Krafton Escapes the 'One Game Risk'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Krafton is making diversified investments in new businesses such as the metaverse (extended virtual world) and blockchain. Attention is focused on whether it will succeed in diversifying its sales through new business investments.

According to the gaming industry on the 6th, Krafton is reviewing diversified investments for metaverse research purposes and has indirectly participated in investing in Naver Z, the operator of the metaverse platform 'Zepeto' and a grandchild company of Naver. The company believes that the metaverse could become a future growth engine.

Baek Dong-geun, Krafton's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), recently said in a conference call, "Krafton has used the term 'interactive virtual world' instead of metaverse from the beginning," adding, "We see it as a major pillar of long-term growth and are investing and researching accordingly."

Krafton also recently contributed to the 'Hashed Venture Investment Fund No. 2.' This is a follow-up investment after making an 800 million KRW investment in the 'Hashed Venture Investment Fund No. 1' last year. The Hashed Venture Investment Fund is a fund launched by Hashed Ventures, a venture capital company that established Hashed, a blockchain-specialized investment firm.

Kim Seo-jun, a blockchain expert and CEO of Hashed, serves as the lead fund manager of this fund. Hashed, the largest blockchain investment firm in Asia, has achieved high performance by investing in various blockchain projects such as Axie Infinity, Terra, Sandbox, Dydx, and Klaytn. In particular, based on the vision that economic activity spaces will gradually shift from the real world to the metaverse, it focuses on blockchain and metaverse areas based on protocol economies.

Many interpret Krafton's diversified investments as an intention to diversify sales through new business expansion. Krafton's revenue related to the Battlegrounds IP accounts for more than 80% of total sales, indicating a very high dependency. It is expected that Krafton will diversify its games through new investments based on the financial strength secured from Battlegrounds.

New releases are also lined up. Krafton plans to sequentially release Project Vlingam (open-world survival), The Callisto Protocol (survival horror), and Thunder Tier One (top-down shooting) starting next year. Expectations are high for The Callisto Protocol. Known as a survival horror game, it is set on Jupiter in the year 2320. Krafton plans to develop it as a 'AAA console game.'