In the latest Gamesforum Faces behind the Fun, we chat to Enric Cabestany, GM for the Western Markets Operations at FunPlus. Enric is speaking at Gamesforum Barcelona on February 10th.

Tell us about yourself and your role at FunPlus?

I'm the father of 3 beautiful kids, that together with my wife are everything to me 😊 Apart from this I’m a passionate tech guy, who loves nature and sports. Before coming back to Barcelona, I lived for the past 10 years in the Americas, 5 years in LATAM and 5 years in SF, California. I’ve been in the tech & mobile game industry for almost 20 years.

At my current role at FunPlus, I’m a senior executive of the company as GM for the Western Markets Operations. I've overseen most of the growth and marketing operations for all the Western markets for our games. Together with the rest of the management we are trying to explain to the world who is FunPlus, probably the biggest private gaming company that you’ve never heard about, and ensure our users enjoy our games.

Are you an AM or PM person?

I’m an AM person I’d like to wake up early in the morning in order to plan my day while I’m doing sport. Normally I wake up at 6am I always drink a glass of water and then I clean my teeth and go out for a run for 30’ - 1 hour. That helps me to have a clear mind on how the day needs to start and my daily objectives.

What does a typical work day for Enric look like?

Start early in the morning with my personal To-dos while I’m doing sport, then once I’m on my way to the office I normally try to read some of the reports we receive from our games and I spend some time reading the daily news from our industry. Around 9am I start my daily routines with my team, 121 with my direct reports and 121 with all the rest of the global teams. Normally my days in the middle of the week are full of internal and external meetings but then around 5pm when I have time to get work done: I review my emails, start moving on with my tasks and try to spend a couple of hours with no meetings, just focused on work.Finally when at home normally I’m still checking and replying to some emails till the moment I go to sleep. FunPlus has teams around the world and we work with international partners too, so there is always something to do!

How did you first get into the mobile games industry?

It’s  a long story! I was an entrepreneur a long time ago and we built the first Adserving platform for Mobile on portals for the carriers in Spain a long time ago, at that moment the service providers of entertainment were called Value added service providers (VAS) so I’ve started my relationship with this mobile game industry almost 18 years ago selling them spaces to advertise their games, at that time most of them based on subscription models or Premium…

What attracted FunPlus to set up the publishing office in Barcelona in 2019?

The Catalan video game industry is one of the most dynamic sectors in the digital content field, and a driving force for the digital economy. This industry offers excellent business opportunities and gathers some of the most talented professionals around. An example of this is the fact that Catalonia has been the 2nd region in Europe in job creation in the video games industry, 3rd European region in FDI projects in video games and has over 80% of the FDI projects in Spain.

That's a lot of data, but the quote that sums up everything is that Barcelona is recognized as the best technological ecosystem in Southern Europe... And one of the most beautiful cities in the world, of course.

You're speaking on our Unfiltered industry panel at Gamesforum Barcelona, what trends are you most excited about in 2022?

For 2022 there are a couple of sizzling topics that could transform the video games industry over the next few months.  Maybe the one that everyone is thinking about is the consolidation process that most of the big companies are promoting. This is a trend that has been around for quite a long time, but it's still a candent theme with the recent announcements made by Microsoft or Take-Two.

Besides that, a trend that is going to evolve over the next few months is the tokenization of the gaming industry. NFTs are probably here to stay, and companies are struggling to find a way to take advantage of this new technology, while dealing with their users. No one has found a winning formula yet on this, but the first one to find it will have a competitive advantage for quite a long time.

There are many other industry trends like cloud gaming or the future evolution of VR but we'll see how those themes evolve throughout the year.

We’re delighted to welcome you to Gamesforum, what are you most looking forward to?

As I said before Barcelona is kind of a Spanish video games' industry epicenter, with some (but not all) of the best game makers around. What I love about Gamesforum is to have the opportunity to gather around with people from those companies such as Social Point, King, Scopely, ZeptoLab, Tiltin Point, Bandai Namco, Ubisoft... And a few dozen smaller companies that are home to a massive amount of talent. It’s an opportunity to share with and learn from the very best.

For folks coming to Barcelona for the first time, what restaurant should they head to?

Barcelona has an amazing variety of great restaurants, as you know in Catalonia or in Spain in general we have some of the best worldwide chefs and also we have Ferran Adria that was the top number 1 globally for so many years and that is one of the reasons why the gastronomy in our home is top level.

If I need to introduce one single restaurant it will be difficult and I’ll share with you a couple of them that I really love.

1- Restaurante Bonanova (Sant Gervasi de Cassoles 103, Barcelona)

2- Bodega Bonay (Gran Via de les corts 700, Barcelona)

What’s your favourite mobile game right now?

To be honest my favourite mobile game right now is a game that we just launched at FunPlus. Its name is Call of Antia and is a unique RPG with some  cool Match-3 gameplay mechanics. This is an important addition to the FunPlus portfolio as we expand into a new genre, delivering a fascinating storyline, stunning graphics and both fun and accessible gameplay.

By John Speakman