FunPlus’s newly opened studio in Barcelona is to focus on the development of casual puzzle games, reports Mobilegamer.biz.

This move marks a larger diversification for the company, which is best known for hardcore strategy titles such as King of Avalon and State of Survival. FunPlus Barcelona head of studio Felipe Mata stated that the new studio could release its first titles by early next year, and that the studio could have up to 20 employees by the end of 2023.

The diversification of FunPlus’s portfolio is partly a reaction to recent IDFA changes, which have had a notable impact on user acquisition for both hypercasual and hardcore games

“We are going to focus on casual puzzle games – you could even refer to them as hybrid-casual,” said Mata. “We want to have very fast development cycles and we want to focus on innovating in the core mechanics.”

“There are many other casual publishers that have heavy metas and need to deliver a lot of content with every update – we want to focus more on the casual experience of the gameplay, have more simple metas and try to do this very fast. That’s why hybrid-casual may be a label for what we want to do. We want to adapt and learn a lot from hypercasual developers.”

The importance of diversity

FunPlus’s diversification with its new studio could have been anticipated given Mata’s prior work history. He previously held the role of senior producer at King, including work on the lucrative Candy Crush franchise, before taking on the role of head of new games at ZeptoLab. As such, he has a proven track record within the casual genre, which FunPlus may be hoping to leverage as it diversifies its portfolio.

While FunPlus is arguably one of the biggest names in hardcore mobile gaming, this leaves the company vulnerable to issues such as those raised by IDFA. By diversifying its portfolio, the company can bolster its revenue by opening additional streams.

We listed FunPlus as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.