Kabam sells Kingdoms of Camelot, The Hobbit and more

Kabam is selling off a number of its first-generation mobile games and its third party publishing operations to Beijing company GAEA Mobile.

"Kabam continues to pare its business to concentrate on creating and operating the highest quality mobile games that will be long-lasting global hits," said Kabam COO Kent Wakeford in a statement.

"Millions of people still play our legacy mobile games and games by third-party partners. We wanted to find the right home for this treasure trove of entertainment. GAEA proves to be that trusted company."

Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North, The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth, Dragons of Atlantis: Heirs of the Dragon are all part of the deal, though the price tag wasn't revealed.

"GAEA Mobile's transaction with Kabam is an essential piece in our 'Global Development, Global Publishing' strategy blueprint," added GAEA COO Glevis Yang.

"We are continuously in search of international games and talents to become part of our expertise in creating games that can be enjoyed by gamers of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. We look forward to bringing exciting new titles to the gaming community."

GAEA was founded in September 2014 and is home to titles like Ace of Arenas which attracted 30,000,000 players in its first 10 months.

In October last year GamesIndustry.biz spoke to Kabam president Aaron Loeb.

"The way that mobile and free-to-play as they currently stand will be disrupted is not completely clear," he says. "The very low end of mobile game development seems likely to go away, or it will truly become like hoping to get hit by lightning. The developer who spends $20,000 throwing something on the marketplace really ought to put that $20,000 in a mutual fund. That's just not very likely to produce any outcome," he said.

"There's so much competition, and so much quality product being created, that it will be very, very hard for those games. Harder than it has ever been."