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Zen Studios bets on free-to-play by adapting CastleStorm console game to mobile (case study)

CastleStorm: Free to Siege is launching on mobile devices today, and for publisher Zen Studios, getting it done was an adventure in itself.

Mel Kirk, the vice president of publishing at Budapest, Hungary-based Zen Studios, told us the tale in hopes of teaching other console and PC game developers about how to transition from making paid console and PC games to making free-to-play mobile titles. As he related the story, it became clear that it was not an easy thing to do. Yet this kind of transition is becoming critical for traditional game companies if they want to be positioned for survival in the new era of digital games.

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Written by

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.