Krafton buys India’s Nautilus Mobile, fueling IP race in Korean game scene

Krafton Inc., one of South Korea’s top four market-cap gaming firms, has taken over Indian game developer Nautilus Mobile for $14 million, upping the ante in the race against local rivals – Netmarble Corp., NCSoft Corp. and Nexon Co. –  to acquire promising intellectual properties.

According to sources in the Korean gaming industry on Friday, Krafton has agreed to pay $14 million in cash to acquire a controlling stake of more than 75% in Pune-based gaming studio Nautilus Mobile. 

Founded in 2013, Nautilus is famous for its cricket enthusiast-focused Real Cricket franchise, which has garnered millions of downloads for its five titles, including Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Premier League.

In 2022, Krafton invested $5.4 million in Nautilus in a bid to penetrate deeper into the Indian gaming market. 

After the deal closes before the end of March, the Indian studio will operate independently from Krafton.

The Korean gaming giant’s acquisition of Nautilus comes as the company is seeking to bump up the contribution of new game IPs to its total sales.

During its annual general shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, Krafton’s management vowed to increase new IP-based game sales to 40% of its total revenue. It raked in more than 90% of its entire sales from its global mega-hit "PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds" (PUBG) franchise in 2024.

“IPs lie at the heart of the gaming industry, and hence we must secure more major IPs to bolster our corporate value,” said Krafton Chief Executive Officer Kim Changhan.

Since last year the company’s board Chairman Chang Byung-gyu has also stressed the importance of IP diversification, heralding more M&As and franchises to acquire new IPs.

GO AFTER TOP TALENT AT HOME AND ABROAD

To bolster its IP capability, Krafton recently recruited talent from other industries and rivals, including a senior executive in gaming development from Nexon’s Korean office, who is said to be leading Krafton's development of promising games.

Last year, it also invited a senior executive on board from Riot Games Korea to lead its global publishing division.

NCSoft also reorganized its management to reinforce its IPs through M&As. Its founder and CEO Kim Taek-jin last year decided to team up with Park Byung-moo to be co-CEOs, the company’s first co-CEO structure since its inception.

Park from Seoul-based private equity firm VIG Partners boasts extensive expertise in corporate management, strategy development and investment. He joined the gaming giant in 2023.

NCSoft, with 1.44 trillion won ($979 million) worth of cash and cash equivalents as of end-2024, plans to build game clusters by genre through M&As, CEO Kim said at the company’s general shareholders’ meeting last week.

ACTIVE BUSINESS REORGANIZATION AND NEW GAME RELEASES 

Netmarble has joined its crosstown rivals in management reshuffling.

Former co-CEO Kwon Young-sik, who led Netmarble’s gaming development business over the past decade, quit that job last week to focus on his leadership role in Netmarble Neo, Netmarble’s game development studio subsidiary famous for the popular game “Solo Leveling: ARISE.”

Kwon will only maintain his CEO position at Netmarble Neo to accelerate its IP push, while Kim Byung-kyu will lead Netmarble as the sole CEO.

Netmarble swung to profit in 2024, snapping its losing streak for the previous two years.

In 2021, it took over Hong Kong-based social casino game developer SpinX Games for $2.2 billion to expand its global footprint with new game genres.

On Friday, Korea’s largest game publisher Nexon officially rolled out a new game, “The First Berserker: Khazan,” an action role-playing game branched out from its flagship franchise game, “Dungeon & Fighter.”
 
Two days earlier, it appointed Nexon Korea CEO Kang Dae-hyun as its insider director, raising expectations that the company will actively leverage its flagship popular IPs to diversify its portfolio.

Alongside co-CEO Lee Jung-hyun, Kang is credited for his outstanding leadership in ramping up the revenue of Nexon’s mainstay game franchises such as “Dungeon & Fighter,” “MapleStory” and “FC Online.”

The three flagship games’ total revenue climbed 10% last year against the prior year.

Write to Joo-Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.