If you’ve been watching all the Bluehole and Krafton and TERA and En Masse tomfoolery this past month, you’ve surely wondered what the heck is going on over there. And every day, it seems we get another piece of figuring out the puzzle. Today’s piece is Krafton’s announcement that it’s merging its substudio PUBG Corporation – yes, the one renamed to run PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds three years ago – back into the mothership.
“This newly integrated entity will give KRAFTON a greater ability to pursue its vision of an independent studio system that will empower development teams to produce premier gameplay experiences. The merger, which is expected to take place later this year, will allow KRAFTON to strengthen its internal support capabilities to service its multiple products worldwide. In turn, each of its development studios will be given the freedom to pursue their own creative visions. These studios include PUBG, which will live on as a development team, Bluehole, which is refocusing development efforts on upholding its founding principle of creating premier MMORPG experiences, and other studios focusing on game experiences for a variety of genres and audiences. […] Following this announcement, KRAFTON, as the parent company, will establish a collaborative system that will ensure synergy between itself and its independent studios.”
This announcement comes on the heels of Krafton’s announcement that it is turning Bluehole into its own separate subsidiary to govern its MMOs, with Elyon’s creative director as the big boss. In fact, Gibiz reminds us that Bluehole – then the core studio – had previously acquired En Masse, but it’s since flipped around, with Krafton as the corporate identity and Bluehole underneath, and En Masse closing altogether. So if you’re confused, it’s probably largely down to these name switcharoos.
