Jobs In Games
Kiki Olofsson on building diversity and great art at Candy Crush Saga dev King
Dealing with the sweet and the sour
Company Profile
King
Website
www.king.com
About
King is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world, with people all around the world playing one or more of our games. We have developed more than 200 fun titles, offering games that are enjoyed all around the world.
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Ben Hollis
Lead Game Designer
Dominique Devoucoux
Head of Audio
Oleg Pridiuk
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Tobi Ibikunle
Software Engineer
Brian Burford
GM, Candy Crush Soda Saga
Abigail Rindo
VP of creative
Trevor Burrows
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Riccardo Zacconi
CEO
Sebastian Knutsson
Chief Creative Officer
Tjodolf Sommestad
President
Kiki Olofsson
Senior Studio Art Director
Luke Jackson
Product Manager, Candy Crush
Mark Taylor
Chief People Office
Therese Sander
lead level designer on Candy Crush Saga
Catt Mott
Senior Narrative Lead
Andrea Serfaty
Principal UX Designer
Vanesa Tate
Head of Eternal Games and Audio
Aïda Figuerola
Senior Engagement Manager, New Games
Marta Cortinas
Executive producer
Sian Finnis
Senior Director of Marketing Studio
Alena Rybik
Senior Product Director
Mick Heijkens
Senior Game Designer
Todd Green
Candy Crush franchise general manager
Roberto Kusabbi
Candy Crush Senior Director, Product Marketing
Paula Ingvar
GM, Candy Crush Saga
Jay Foreman
Level Design Craft Lead
Anna Busquet
Business Director of New Games
Luken Aragon
VP of Marketing
Frances Light
Global Director, Diversity and Inclusion
+26 more
Accolades
Articles featuring King
Financials
Activision Blizzard and King revenue drops as Candy Crush stays top-grossing franchise in US
Free-to-play title had a monthly active user base of 247 million over the previous quarter.
Charts
Tencent tops September mobile publisher grossing chart
Fellow Chinese firm NetEase was second place
Best Of 2019
The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers of 2019
Revealed: The movers, shakers and moneymakers!
Global Charts
Weekly global mobile games chart: Tencent titles take up half the chart in China
Mr Bullet remains the top free game in the US and UK
Narrative Design
Devcom 2019: Why mobile game narrative design is more than text and plot
King Berlin studio narrative designer Valentina Tamer offers her advice
Top Publishers
Tencent was the top grossing global apps publisher in July
Tencent grossed $679 million in revenue
Under Investigation
Report claims Activision Blizzard has avoided taxes on billions
The Candy Crush publisher moved $5.59 billion to subsidiaries in Bermuda and Barbados between 2013 to 2017
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Level designer Jay Foreman on going from Kent Police force to making games at King
"Suddenly I’d gone from policing the streets of Kent to policing the mean streets of Stormwind as a game master for Blizzard"
Dead Or Alive
Candy Crush co-founder thought title would be “dead” within six months
Casual puzzle series has brought in over $4 billion in revenue
Weekly Charts
Weekly global mobile games charts: Candy Crush Saga shoots down PUBG Mobile’s chances of topping gross ranking in the US
Rankings from June 10th to June 16th
Job News
King CEO Riccardo Zacconi steps down after 16 years
Will move to chairman role from July 1st, 2019
Sales Decline
King revenue falls year-on-year to $529m despite growth in MAUs
PC declines and Candy Crush Friends Saga impacts profitability
Data
UK games industry gender pay gap widens
Median hourly wage for women drops 4.78 per cent, mean figure down four per cent
Sweet Victory
Candy Crush Friends Saga passes $50 million in revenue globally
Slower pace than predecessor Candy Crush Jelly Saga
Too Little, Too Late?
Why Activision Blizzard’s mobile strategy is between a rock and a hard place
The wrong IP at the wrong time
Europe A Priority
Activision Blizzard shuts down King’s San Francisco studio as it focuses on European development
Mobile developer pulls out of US altogether
Hail To The King
Candy Crush maker King's revenue up in 2018 to $2bn, touts $100m ads business
"The next phase about where the ad business heading is about continued scaling"
Studio Closure
Report: King's Seattle studio to close
Decision results in 78 job losses
Oh No
Swedish tax agency demands $370 million from Candy Crush Saga maker King
Skatteverket claims King owes substantial taxes after its acquisition by Activision in 2016
Big Initiative
King becomes first UK games company to sign Tech Talent Charter to push diversity in the UK
Publisher claims women only count for 19 per cent of people working in UK games industry
Game On
Candy Crush Saga was the top grossing mobile game on the US app stores in November
Supercell’s Clash of Clans and Roblox also featured
Sweet
Candy Crush games have made King a sweet $1.3 billion in 2018 so far
$128m of that came in October
Crushed
Revenues at Candy Crush dev King fall by $22m year-on-year
Monthly active users grew to 262 million, however
Saga
Candy Crush Friends Saga smashes past $10 million revenue worldwide
Almost three-quarters of the game's audience is playing on Android devices
Crushed It
Candy Crush Friends Saga swipes 10 million downloads in its first week
But King’s sweet puzzling franchise is continuing to trend downwards
Sweet
King’s Candy Crush Friends Saga lands on App Store and Google Play after global launch
A 3D-focused event to be hosted in New York to celebrate the launch
Breaking In
Can Snowprint’s Legend of Solgard break King’s midcore curse?
Studio CEO Alexander Ekvall discusses working with the Candy Crush maker as part of the latter’s new publishing initiative
Sweet Business
King’s Candy Crush Saga hits $3.91 billion in lifetime revenues
All-time downloads sit at 823 million
Soft Launch Saga
Candy Crush Friends Saga takes one of mobile gaming's hottest IPs 3D in October
Fourth addition to the franchise launches on October
Agile
Speaker Spotlight: King's Sabrina Carmona on Fortnite's impact on the mobile games industry
Sabrina Carmona will be discussing how companies can create agile teams and foster a culture of excellence while developing games at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Cloud
Candy Crush dev King moves core data infrastructure and AI platform to Google Cloud
Partnership could also see collaboration on machine learning efforts
Revenue
Candy Crush games bringing in almost $4 million a day
The original Candy Crush Saga is still doing the bulk of the legwork at 62 per cent of total revenue
Alive
Speaker spotlight: Rose Thomas, King
Rose Thomas will be giving a talk called 5 Years and Counting: Keeping Our Pet Alive at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
Best Of 2018
The Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2018
Revealed: the movers, shakers and moneymakers!
Crushing It
King’s Candy Crush Saga enjoys highest grossing 12 month period with $930m made
The match-three title made $693 million in the 12 months prior
Sweet
King enters mid-core RPG market with newly launched game Legend of Solgard
The candy crush dev’s has previously failed to garner any traction with previous soft-launched midcore titles
Crushing It
Candy Crush developer King has made more than $1 billion so far this year
Monthly active users for King's portfolio hit 270 million
Crushing It
Candy Crush Saga the highest grossing Western-developed mobile game in Q2 2018
Generated $213 million during the quarter across the App Store and Google Play
Return Of The King
Candy Crush dev King launches new IP Diamond Diaries Saga on iOS and Android
The physics-based linker game has been in soft-launch since October of last year
Big Pull
King enters the social casino space with Royal Charm Slots
The title had been in soft-launch since August 2017
Why Not
Activision Blizzard has eyes on battle royale's mobile success
King has been working on a Call of Duty title for mobile
Crushed It
Candy Crush Saga revival propels King revenues to record $534m
King’s monthly active users jumped up to 285 million
Gender Pay Gap
UK games companies reveal gender pay gap
New figures show men earning more than women
Rejoyce
King appoints global director of diversity and inclusion
Former BBC veteran, Joyce Adeluwoye-Adams MBE, joins Candy Crush developer
Sweet Money
Candy Crush Soda Saga fizzes into top 10 of global grossing mobile game charts for January 2018
Two Candy Crush games in the top 10 revenue generators for January, according to SuperData
Activision Blizzard Financials Q4 Fy17
Candy Crush franchise growth nudges King's 2017 revenues to a sweet $1.99 billion
Despite consistently falling MAUs across the company overall
Fostering Innovation
How King's company culture and exclusive team events encourage creative game design
King VP of game design Stephen Jarrett on the Kingfomarket, diverse teams and how company execs get involved in real game design
Keep It Going
King on turning away from the traditional "boxed" model of games to long-running titles
Todd Green on not hiring rockstars in favour of training new staff
Candy Crush Ar
King launches AR camera effect on Facebook featuring Candy Crush
Catch candies in your mouth as your head grows bigger and bigger