in the wider industry (from the seventh to the eighth generation of consoles), which will also impact the mobile gaming market, as tablet games are much closer to console projects than smartphone games are. 

What are your thoughts on Eastern Europe and other emerging markets? 

Oh, we are very interested in developing these markets. We have high hopes particularly for Russia, Brazil, and Turkey.