Meet Chris Lee of GAMEVIL in El Segundo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Lee.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Chris. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After finishing school, I was interested in education and mobile tech. The pursuit of education led me to travel around the world, but ultimately landed me back in LA to work at a mobile ed-tech startup, Applymap.

During the time there, I got a hands-on look at the digital services industry and its astronomical potential. After my time at Applymap, I began to specify which sector of the mobile industry would be my best fit. And that’s how I landed at Gamevil.

At the time, the mobile gaming industry was barely breaking the billion-dollar barrier and there were still a lot of question marks regarding mobile as well as the free-to-play space. As an industry leader in both mobile games and free-to-play, Gamevil was the perfect place to start my career in mobile gaming. I have no regrets on doubling down in the mobile games space. As a company our total market cap is over 2.5 billion dollars and the industry as a whole as grown from multi-million dollars a year industry to 30 billion dollars a year behemoth in less than five years.

In hindsight, it’s strange to think of a vagabond teacher becoming an executive in the gaming space. But there’s definitely stranger ways to get here.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Biggest obstacle was fighting the free-to-play stigma.

Rather than a personal challenge, it was an industry challenge. We were trying to shift video games from a product to a service. We’re not making physical items for your bookshelf, we’re building a service where people can come and play whenever they choose.

We’re still battling the free-to-play agenda, but we’ve definitely seen the growth and acceptance of digital purchases in free-to-play games.

There’s still a long road ahead of the industry in terms of removing stigma, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.

Please tell us about GAMEVIL.
GAMEVIL is a mobile games publisher founded in 2000.

We started off with feature phone (flip phones, Nokias, etc.) games and evolved into apps with the introduction of the iPhone.

We specialize in AAA quality games on mobile devices.

We’re trying to create a console/PC gaming experience with the comfort of your mobile device.

I specialize in sourcing and global operations.

Simply put, I sign development teams to create the next Gamevil games.

As a company, we are most proud of evolving our games to fit the mobile space. Whether it be a Nokia phone or the latest Galaxy, we want to create content that is accessible to gamers and non-gamers alike.

Personally, I’m most proud of our game MLB Perfect Inning. As a publisher, we are able to work with Major League Baseball to create one of the most immersive baseball experiences, period. We want to continue and blur the lines between console and mobile gaming and MLB Perfect Inning is a great example of our vision for games.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Built out global offices earlier.

Once the App Store was introduced, it changed how we looked at the consumer market.

We can build games, products, services, for a specific region, but how do we make something a global phenomenon?

This only happens when you have people on the ground that understand the nuances of the country and culture.

We currently have 12 branch offices worldwide covering China, Korea, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand to name a few.

Understanding what makes the different markets tick is best done by a person who LIVES and EXPERIENCES it every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gamevil.com

Image Credit:
Kyu Lee (Gamevil President) @Unity Conference Keynote