Kakao Games invests $15 mn in Playable Worlds for global expansion

Kakao Games Corp., a game publishing unit of Korea’s web service giant Kakao Corp., has invested $15 million in US game studio Playable Worlds Inc. as part of its efforts to boost game-developing capabilities.

The strategic investment is part of Playable Worlds’ over $25 million in Series B funding round, which Kakao Games led with participation by other venture capitalists such as BITKRAFT and Galaxy Interactive.

Kakao’s investment in Playable Worlds was made through its European affiliate, Kakao Games Europe B.V., to jointly develop differentiated cloud-native games and metaverse platforms, the Korean company said on Thursday.

Based in San Marcos, California, Playable Worlds was co-founded in 2018 by massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) veterans Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg.

Chief Executive Koster is an industry veteran whose career includes the lead designer and director of massive titles such as Ultima Online and Star Wards Galaxies, and a venture-backed entrepreneur heading his own studio Metaplace, which later was sold to Disney Playdom.

Goldberg is a four-time entrepreneur and designer of MadMaze, the first online game to draw 1 million players.

“We’re making investments that will fuel innovations in MMO games and bring new concepts to fruition,” said Kakao Games Chief Executive Cho Kye-hyun. “The technology stack that Playable Worlds has implemented and proven significantly influenced our investment, and will certainly play a role in metaverse development.”

Playable Worlds aims to unveil its first cloud-based MMORPG and a metaverse platform in 2023.

BEYOND MOBILE, BEYOND KOREA

The Kakao group is aggressively pursuing overseas expansion via mergers and acquisitions under its “Beyond Mobile. Beyond Korea” strategy, focused on the metaverse business.

In March, group founder Kim Beom-su, also known by his English name Brian Kim, stepped down from his chairman’s post and vowed to concentrate on enhancing Kakao’s global profile.

As part of global expansion efforts, Kakao Games in January invested $20 million in US game developer Frost Giant Studios.

Kakao Games has focused on publishing PC and mobile games, including Odin: Valhalla Rising, and Black Desert Online.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.