Kabam execs tell us how they’re taking mobile games up a notch (interview)

After a 13-year career at Electronic arts, Nick Earl recently jumped ship to run the game studios at Kabam, the fast-growing free-to-play mobile gaming company. He’s the latest console game executive to make the leap to mobile. Earl’s job is to elevate mobile games to the next level.

Kabam is one of the hot companies in mobile, and it recently raised $120 million from China’s Internet giant, Alibaba, in a deal that valued Kabam at more than $1 billion. Kabam said the company is targeting $500 million in revenues, compared to $360 million in 2013. Part of the way it will do that is by creating more games based on movie intellectual properties. The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth has generated more than $100 million in revenue for Kabam, and it is working on properties such as The Hunger Games and Fast and Furious.