Krafton, a PUBG game developer, will create games on the Solana Blockchain. Krafton and Solana Labs are going to collaborate on developing and marketing games and making investments together.
Major video game companies are exploring the HTML3 gaming market. They also experiment with NFT resources and cryptocurrency-based economies. Another notable studio that has a hugely successful franchise is now planning to create blockchain-based games, in this case on Solana.
Today, South Korean game publisher Krafton, Inc. announced a long term agreementwith Solana Labs. The two companies will work together to market and develop blockchain- and NFT-driven games on the Solana network. They also intend to look into co-investment possibilities.
Krafton is responsible for PUBG: Battlegrounds, a popular battle royale game franchise that spans multiple platforms. The series has received more that one billion downloads on its mobile iOS edition and Android editions, as well as more than 75,000,000 combined downloads to its PC and console entries.
Up to 100 players can join a single online map to battle for the title of PUBG champion. Original PC game, which was originally a premium title, was launched in 2017. It predates Epic Games’ Fortnite battle royale game.
The free-to play PUBG Mobile is now available to a wider audience. In November 2021, mobile analytics firm sensor Tower reported that the game had generated more than $7B in revenue through in-game purchases. New State Mobile, a futuristic-themed PUBG Mobile title, was also launched by the studio.
Krafton has not yet announced whether it will bring PUBG, or another franchise, into the Web3 space. It also plans to create new IP for NFT driven blockchain games on Solana. Krafton’s most well-known IP is PUBG, but the publisher also owns Subnautica, Tera, as well as publishing mobile games such as Golf King and Bowling King.
Hyungchul Park (Krafton’s Lead for Web 3.0 Roundtable), stated that Krafton will continue to look for ways to collaborate with blockchain companies like Solana Labs. Krafton will gain the insights necessary to accelerate its investments in and output of Blockchain-based experiences through this collaboration.
Krafton also announced other Web3 initiatives in February. These include equity investments worth $2.5 million on Seoul Auction Blue’s online auction platform and $4.1 Million in its XBYBLUE affiliate. Krafton will collaborate with XBYBLUE and Seoul Auction Blue to develop NFT-related project ideas.
Krafton also announced a partnership with Naver Z for the creation of a “NFT/metaverse platform.” An NFT is a special token used to prove ownership over digital assets such as video games. According to a report by TechCrunch, Zepeto is an online metaverse gaming and social experience that boasts around 20 million users per month.
Last August Krafton launched a $3.8B IPO in South Korea. Although it was Bloomberg hailed the largest IPO in South Korea in over a decade, it was widely criticized for not meeting expectations. Krafton’s market cap is 13.9 trillion South Korean won or approximately $11.4 billion as of the time of writing.
Ubisoft, Square Enix are two other notable traditional game publishers who are actively involved in NFT trading. Will Wright as well as Peter Molyneux and Peter Molyneux are also creating NFT-powered games. The Ethereum-based Axie Infinity has been the most successful cryptocurrency game. It has generated over $4 billion in NFT trading volume.
