Gaming giant Krafton to pour additional $150 mn into India

South Korean gaming giant Krafton Inc., renowned for its global mega-hit PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), is slated to ramp up investment in India to expand its presence in the world’s fifth-largest economy.

The gaming firm’s Indian affiliate said on Aug. 10 it will pour an additional $150 million into the country over the next two to three years, following a combined $140 million investment in 11 Indian companies to date since 2021.

The Indian affiliate firmly believes in India’s potential as a key player in the global gaming and tech industry, and the company’s commitment to the additional investment reflects its dedication to fueling this growth, said Sean Hyunil Sohn, chief executive of Krafton India. The company believes in the power of Indian intellectual property (IP) and content in making a lasting global impact, he added.

Krafton is betting on India’s great demand for content products. India overtook China as primary consumer of mobile games last year – the country's gaming market is 2.5 times larger than China's and three times bigger than the US', according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence Inc. There were 15 billion game downloads in 2022, the report said.

“Not many India-based online content producers stand out in the market as local consumers, with fluency in English, can easily play US games,” a Krafton official said. “There will be explosive growth in the Indian gaming market once homegrown content supply chains are built,” the official added.

PREVIOUS INVESTMENTS

Krafton launched Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in July 2021. Within a year, the game had reached 100 million cumulative users and topped grossing apps in the local market.

The company has invested in 11 Indian startups since 2021, including $48 million in storytelling platform Pratilipi and $22.5 million in esports firm Nodwin Gaming in the year. It invested $5.4 million in game development studio Nautilus Mobile last year. 

It also led $19.5 million Series B funding in audio content platform Kuku FM and injected $24.8 million in conversation media app operator Bobble AI for a 19.9% stake earlier this year, according to media reports.

But the company was mired in the Indian government’s 10-month ban on BGMI until May of this year. India blocked the flagship game of Krafton on app markets, citing concerns about data-sharing and transmitting in China.

BGMI has reclaimed its top spot in India’s app markets. BGMI is the top grossing Android app in India as of Aug. 18, according to research firm AppBrain.

It is followed by Free Fire Max published by Singapore-based gaming firm Garena, which is in a legal battle with Krafton.

The PUBG developer filed a lawsuit in a California court against Garena in January 2022, alleging that the Singaporean firm copied details of PUBG for two games, Free Fire Max and Free Fire, and earned hundreds of millions of dollars from the games' sales.

Krafton also sued Google LLC and Apple Inc. at the time, claiming that the tech giants earned significant revenue from the distribution of the two Garena games.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.