Japan’s KLab partners with Kabam to better serve US and European users

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Japanese mobile game developer KLab (TSE:3656) today announced that it has partnered with US-based Kabam to start publishing apps in the US and Europe using Kabam’s publishing platform. As part of the partnership, the Japanese company plans to start distributing Eternal Uprising next month, a remake app of fantasy RPG Requiem of God Destruction that won over many Japanese fans in 2012.

To date KLab has been providing apps to the global market through its US subsidiary, but it will switch its distribution channels in Europe to the Kabam platform, since markets in the region have different languages and different charging models. The US company has channels to 100 different markets around the world, which provides help for Klab in terms of app localization, marketing, and fees collection.

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Kabam established a $50 million fund last April to help Asian game developers generate revenue in US and European markets. For the US company, the partnership with KLab is the first step of the initiative.

In Europe, the smartphone gaming app market recently started to pick up, and many Japanese gaming companies are aggressively looking for local partners to intensify their European businesses.

KLab had a 1.1 billion yen (about $11 million) operating loss last year due to delays publishing new game titles. But it showed rapid recovery in the last few months, and raised 930 million yen (about $9.3 million) from Japanese ad agency Hakuhodo (TSE:2433) and Oak Capital last month.