Kabam has acquired two mobile game studios in Los Angeles as it continues to pick up top talent to make it one of the most sought after gaming studios in the mobile segment.
San Francisco based gaming studio has picked up TapZen and Magic Pixel Games, both based in Los Angeles. The purchases, announced Tuesday, mark Kabam’s eighth and ninth acquisitions in less than five years and will increase the company’s headcount beyond its current 800 employees worldwide.
The deal also brings industry veteran Mike Verdu to Kabam’s executive team, who founded TapZen after tenures as COO at Zynga and VP of Electronic Arts Los Angeles. He will run Kabam’s Los Angeles studio that will combine the two acquired ones since both of them have teamed up in the past to build a strategy game This Means War.
“Joining Kabam was an opportunity we could not pass up,” said Verdu in a statement. “I’ve been impressed at how Kabam has quickly become a leader in the free-to-play games space, and I look forward to helping the team drive the evolution of mobile games into the next generation.”
Along with Verdu, Magic Pixel co-founder and former EA engineer Michael Seegers is also joining Kabam’s executive team.
“This new troika of industry executives gives Kabam unprecedented AAA console quality game development experience and global management firepower that will propel Kabam Studios to the next level,” said Kabam CEO Kevin Chou.
Kabam has been on a spree to hire talent. In November, it hired former Electronic Arts executive Nick Earl as president of Kabam Global Studios. Prior to that, another Electronic Arts executive Aaron Loeb joined as senior vice president of Kabam Studios. Like Loeb, Verdu will report to Earl. Kabam has acquired nine studios since 2010.
