Krafton plans to launch over 30 games by 2026 to drive future growth on its transition into global publisher

Krafton has released its financial report for the third quarter ended September 30. The South Korean publisher reported strong sales, also detailing its pipeline and plans to become a global game publisher.

Financial highlights

• Krafton reported quarterly sales of ₩450.3 billion ($347.1 million), up 3.8% year-over-year.
• Operating profit reached ₩189.3 billion ($145.9 million), up 30.9% compared to the same period last year. And net profit was ₩211.6 billion ($163.1 million), down 6.6% year-over-year.
• PUBG: Battlegrounds remained one of the main sales drivers, with its quarterly revenue amounting to ₩133.3 billion ($102.7 million).
• The company’s mobile segment grew 9% year-over-year to ₩309.1 billion ($237.2 million), driven by PUBG Mobile and the game’s return to India under the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) name.
• “BGMI saw sales and traffic return to previous levels, further solidifying it as the most popular game in the Indian market,” Krafton stated.

Krafton’s pipeline and transition into a global publisher

• As announced in August, Krafton signed a licensing agreement with Ironmace Games to develop a mobile game based on Dark and Darker, a first-person PvPvE dungeon crawler launched outside of Steam due to the studio’s conflict with publisher Nexon.
• Krafton plans to release Dark and Darker Mobile globally in the first half of 2024, “aiming to secure a leading position in mobile extraction genre.”
• Another major title in the company’s pipeline is Project inZOI, a life simulation game made with Unreal Engine 5. It is expected to come out in the second half of 2024.

Project inZOI

• Overall, Krafton expects to launch more than 32 titles between fiscal years 2024 and 2026 (ending December 31, 2026), of which five projects are in development by first-party teams and 7+ are multiplayer games.
• In addition to the games mentioned above, the list includes Project Black Budget, an extraction shooter by PUBG Studios (H2 2024), Unknown Worlds’ next Subnautica title (H1 2025), and Project Gold Rush, an action adventure sandbox game by Vector North (H1 2025).

• To scale up its future growth, Krafton will continue to invest in third-party developers. In 2023, it has already acquired stakes in studios like People Can Fly, Boundary, Studio Sai, and Gardens.
• The publisher also established Flyway Games. Overall, Krafton now has 12 first-party studios, including PUBG Studios, Striking Distance, Bluehole, RisingWings, 5minlab Corporation, Dreamotion, and Neon Giant.