Felipe Mata is a seasoned industry veteran that is now leading & building a new development studio in Barcelona, that will be creating new casual games for FunPlus. Watch (or read) him opening up about his amazing adventure throughout the mobile games industry. A journey that will evolve through 2023 along with FunPlus!
Hi Felipe, can you talk to us about your career path? Was gaming something that you always wanted to do?
Hello, I’m Felipe. My career path went a bit unpredictable, so I started being a researcher at the university. I studied telecommunication engineering. But then I was lucky to merge all the knowledge I got there with my passion, which is gaming. So after that, I’ve been working in the gaming industry for more than ten years, while having different positions for creating games that have helped me understand how to produce the best experiences for the players.
Why FunPlus and, also, why create a new studio in Barcelona?
Today FunPlus is one of the leaders in mobile gaming, and that brings inspiration to millions of players and also other gaming companies. Barcelona is becoming a solid hub not just in the Spanish gaming industry, but I would say also within Europe. And the amount of companies that have settled down in Barcelona is amazing, is very big and is still growing, and that has brought us like a lot of international talent, that has made local talent grow up and to catch up with them and has enabled us to deliver top quality games that are global hits around the world.
What can we expect from you and FunPlus in the future?
Tomorrow, FunPlus could become not just a leader in mobile gaming, but also a leader in entertainment. And today, we are setting the grounds for that. We are a leader in mid-core gaming, but we are taking the right steps to become a leader in casual as well. This is very ambitious. No company has achieved that today, but we are set for that.
So your ambition and expectations are pretty high, right?
Our ambition goes beyond this since we have opened studios also to build AAA games with Imagendary, and deliver cross-platform experiences. All this sets the ground for building a transmedia expansion of the company and becoming a global leader in entertainment.
What does FUN mean to you?
Fun to me means happiness and losing the notion of time. I think is very important to have fun every day.
Are you happy at FunPlus?
And I’m really happy to be part of a company that delivers fun to millions of players around the world.
