Skip to main content [aditude-amp id="stickyleaderboard" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":712227,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,mobile,","session":"B"}']

Kabam’s new $50M fund helps Japanese mobile games head West

Kabam’s new $50M fund helps Japanese mobile games head West

Kabam will take a piece of revenue in exchange for localizing, marketing, and distributing Japanese games in U.S. and Europe.

logo

Attention Japanese developers: San Francisco startup Kabam wants to help bring your games to American and European markets.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":712227,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,mobile,","session":"B"}']

Kabam announced today that it set up a $50 million fund designed specifically to bring Japanese mobile games to those large markets, according to the Wall Street Journal. Under the deal, Kabam will pay for localization, marketing, and distribution in exchange for a percentage of the revenue.

Kabam CEO Kevin Chou told the Journal that he believes Japanese developers can double their revenue if they work with his company.

AI Weekly

The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.

Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.

This initiative will have Kabam butting heads with Japanese companies Gree and DeNA over the same pool of developers.

Japan is a hotspot for mobile game development. The free-to-play movement has caught on in a major way in that market and is sparking games like Gung Ho Online Entertainment’s Puzzle & Dragons, which is on its way to generating $1 billion in revenue.

Kabam also has expertise in the free-to-play sector with world-sim games Kingdoms of Camelot and The Hobbit: Kingdoms.

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Learn More