After a busted deal and more than a year of planning, Kabam's "Marvel: Contest of Champions" is now the top iOS mobile game in China.
The San Francisco-based company's climb to success, however, was not easy. In an exclusive interview with Venture Beat, Kabam's chief operating officer Kent Wakeford said that after the botched deal with Lingtu Games, it realized that "it had the chops" to go by itself.
Last year, the two companies announced their "strategic deal" to release "Marvel: Contest of Champions" in China. The agreement, however, was cut short and the two groups decided to "part ways" but on "amicable" terms.
Going solo, Kabam proceeded to customizing the free-to-play game, taking about 18 months to prepare and only having 35 personnel.
The decision to customize "Marvel: Contest of Champions" was a deliberate one.
In China, the game is called "Man Wei Ge Dou: Guan Jun Zhi Zheng," quite different from its original title, to suit the taste of users in the country, the biggest market for mobile games by revenue at $7.1 billion.
Today, Kabam's self-published game has generated more than 2 million downloads, per Venture Beat. In the U.S., the game has reaped about $100 million.
Taking a detour from its strategy in the west, Kabam had to tweak its strategy in China by focusing on players who are willing to "pay to win."
"We had to redesign the game so that it catered to the VIPs," Wakeford revealed.
"In Western markets, the game is more balanced," Wakeford added. "People can either pay or invest their time and achieve the same things. In China, we redesigned the game to cater to the VIPs. The reward they get with the 'unlocks' are very important for the gameplay."
Another factor that Kabam had to consider was that Western players tend to pick famous characters regardless of skills, while their Asian counterparts make a choice based on the characters' fighting abilities.
"That was a big difference for us, and we had to lean into that. It was something that we hadn't anticipated," Wakeford noted.
"Marvel: Contest of Champions" currently suits iOS only, but there are plans of making it available for Android users. Kabam stressed, however, that a partner in China is necessary to make that happen.