Kabam opens new office in Berlin

Kabam, the free-to-play developer, is expanding its presence in Europe with a new office in Berlin.

Kabam opened a temporary Berlin office last years, but that only housed some 50 sales and marketing staff.

It new office will see a mixture of publishing, customer service and live operations staff, with some 80 employees initially. Kabam estimates it will grow the employee base to 150 by year-end. The two-floor offices, located at Greifswalder Straße, occupy approximately 20,500 square feet.

“Berlin is a vibrant tech hub with a unique multi-national workforce, and is the ideal place to expand Kabam’s European games support,” said Kabam Studios president Andrew Sheppard.

“Europe is a thriving free-to-play market where more than 40 per cent of Kabam revenue comes from, and our new Berlin office best suits the needs of our partners and customers in that region.”

The Berlin office will support a number of Kabam’s main franchise games, including Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, Fast & Furious 6: The Game and Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon.

Three of these titles have generated more than $100 million in lifetime revenue. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North and The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth were two of the top ten grossing games across iOS and Google Play stores in 2013.

The Berlin office will also help support the efforts of the Kabam Worldwide Developer Fund. The $50 million fund has assisted third-party developers in China, Japan and South Korea to take use of Kabam’s monetisation and marketing expertise to bring their titles to North American and European markets.

Kabam has grown rapidly in the last four years. It now has more than 800 employees in offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Last year, the company generated more than $325 million in revenue, and predicts at least $550 million in revenue in 2014.