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Starting with China, how Kabam is looking to boost Asian revenues beyond 10%

Chris Petrovic on Marvel Contest of Champions' debut

Starting with China, how Kabam is looking to boost Asian revenues beyond 10%

The focus for Kabam in 2015 and 2016 is 'Fewer, Bigger, Bolder' when it comes to games, and growth in Asia, when it comes to new territories.

"Historically our revenues from Asia have been 10 percent and that has to change," said the company's SVP & Head of Corporate Development, Licensing & Publishing Chris Petrovic at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2015.

Yet as he pointed out in the key three Asian markets, most of the revenues come from locally-developed products: 92% in Japan; 91% in China; and 72% in Korea.

For Kabam, this is an issue, and this is why when it comes to its priority market - China - it's working very closely with its local partner Longtu over the release of its first game in the territory Marvel Contest of Champions.

Local knowledge

Ironically, Kabam has a big development studio in Beijing but has never previously released games in China.

However, this resource means that it can work really closely with Longtu, over the changes they are making to the game.

Notably this means Kabam doesn't have to hand over the game's source code; something with western companies see a key issue to successful operations in China, and especially an issue with the Disney-licensed Marvel IP.

Talking about how Marvel Contest of Champions will be localised for China, Petrovic said he preferred the term 'culturalisation' to describe the changes that would be made.

Notable amongst these will be a new "aggressive VIP system".

"If we'd released the western version of the game in China, it wouldn't have been a success," Petrovic stated.


Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.