????一款看起來流暢好玩的游戲，在開發(fā)的時(shí)候往往沒那么簡單。

????這也正是Kabam公司開發(fā)令人愛不釋手的手游時(shí)遵循的理念。Kabam公司通過免費(fèi)模式提供游戲，然后通過額外的付費(fèi)內(nèi)容賺錢。8年時(shí)間里，在聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人兼CEO周凱文的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下，Kabam已經(jīng)從一家名不見經(jīng)傳的小公司成長為一家年收入3.6億美元、估值超10億美元的大企業(yè)。據(jù)報(bào)道，就在上個(gè)月，Kabam還獲得了一筆來自阿里巴巴(Alibaba)的1.2億美元投資。

????周凱文位列《財(cái)富》“40位40歲以下商業(yè)精英”榜單第25名。在該名單發(fā)布幾天后，他接受了《財(cái)富》專訪，暢談了他挺過2008年金融危機(jī)的經(jīng)歷、開發(fā)一款成功游戲的秘訣，以及該公司準(zhǔn)備如何將中國作為下一個(gè)增長點(diǎn)。

????《財(cái)富》：并非每個(gè)游戲公司高管自己都愛玩游戲。你是個(gè)游戲玩家嗎？

????周凱文：我從小就很喜歡游戲。高中時(shí)我還是一個(gè)有世界排名的《星際爭(zhēng)霸》(StarCraft)玩家。它很有意思，就在前幾天，我妻子讓我看了一段YouTube上的視頻：一個(gè)父親把他兒子的所有游戲光盤扔到了草坪上，然后開著割草機(jī)碾過去。當(dāng)我還小的時(shí)候，情況并沒那么糟，不過我父母當(dāng)然希望我做一些有意義的事。所以現(xiàn)在我把自己喜歡的事情變成一筆大生意，也算是美夢(mèng)成真了。

????Kabam的第一款熱賣游戲是什么？

????第一款特別成功的游戲是通過Facebook分銷的《亞瑟王國》(Kingdoms of Camelot)。它是一款描述中世紀(jì)騎士的戰(zhàn)略游戲——也是我喜歡的那種。當(dāng)時(shí)也生出了一些枝節(jié)，尤其是在通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)交付游戲的技術(shù)方面。我們當(dāng)時(shí)不可能開發(fā)出你在Xbox或PlayStation上看到的那種游戲。所以我們沒法開發(fā)體育競(jìng)技游戲。我們當(dāng)時(shí)無法通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)交付那種水平的圖形能力。所以我們選擇了即時(shí)戰(zhàn)略游戲。比如你可以想想《卡坦島》(Settlers of Catan)或者《風(fēng)險(xiǎn)》(Risk)這種戰(zhàn)略游戲，它們不需要很多很酷的圖形效果，而更多的是決策，然后經(jīng)歷這些決策的結(jié)果，并且與其它玩家進(jìn)行對(duì)戰(zhàn)。

????你說過你進(jìn)軍付費(fèi)游戲是受了2008年金融危機(jī)的影響，你能談?wù)勥@方面嗎？

????從2008年到2009年，我們損失了90%的收入，都沒錢發(fā)工資了。我們說：“我們的廣告收入短期內(nèi)沒法恢復(fù)，該怎么辦？”與此同時(shí)，所謂的“迷你游戲”正在吸引很高的參與度。而且我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)更大的趨勢(shì)，那就是很多游戲正在涌向Facebook，并且采用免費(fèi)模式。當(dāng)時(shí)我們把所有賭注壓在了游戲上，決定只開發(fā)游戲，不依賴廣告收入——也就是只讓玩家為游戲（的高級(jí)內(nèi)容）付費(fèi)。時(shí)間證明，這是一筆很好的生意。

????A game that feels seamless and easy to play is often far from easy to make.

????That’s the idea behind the addictive mobile games developed by Kabam, which has harnessed the “free to play” model of offering free games but while layering on extra content for a fee. In eight years, co-founder and CEO Kevin Chou has taken the company from a tiny startup to $360 million in revenue and a $1 billion valuation. Last month, the company reported a $120 million investment from Alibaba.

????Just days after landing at no. 25 on our 2014 40 under 40 list, Chou spoke to Fortune about nearly going under during the 2008 financial crisis, the secret sauce to a great game, and how the company is setting its sights on China for future growth.

????Fortune: Not every gaming executive is a gamer themselves. Have you always been one?

????Kevin Chou:I’ve loved games since I was a little kid. In high school, I was a world-ranked StarCraft player. It’s funny, just the other day, my wife was showing me this YouTube video where a dad took all his son’s games and threw them out on the lawn in a big pile and drove a lawn mower over them. When I was a kid, it wasn’t quite that bad, but certainly my parents wanted me to do something productive. So it’s been a great dream come true to turn something I loved into a great business.

????What was Kabam’s first big hit?

????The first game to become a runaway success was Kingdoms of Camelot [distributed over Facebook]. It was a medieval strategy game about being a knight—it was the type of game I love. There were complications back then, in terms of the technology of delivering a game over the Internet. You couldn’t create the type of games you would expect to see on an Xbox or PlayStation. So we couldn’t create a sports game. We couldn’t deliver that level of graphic capability over the Internet. So we went with a strategy game because, if you think about playing Settlers of Catan, or Risk, there aren’t a whole lot of cool graphics you need. It’s much more about making decisions, working through consequences of those decisions, and battling against other players.

????You’ve said your decision to move into the pay-to-play environment was influenced by the 2008 financial crisis. Can you talk about that?

????We lost 90 percent of our revenue from 2008 to 2009. That’s a lot of salaries you can’t afford to pay anymore. We said, “We’re not going to recover our advertising revenue anytime soon. So what do we do about this?” Meanwhile, “mini games” were driving a lot of engagement. And we saw a broader trend that gaming was coming to Facebook and using this free-to-play model. That is kind of when we went all in on gaming. We decided to just build games and not depend on on ad revenue—just ask the players to pay for the (premium content) on the games. And it turned out to be a great business over time.