S.Korea's Krafton, Naver to set up JV for metaverse services in H1

Krafton Inc., a leading game developer in South Korea, is slated to establish a joint venture with Naver Z Corp., a metaverse unit of the country’s portal giant Naver Corp. in the first half of this year to create a virtual world for global users. 

The game developer will move at least 100 employees to the JV, named Project Migaloo, to accelerate its metaverse services, according to industry sources on March 13.

Krafton, the developer of multiplayer battle game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), has proceeded with the metaverse project that provides four services gaining traction in the tech industry -- blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), web 3.0 and create-to-earn (C2E).

In specific, the JV will run Persistent World, a virtual space in the metaverse where users can create digital content and trade it with NFTs on a blockchain system. 

The virtual space Migaloo will be comprised of a content store, a users’ community and the Sandbox, a blockchain-based ecosystem where players can build and monetize their gaming experiences.

The JV is targeting the international market with mobile services and will launch a version compatible with both high-spec and low-spec personal computers (PCs).

Krafton is leading the project with its expertise in developing gaming technologies, while Naver Z, running Korea’s largest metaverse platform Zepeto, is responsible for planning the services and closing partnerships.

“The key to the success of the project is for the JV to secure many influencers in the metaverse, who represent themselves with virtual characters and create profits in the online world. The metaverse services could become a future growth engine of Krafton, which hasn’t released a game as successful as PUBG: Battlegrounds since its launch in 2016,” an industry source said. 

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.