A former producer at FunPlus launched a startup and secured investments from 37Games and Yiyou within just one month.

Some time ago (on November 19th), 37 Interactive Entertainment made another move.

Guangzhou Qiyi, a joint - venture company founded by 37 Interactive Entertainment and Yiyu Network, extended an olive branch to Beijing Happy Ark, a new company founded by Cui Bing, a former producer at FunPlus. This veteran, who assembled a new team on October 16th, almost immediately received capital from the 37 Interactive Entertainment system.

Cui Bing, the founder of Beijing Happy Ark, is a veteran in the gaming industry who is "persistently fulfilling the childhood dreams he once boasted about". From founding Homoj in 2012, serving as a producer at Babeltime and FunPlus, co - founding Fly East Game, to becoming the GM of "Matching Story" at Joycastle, he has been deeply involved in the industry all the way and accumulated rich experience in overseas distribution and product refinement.

His career peak might be the hit game "Matching Story". As a painstaking work of Beijing Joycastle after 10 years of development, this casual mobile game that combines match - three and Merge - 3 gameplay was launched overseas in November 2023. As early as May 2024, it ranked 29th on the list of overseas revenue and 18th on the revenue growth list.

(Matching Story)

"Matching Story" still shows a remarkable performance recently with an undiminished momentum. According to Sensor Tower data, it ranked 4th among decoration games on the Android platform in the United States in the third quarter of 2025. Its revenue has been steadily increasing, reaching about $5 million last month, and the number of downloads reached 300,000, fully demonstrating its strong long - term potential.

(Matching Story maintains a relatively stable upward trend)

Of course, for 37 Interactive Entertainment, investing in Happy Ark is not the first step but another move in achieving a product matrix featuring multiple categories, long - term operation, and global layout in 2025.

As early as May this year, Wuhu Taitong, a subsidiary of 37 Interactive Entertainment, invested in Shanghai Weifulala Network Technology Co., Ltd. at the angel round with a 15% stake. This mini - game company, founded in March 2024, was established by Tian Feng, the former lead designer of "Zhengtu". He took charge of "Zhengtu" in 2007 and was promoted to the director of the project center the following year, leading the team to develop "Zhengtu Mobile". He is well - versed in MMO gameplay.

(Zhengtu Mobile)

Perhaps the same logic also applies to Cui Bing. The reason why 37 Interactive Entertainment chooses to bet on these veteran game developers with successful experiences may already have an answer.

Currently, with unclear industry changes, high user - acquisition costs, and large - scale projects of big companies often failing to yield returns despite huge investments, small - scale games may have become one of the most risk - resistant trends in the entire industry. Every game manufacturer is openly increasing their investment, eyeing this rapidly expanding market and not wanting to miss out.

Meanwhile, the wave of going global is irresistible. With the domestic market becoming extremely competitive, more and more game manufacturers are betting on the overseas market as their "second battlefield". In the first half of 2025, the overseas revenue of Chinese self - developed games was approaching $10 billion ($9.501 billion), with a year - on - year growth rate of over 11%. Among this incremental revenue, the growth rate of mini - games was particularly stable, becoming the most prominent highlight (with a year - on - year growth of 40.20%).

(China Game Industry Report from January to June 2025)

When the trend arrives and the wave rises, one naturally needs to build a boat. Big companies are no longer relying solely on their in - house teams but are investing real money in new studios led by "veteran game developers with small teams". Especially those veteran developers who understand the psychology of overseas users and are proficient in game refinement are more likely to receive capital favor. This path may already be one of the most certain "small - scale" paths in 2025.

37 Interactive Entertainment has already taken the lead on this "small - scale" path of going global. In the first half of 2025, its overseas revenue reached 2.72 billion yuan (accounting for 32.10% of its total revenue), accounting for about 4% of the total overseas revenue of Chinese self - developed games, firmly ranking among the top.

Whether it is match - three mobile games like "Puzzles & Survival" that are "professionally relevant" to Cui Bing, or mini - games like "Heroes Don't Dodge" and "Xundao Daqian", they all prove the continuous explosive power of 37 Interactive Entertainment in game overseas expansion. Obviously, this step - by - step layout is far from over.

(Xundao Daqian's collaboration with Wuyishan cultural and tourism)

Happy Ark, a team led by a "veteran" from the casual mobile game field, may be the next step for 37 Interactive Entertainment to complete its game matrix. Cui Bing left "Matching Story", which was still on the rise, in August this year. By October, he had assembled a team, and in November, he secured investment from 37 Interactive Entertainment. This may not only be due to his original intention of "providing users with purely fun artworks" but also his confidence in taking this path wider with a set of mature gameplay strategies.

As for where Beijing Happy Ark under Cui Bing's leadership will take this path - whether to continue to focus on overseas mobile games and replicate the success of 37 Interactive Entertainment's "Puzzles & Survival", or to develop mini - games in line with the trend, or even have greater ambitions - the author believes that the answer will be revealed soon.

After all, in this game, 37 Interactive Entertainment never wants to be just a spectator but the one who broadens the path the most and moves the fastest.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Mobile Game Affairs" (ID: sykong_com). Author: NOOZZO. Republished by 36Kr with permission.