The Swiss FunPlus will go from distributing to producing video games in Barcelona

The video game studio FunPlus has announced that its offices in Barcelona will be transformed into its product development center in the West, equating it to those it already has in operation in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Irvine, and Tokyo.

According to its managers, the Swiss company's decision was influenced by the weight and projection of the video game sector in Catalonia, especially regarding the creation of young and qualified employment. A circumstance that the group has taken advantage of since its arrival in the city three years ago, to hire designers, artists, and technology professionals and build a team of about forty professionals who can delve into the development of new video games.

Initially, FunPlus was located in Barcelona only with responsibilities for video game distribution, managing their dissemination on social networks to encourage sales growth, and attracting new users. The company has piqued players' interest with State of Survival, the strategy video game set in a zombie apocalypse ---free and available on iOS and Android---, which this year celebrated its third anniversary, surpassing 150 million downloads. State of Survival was developed at KingsGroup studio, owned by FunPlus. Its games also include King of Avalon and Guns of Glory, which achieved significant milestones in their more than six and five years of trajectory, respectively.

As part of this expansion, the firm specializing in mobile games has taken a first step with the remodeling of its offices on Calle Caspe and the reorganization of its management teams. The current general director, Enric Cabestany, VP of Publishing for Europe and Latin America, will be joined by VP of Product Felipe Mata, former director of product development.

The company has also incorporated Jacob Krüger into its team as the new UA Director with the aim of expanding the department in Barcelona. Jacob joins FunPlus after working for companies such as Miniclip, Scopely and Social Point, thus strengthening FunPlus's various operations in user acquisition.

FunPlus has also announced the creation of the Career Starter program at the Barcelona office, which aims to offer students the opportunity to gain their first work experience and start their career in the video game industry.

Currently, in Spain, in the video game sector there are 440 consolidated companies, with 1,105 million invoiced in 2020. Only in Catalonia is 50% of that national turnover concentrated, which represents 3.3% of the European industry. Catalonia also concentrates half of the country's workers, 3,966 people directly employed, of whom 25% are women, according to data from the White Paper on Video Games. According to the recent report prepared by the Generalitat, Catalonia is also positioned as the European region that attracts the largest number of projects and investments in this sector.