Krafton, Naver Z to establish metaverse joint company

Krafton Inc., a leading game developer in South Korea, is establishing a joint company for a metaverse platform business with Naver Z Corp., a metaverse unit of the country’s portal giant Naver Corp.

Krafton announced on Monday that it has decided to acquire shares and investment securities of other companies to establish the joint venture.

The total investment amount for the joint venture is 48 billion won ($36.5 million), with Krafton and Naver Z acquiring expected amounts of 40.8 billion won and 7.2 billion won, respectively. After the acquisition, Krafton will hold an 85% stake in the joint venture, while Naver Z will hold 15%.

Since last year, both companies have been pursuing a Web 3.0-based metaverse project called "Migaloo." They have decided to establish a joint venture to facilitate full-scale development and service for the project, with a target release date within the year. The joint venture will be established in North America, and its name will be announced at the time of establishment.

Migaloo adopts a create-to-earn (C2E) system in which content creators create their works in the metaverse space and users purchase and own them. The trade of the works will be based on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Blockchain. All transactions will be recorded on the Blockchain, and users will be able to receive settlements based on the records, thereby increasing transparency in trade and settlement.

Krafton will be in charge of developing the program and Blockchain system, while Naver Z will be responsible for service planning and partnership acquisition.

"After much consideration, we have defined the core services and specific model of the metaverse that we find is attractive and achievable, and we have decided to establish a joint venture." Park Hyung-chul, head of Krafton's Project Migaloo, said. "As two companies with rich experience in successful global content services have come together, we will surely produce excellent results," he added. 

"The creator-centered ecosystem that we built at Zepeto will also be implemented in Migaloo," said Kim Chang-wook, CEO of Naver Z. "We will continue to grow Migaloo as a new metaverse platform where creators can realize new value in an NFT-based ecosystem based on their creative works."

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com