FunPlus

FunPlus is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Switzerland, with operations in China, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Russia, and the United States. The company is known for their mobile games, notably State of Survival, King of Avalon, Guns of Glory, Family Farm Seaside and their investments in the esports industry.[1]

FunPlus
TypePrivate
Founded2010 (2010)
Headquarters
Switzerland
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Andy Zhong (CEO)
  • Yitao Guan (CTO)
  • Chris Petrovic (CBO)
Products
  • State of Survival
  • King of Avalon
  • Guns of Glory
  • Z Day
  • Family Farm
  • Family Farm Seaside
  • Royal Story
  • Happy Acres
Number of employees
1,000+[1] (2019)
Websitewww.funplus.com

The company's CEO is Andy Zhong[2] and its CTO is Yitao Guan.[3][4]

History

FunPlus was founded in 2010 by Andy Zhong and Yitao Guan as Halfquest, focusing on web game development in Silicon Valley and Beijing. FunPlus was able to successfully secure two rounds of funding from several prominent Silicon Valley VC investors to support the growth of its DianDian Interactive game studio in Beijing. In October of the same year, the company launched its first web game, Family Farm, on German social network VZ before bringing it to Facebook in June 2011.

The company was rebranded as FunPlus in 2012, and the same year launched it first mobile game, Family Farm Seaside, as well as a second web game, Royal Story.

A third web game, Happy Acres, launched in 2013, and the company established a mobile strategy game studio, KingsGroup, in Beijing.

KingsGroup launched its first mobile strategy game, King of Avalon, in 2016, and shortly after, FunPlus sold its DianDian Interactive studio to the Century Group, a listed company on the Shenzhen stock exchange, for $1 billion, after which the game studio was renamed Century Game.

After the sale of DianDian studio, FunPlus gradually transitioned its focus to investing into other game studios globally and exploring new game related projects. In 2017 KingsGroup launched its second mobile strategy game, Guns of Glory. In 2018, FunPlus started to grow its international studio presence with a new casual studio in Beijing called Puzala, as well as two new mobile development studios in Moscow and Shanghai.

In 2019, KingsGroup launched and self-published mobile strategy game State of Survival. The game has since achieved more than 100 million downloads. FunPlus continued its international growth with new studios in Stockholm and Tokyo, and a publishing office in Barcelona.

In 2020, the company's Guangzhou studio was opened.

Esports

FunPlus has an esports division named FunPlus Esports that sponsors several esports teams and leagues around the world. FunPlus Esports founded FunPlus Phoenix, a professional esports organization with a League of Legends team competing in China's top league (the LPL), and operates the Pacific Championship Series. During its run from mid-2018 to 2019, the League of Legends SEA Tour was operated by FunPlus Esports.[5] In 2018 FunPlus Esports, in partnership with Chinese online game developer NetEase, launched the world's first global battle royale pro league, "Rules of Survival Global Series".[6]

Games

State of Survival

State Of Survival is a multiplayer mobile strategy game, set in a post-apocalyptic world. Players join the game as survivors whose goal is to develop and protect their settlement, rescue other survivors, train their troops, and better understand the disease ravaging the world. By recruiting heroes and forging alliances, players battle zombies and other survivors to rebuild civilization.

King of Avalon

King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare is a medieval-themed fantasy strategy game taking action in the Arthurian era, released in 2016. It is similar in both theme and gameplay to Game of War: Fire Age. By mid-April 2019, total revenue value rose to over $721 million, close to doubling within just eight months.[1][7]

Guns of Glory

Guns of Glory is a renaissance/steampunk-themed strategy game similar to King of Avalon, released in September 2017. By April 2019, the total revenue was over $510 million.[1]

Other games
  • Z Day: Hearts of Heroes, a post-apocalyptic strategy game, based on King of Avalon.

References
  1. Takahashi, Dean (22 April 2019). "2 Funplus mobile games have generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue". VentureBeat. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  2. "Andy Zhong—CEO of Billion-Dollar Gaming Company FunPlus". Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  3. "Yitao Guan - Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer Funplus". execlibrary.com. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  4. Sherr, Ian (19 August 2014). "FunPlus strikes nearly $1B deal to sell a game subsidiary to a Chinese company". CNET. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  5. Hayward, Andrew (11 March 2019). "FunPlus Named League of Legends South East Asia Tour Operator". The Esports Observer. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  6. FunPlus. "FunEase's "Rules of Survival Global Series" (RGS) Esports League to Broadcast Exclusively on Facebook". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. "King of Avalon - Bom tấn chiến thuật thời gian thực 'rực lửa' Mobile". gamek.vn (in Vietnamese). 14 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
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