FunRock, the online strategy games developer and publisher headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, has announced their plans to 
establish an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from which they can better craft gaming titles for the Arab world.
“We strongly believe that anyone who is serious about the MENA market needs to invest in having a live on-the-ground presence here,” says Lars Hagelin, a Swedish games veteran and FunRock’s CEO.
The company specialises in free-to-play (F2P) MMO games, which stands for ‘massively multiplayer online games’. The initial rollout will include a localised version of their popular title, Rivality, which will prepare the ground for publishing new upcoming titles currently in the works. Hagelin intends to position FunRock as the leading games company for strategy-based MMO titles in the region.
“Our games are particularly oriented to smartphones and tablets, with the iPad as the flagship platform,” says David Wallinder, FunRock’s original Founder and currently serving as COO. “Everything is built from scratch with cross-platform as the modus operandi, but the iPad and other tablet devices seem almost purpose-built for playing games and we capitalise on that.”
FunRock also enters the market having already established a strategic partnership with Dubai-based game developer and publisher, Gameguise, an association that will help them hit the ground running and narrow the learning curve gap that most foreign companies experience when first entering the MENA region.
“The MENA landscape is pretty much a blank slate in terms of real industry players in the MMO strategy space targeting mobile platforms,” says Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh, Co-Founder and CEO at Gameguise. “So it is certainly a head-turner when you hear that the likes of FunRock are entering the scene.”
