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Kabam winds down Beijing studio following poor internal performance of soft-launched Legacy of Zeus

COO Kent Wakeford also discusses future asset sales

Kabam winds down Beijing studio following poor internal performance of soft-launched Legacy of Zeus

Kabam has wound down its Beijing studio following the poor internal performance of its soft-launched RPG Legacy of Zeus.

Speaking to PocketGamer.biz, Kabam COO Kent Wakeford explained that "unfortunately the game didn't meet our internal expectations". It was removed from the App Store in January 2017.

"We made a very difficult decision to pull the game from the App Store and wind down that team," said Wakeford.

"It's not something that we do lightly, and we know that it's impacted people's lives, so we take those decisions very seriously."

Everything must go

Wakeford also spoke about the deal with Netmarble, which is acquiring its Vancouver studio among other parts of Kabam's operations. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017.

"Netmarble's been an amazing partner, they've been great to work with, and we think that Netmarble will be able to unlock Asia for Kabam," said Wakeford.

As for the rest of its business, Wakeford said that the company had received interest in a number of its other assets including its Los Angeles studio.

The studio is continuing development on a game based on the Avatar film license that was announced in June 2016. Wakeford also revealed it was working on a currently unannounced title "based on another popular entertainment IP."

"Following the close with Netmarble, we will engage in a process to sell the remaining assets of Kabam, which is primarily the LA studio, as well as a number of executives and people from other areas of the company," he explained.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.