Interview: Fableborne Founder on the Rise of Mobile Gaming in Emerging Markets
Kam Punia, founder of Fableborne developer Pixion Games, highlighted how mobile games succeed in emerging markets.
- The interview happened at the Pioneer Perspectives event last September 10 at BGC, Taguig, organized by investment and communication advisory firm Emfarsis.
In Focus:
Kam Punia is the Founder and CEO of Pixion Games, a gaming studio known for developing competitive multiplayer experiences
- He has 12 years of experience in the gaming industry; Punia previously worked at Konami, where he was involved in developing the Esports academy and grassroots tournaments for the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand.
- He is also a Gaming Advisory Board Member at ECOMI (VeVe Digital Collectibles).
Fableborne is a free-to-play, multiplayer action role-playing game with strategic base-building elements. It is being developed by Pixion Games and built on the Avalanche blockchain.
- It combines elements of action RPG and strategy gameplay, set in a world called the Shatterlands.
- The game also features both player-versus-player (PvP) and player-versus-environment (PvE) modes.
Recent news: Last month, Fableborne Adventures launched its Season 2, which offers players the chance to earn off-chain points called Gold Essence through two new events, Siege Survival and Kingdom Klash PvP.
In the following excerpt from the interview, edited for clarity and brevity, Punia emphasized how mobile games like Fableborne succeed in emerging markets such as the Philippines by designing accessible, community-driven games for lower-end devices, challenging the perception that players in these regions are primarily extractors.
Interview: Pixion Founder on the Rise of Mobile Gaming in Emerging Markets
Mobile Gaming Accessibility in Emerging Markets
Michael Mislos, BitPinas: It sounds like you’re very intentional about what types of games to build. I’m curious—what’s your experience with the Philippine market? You mentioned earlier that it’s one of the mobile-native markets you’re targeting.
Kam Punia, Fableborne: Yes, the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Brazil, and India, are huge for mobile games. These regions have a growing appetite for competitive mobile games, not so much casual ones. And we found that players in these regions like to play together—single-player games don’t perform as well here.
Michael Mislos: The Philippines was a top country during the play-to-earn boom as well.
Kam Punia: Exactly. That’s why we designed Fableborne to run on an Android device from 2016. We wanted to make the game accessible across a wide range of devices because many players in these markets have lower-end phones. So, we couldn’t go ultra-realistic with our art style—it would exclude too many people.
Organic Growth and Community Engagement
Michael Mislos: Do you have players in the Philippines now?
Kam Punia: Yes, we do. During our first playtest in July, we had 77,000 players, and by the second playtest in August, we had 105,000 players. All of it was organic. We didn’t spend anything on marketing.
Michael Mislos: Wow, that’s impressive.
Kam Punia: Yeah, it was incredible. Players from Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia found the game and started creating content. Within two days, we had over a thousand videos on Twitter of people sharing gameplay. That content led to more installs, and the cycle continued.
Michael Mislos: What has the feedback been like from players here in the Philippines?
Kam Punia: I’d say the feedback has been great across the board. Of course, I’m biased, but if you search Fableborne on Twitter, you’ll see players ranking it as one of the best mobile games right now.
Michael Mislos: What’s your strategy to keep growing in these markets?
Kam Punia: We’re focusing on building strong communities in these regions. We have a Discord community where players can engage with us and each other.
What we’ve found is that players are discovering the game, enjoying it, and sharing it organically.
Debunking the “Extractor” Myth
Michael Mislos: There’s a perception that players from the Philippines are mostly extractors. We had a webcast with some folks from Axie Infinity who shared data showing there are actually many buyers in the Philippines too. What do you think about that perception?
Kam Punia: Let me give you an example. Have you heard of Free Fire? It’s a battle royale mobile game that makes a billion dollars a year. Their top markets are India and Brazil.
Michael Mislos: Wow, I didn’t expect that.
Kam Punia: Exactly. You wouldn’t expect those markets to be in the top tier, but they are. Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are also in the top 15.
The reason they’re succeeding in these markets is that Free Fire was designed to run on older devices, like phones from 2010, while still offering a quality experience. They recognized that there were hundreds of millions of players in these regions who couldn’t play Fortnite or PUBG because their devices couldn’t handle it.
So they built a game specifically for those markets, and now they’re making billions.
This tells you that there are plenty of spenders in markets like the Philippines. It’s just about creating the right game for them. So, the perception that Filipino players are just extractors isn’t entirely accurate. These are new players with different motivations, and we need to design games that cater to them.
This interview is published on BitPinas: Interview Clip: Fableborne Founder on the Rise of Mobile Gaming in Emerging Markets
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