Korean games giant Krafton reported $1.47B US in revenues for the full year 2022 period, with operating profit up 15.5% year over year but sales falling 1.7%. In Q4, it saw a 6.8% revenue increase thanks to The Callisto Protocol even as profits declined, marking its first quarterly net loss since going public in 2021.
Krafton is not exactly on MMORPG players’ good side right now, having spent 2022 sunsetting titles like TERA and Elyon, but PUBG is still the company’s bread and butter, accounting for nearly a third of the company’s sales all by itself. During the financial call, Krafton boss Kim Chang-han told investors that the company aims to take more control of its nine individual studios “to live up to customer expectations,” which kinda sounds like more teams are about to get Blueholed.
Kim is also heavy into deep learning and metaverse play-to-earn crypto bibble-babble; the investor press release claims Krafton is “preparing a mobile-oriented open-world virtual platform service with a test planned for the first half of 2023 and an official launch targeted within the year” and that the “virtual platform service will see Krafton activate a create-to-earn (C2E) ecosystem that connects creators and brands.”
“Deep learning is no longer at a demo or test lab stage,” Kim told investors during the call. “AI transformation has truly begun and will change our work and life as we know it. […] Once AI becomes more widespread, it will become easy for a small group of developers or even a single person to create high quality games.” Don’t get too worried, though; this is the same company that launched and sunsetted its last virtual world in the span of a single year.
