Kabam’s cofounder Holly Liu says you have to build a global culture to succeed in games

Holly Liu, cofounder of mobile gaming company Kabam, maker of The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth and Marvel Contest of Champions, says that you have to instill core values and build a global culture to succeed as you expand to become a global company.

More than ever, game companies have to spread worldwide as they pursue a billion mobile users around the globe in the $30 billion mobile games market. You can add teams rapidly around the world, but those new divisions have to fit within the culture set by the headquarters office, preferably by the CEO. Kabam, which has more than 800 employees, started in San Francisco and it has opened offices in places like Beijing and Berlin.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.