Kabam’s mobile games win loyal players who aren’t so easy to please (interview)

Many of Kabam‘s social mobile gamers play for three hours a day, seven days a week. But sometimes, they can complain for just as long.

That’s the blessing and the curse of Kabam’s success in the strategy-gaming niche, where it has published titles like The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth. These games have landed Kabam in the top-10 grossing games on mobile platforms, and they’re just part of a larger portfolio of titles that are spreading the company’s risks and creating opportunities for breakout successes.

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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.