Predictions for 2026

FunPlus’s Journey in 2025 and Vision for 2026

The Strategies and Predictions Shaping Our Future

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our exclusive “Insiders Info” interview series, where we share with you unique insights into FunPlus, FunPlus People, and our Games!

As we transition to 2026, we sit down with FunPlus’s Chief Business Officer, Chris Petrovic. We ask him to look back on 2025 and discuss what has made this year transformational for FunPlus.

Also, as tradition holds, we ask Chris to capture the company’s annual journey in just one word. Last year’s choice was spot-on!

Will his prediction prove as accurate as last year’s?

Read on to discover Chris’s insights and predictions for 2026!

Chris Petrovic, FunPlus’s Chief Business Officer

Let’s start with a look back at the year.
What standout achievements do you believe have propelled FunPlus forward in 2025?

While our financial performance in 2025 didn’t fully meet our high expectations, I am very encouraged by a number of notable achievements:

First, we successfully launched the first two licensed IP games in our company’s history, and while not yet achieving targets, both projects have created a lot of valuable learnings for our company in terms of what it means to work with established IP as well as to market to and build a community around an existing fan base.

Second, our first real attempt at bringing a more casual 4x game to the market in Tiles Survive! has exceeded our expectations and provided inspiration for future projects.

Third, our ongoing commitment to and investment in our more ambitious IP-centric and cross-platform projects in Aniimo and Nightholme continue to demonstrate our long-term commitment to achieving our vision of becoming a leading interactive entertainment company.

Building on the success. The gaming industry continues to face significant challenges and shifts in 2025: economic, technological, or regulatory challenges, etc.
How has FunPlus navigated these changes, and what key lessons have been learned?

In line with the broader industry’s difficulties, we have had to make some difficult decisions at times regarding our overall budgeting. This has resulted in our teams becoming leaner across all global operations.

However, we do continue to invest in optimizing our business through investments in continued experimentation and use of AI, as well as in our direct-to-consumer payments initiative through our webshops, which has resulted in us driving over 25% of our mobile gaming revenue outside of Apple and Google, at much higher margins.

The key takeaways for us include being always aware of the larger industry trends and conditions so that we can act quickly and decisively when change and pivots are needed in order to ensure the long-term health and success of the company.

Innovation is a core part of FunPlus’s DNA, and with AI being a major focus in 2025, how is FunPlus incorporating AI into its operations, and what benefits do you anticipate from this integration?

AI continues to be an enabling technology that has made its way into every part of our business.

We are leaving it in the capable hands of our business unit leaders and their teams to demonstrate how they can best leverage AI to make our company, our teams, and our employees more cost and time-efficient and increasingly innovative at the same time.

About a year ago, you predicted that 2025 would be a ‘transformational’ year for FunPlus. As we approach the end of the year, do you feel that this prediction has come true?

2025 has been transformational in many ways – not only from a cost and profit optimization perspective but also from an innovation perspective with our pivots into casual 4x and cross-platform initiatives.

Given our entrepreneurial DNA here at FunPlus, I believe that every year has the opportunity to continue transforming who we are as a company and what we are bringing to market to surprise and delight our players around the world.

Looking ahead to 2026, what emerging trends or technologies will have the most profound impact on FunPlus and the gaming industry?

Looking ahead to next year, we will continue to see more public case studies across the spectrum of success as it relates to the use of AI.

Additionally, we will continue to see large-scale deals in gaming driven by Middle East funding, and we will continue to see more cross-platform games being brought to market.

In 2025, FunPlus strengthened its global presence by expanding Studio Ellipsis in Lisbon (led by Alex Amancio) and in Hangzhou, focusing on IP creation and cross-platform development.
How are these initiatives contributing to FunPlus’ long-term vision?

Our vision is to become a leading interactive entertainment company driven by original IP and powered by games.

All of these efforts that we are seeing in Lisbon with Nightholme, as well as with Aniimo in Hangzhou, are directly related to moving us toward that vision.

With these strategies in mind, what opportunities do you see for FunPlus in expanding its global market presence, and which regions are you targeting for growth in 2026? And why?

Despite all of our success these past 15 years, FunPlus has still not fully explored market opportunities in three of the 4 largest markets (China, Korea, and Japan), and I feel that with our IP game projects, that will be more possible than ever.

As the CBO, what is one bold prediction you have for FunPlus in 2026? And how are we preparing today to make that a reality?

While there are many competing factors in the gaming industry, I do hope that we can return to the strong performance of previous years. I’m hopeful that this will be driven by our cross-platform initiatives, as well as by one or two surprise hits from our 4x mobile games portfolio.

And the last question! I’m sure you already know what I’m going to ask… If we ask you to define the upcoming 2026 for FunPlus in 1 word, which one would it be?

Risk-taking.

Chris Petrovic, FunPlus’s CBO

And that’s a wrap on our conversation with Chris Petrovic, FunPlus’ CBO.

Thank you for joining us, and a special thank you to Chris for sharing his valuable insights and predictions.

And one last thing… As we say goodbye to this transformational 2025, we would like to send you our warmest holiday wishes! May your festivities be filled with joy, and may 2026 bring you happiness and fun!

Happy Holidays, and cheers to a wonderful New Year!

About FunPlus

FunPlus is one of the largest privately held companies in all of gaming. Founded in 2010, it is a global creator of interactive entertainment experiences powered by technology, with cross-platform game development and IP creation at its core.

FunPlus is an organization that fosters top industry talent, with around 2,000 team members based in offices and studios across three continents. These talented creative teams are well-known for developing hugely popular cross-platform titles, including:

• DC: Dark Legion,
• State of Survival,
• King of Avalon,
• Guns of Glory,
• Stormshot,
• Sea of Conquest,
• Misty Continent,
• Tiles Survive,
• Foundation: Galactic Frontier.

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