The Long View
Five years on, have the first billionaire F2P mobile games survived or thrived?
Checking out Puzzle & Dragons, Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga
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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Senior Narrative Lead
Paula Ingvar
GM, Candy Crush Saga
Sian Finnis
Senior Director of Marketing Studio
Mark Taylor
Chief People Office
Tobi Ibikunle
Software Engineer
Luken Aragon
VP of Marketing
Sebastian Knutsson
Chief Creative Officer
Alena Rybik
Senior Product Director
Therese Sander
lead level designer on Candy Crush Saga
Jay Foreman
Level Design Craft Lead
Brian Burford
GM, Candy Crush Soda Saga
Abigail Rindo
VP of creative
Todd Green
Candy Crush franchise general manager
Marta Cortinas
Executive producer
Tjodolf Sommestad
President
Oleg Pridiuk
Evangelist, Defold
Ben Hollis
Lead Game Designer
Andrea Serfaty
Principal UX Designer
Roberto Kusabbi
Candy Crush Senior Director, Product Marketing
Vanesa Tate
Head of Eternal Games and Audio
Mick Heijkens
Senior Game Designer
Luke Jackson
Product Manager, Candy Crush
Trevor Burrows
VP of Farm Heroes Saga
Frances Light
Global Director, Diversity and Inclusion
Kiki Olofsson
Senior Studio Art Director
Riccardo Zacconi
CEO
Anna Busquet
Business Director of New Games
Dominique Devoucoux
Head of Audio
+25 more
Accolades
Articles featuring King
Office Closure
Report: King closes South Korea office
Publisher shuts down local operations after struggling to make a significant impact
Financial Roundup
Snapshot of key mobile game company financials in 2017
Marking mobile gamings winners and losers
Activision Blizzard Financials Q4 Fy16
King makes up nearly 25% of Activision Blizzard's $6.6 billion in sales for 2016
MAUs fall but players are more engaged
Tools Of The Trade
What tools does Candy Crush maker King use to develop its hugely successful games?
Oleg Pridiuk looks behind the curtain
Confirmed Deal
King buys analytics company Omniata
Terms not disclosed
A Kind Of Magic
Bubble Witch 3 Saga flies past 10 million downloads in first two weeks
So says Sensor Tower
Game Design Contest
Why you should consider entering the Defold GDC Competition 2017
King Evangelist Oleg Pridiuk offers up the details
Not Giving Up
Candy Crush dev King hiring for a midcore shooter at its Stockholm studio
Swedish arm on the hunt for artists and designers
King Of Game Engines
Learn all about King’s free Defold game engine at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2017
There's a new game development tool around town...
Publishing Power Panel
Power panel: Experts discuss what publishers can offer in 2016 and beyond
Steel Media's Chris James gets them chatting
Defold Competition
King opens Defold game engine competition to send devs to GDC 2017
Entries close January 22nd
King Of Latam
An overview of the LATAM market in 2016 and the keywords you need to know about it
King's Sabrina Carmona tells all
Kings And Vp's
King hires ex-GSN VP of Creative Steven Meretzky as VP of Design
Industry veteran to work on secret project
Sweet For Success
King records three top 20 grossing mobile games for nearly three years straight
MAUs fall slightly to a still impressive 394 million
Studio Closure
King shuts down Singapore studio Nonstop Games two years after big money deal
Developer closes two years after big money acquisition
Hall Of Fame
Hall of Fame: King CEO Riccardo Zacconi on building a mobile gaming powerhouse
Crushing it with Candy Crush Saga
Crushing It
There is going to be a Candy Crush TV show
New game show will have contestants competing on enormous interactive game boards
Crushing It
Candy Crush Saga users have played more than one trillion games in last four years
18 billion games played every month
Not Quite Witchcraft
King finally renames soft-launched bubble shooter Wilbur as Bubble Witch 3 Saga
Why did they even pretend it was something different?
Designing Candy
How King uses magic and data to find the fun in Candy Crush
Jeremy Kang discusses level design on match-3 games
July Ad Spend
MZ made up 40% of games industry US TV ad spend in July 2016
King, InnoGames also feature
Activision Blizzard Financials
King brings in $454 million and 409 million MAUs for Activision Blizzard following acquisition
Another non-Candy Crush game due out later this year
Reunited
King invests big in Swedish developer Snowprint Studios
Bringing old friends back into the fold
A Good Harvest
Farm Heroes Super Saga was the fastest growing Android game in June, as Clash Royale falls rapidly
Clash Royale engagement starting to fall
Hero's Struggle
King's midcore title Hero pulled from soft launch for a second time
Will probably be back in a month
King Of Kings
Turn-based strategy Rise of Tyrants is King's other soft-launched midcore title
Has been in development for 21 months
Hero's Return
King's midcore title Hero returns to soft launch with a massive update
Now also available in Philippines and Singapore
What's Next?
King to release two non-Candy Crush titles in 2016
Group synergies
No More Hero
King's soft-launched midcore title, Hero, pulled from Google Play
No reason given, but we have a few ideas
Candy Crush Pvp
It dominates casual gaming, but can King also be successful in midcore - whatever that is?
Mobile Mavens discuss
Bubble Wilbur Saga
King soft-launches new entry in Bubble Witch Saga series, disguises it as "Wilbur"
Calling the package "com.king.bubblewitch3" a bit of a giveaway
Creative Accounting
Estimates suggest King may have stabilised its revenue decline
Very simple math
Hero King
Updated: King goes midcore, soft-launching one-handed RPG Hero
A simple name for a simple game?
Discontinuous
Stripping out King stub revenues, Activision Blizzard sees FY16 Q1 mobile sales down 58% to $36 million
Up and down
Best Of The Best
Top 50 Mobile Game Developers of 2016
The shakers, movers and moneymakers
King Acquired
Activision Blizzard completes acquisition of King for $5.9 billion
Creates the "largest game network in the world"
Final Quarter
Fewer players, fewer payers: King sees 2015 sales slide 12% to $2 billion
Candy crushing
Tv Ad Spending
Machine Zone, Supercell, and King spent $200 million on US TV ads in 2015
Nearly $100m spent by Machine Zone
On The Slide
King's relative decline continues with FY15 Q3 sales down 2% to $480 million
Candy Crush matures more
What's Next?
Mobile Mavens debate the value of the deal and the future of mobile games in the Activision Blizzard King era
Big boys at play
Good, Bad, Hopeful
What Newzoo, App Annie and IHS think about Activision Blizzard's $5.9 billion King deal
Talking heads
Best Available Deal
Why Activision Blizzard bought King, not Zynga, Glu or Kabam
Big bucks
Takes The Crown
Activision Blizzard to buy King for $5.9 billion
All cash deal will close in Spring 2016
Number Crunching
Ranking King, Zynga, EA, Gameloft and Glu in terms of their revenue and player reach
Graphing success and failure
Get Hired
How to get a job with King
Newly-appointed Chief People Officer Mark Taylor shares insights
Iap Inspector
Examining the slow pace of island life in Paradise Bay
IAPs from the players' persepctive
Suits You
King appoints ex-Burberry man as Chief People Officer
Mark Taylor brings 20 years' experience
Making Of
Cocktails and IAPs: The making of Paradise Bay
We go behind the scenes of King's latest game.
Sweet
Friday Flashback: Candy Crush Saga revealed as the second 'billion dollar' mobile game
Puzzle & Dragons has a rival