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| (Image Source: Inven Global/KRAFTON Inc.) |
KRAFTON Inc. has announced its 2026 management strategy and mid-to-long-term growth plans during its company-wide town hall meeting, KRAFTON LIVE TALK (KLT), held last January 15, 2026. The strategy reinforces KRAFTON’s focus on its core gaming business while outlining a disciplined approach to building long-term Franchise IPs. CEO CH Kim shared his strategic direction for the company under the theme ‘Franchise IP & Expanded Value’. This year, KRAFTON will continue to pursue its mid-to-long-term strategy to secure a ‘Big Franchise IP’.
As Kim announced in 2025, this strategy focuses on three key areas: significantly increasing investment in first-party production, expanding publishing volume, and optimizing resource allocation. The goal is to extend beyond a single game experience — expanding across genres, content, and service formats to drive sustainable, repeatable growth over the long term — ultimately creating an original and competitive Franchise IP. During the past year, KRAFTON has prepared for Franchise IP development by strengthening its creative leadership, as well as upgrading its overall game development and publishing frameworks. In 2026, the company will ramp up development of new titles with potential to grow into Franchise IPs, while at the same time accelerating the growth of the PUBG IP Franchise. “We will remain focused on KRAFTON’s core gaming business as we begin to move into the execution phase of producing new titles. While expanding the PUBG IP Franchise as a content platform, we will begin to create Franchise IPs via our new title pipeline and creative leadership,” said Kim.
Discovering A Franchise IP Through A Learn-Fast, Scale-Up Approach
To boost game development, KRAFTON significantly strengthened its creative leadership in 2025 by establishing a small-team development structure centered on 15 newly recruited key players. This structure enables early or targeted releases, such as Early Access or limited market launches, allowing teams to quickly validate a game’s potential before committing additional resources and scaling successful titles. KRAFTON currently operates a 26-project development pipeline that is intentionally structured around early validation and clear decision gates, with 12 titles — including Subnautica 2, Palworld Mobile, and NO LAW — targeting release within the next two years. Each project begins in markets with a clearly identifiable core fan base, enabling data-driven assessment of long-term potential rather than simultaneous full-scale launches. Existing IPs that have already demonstrated global traction will also be part of the scale-up process. inZOI and Mimesis released in Early Access last year, each surpassing one million sales and establishing strong early player communities. KRAFTON has designated both titles as strategic IPs for the new year with plans to grow them into Franchise IPs with long-term PLCs (Product Life Cycles). These efforts reflect KRAFTON’s broader approach of expanding proven titles while continuing to incubate new IPs in parallel.
Establishing Long-Term Growth Of The PUBG IP Franchise As A Content Platform
KRAFTON continues to maintain steady performance with its PUBG IP Franchise, expanding the IP through cultural collaborations and long-term service improvements. The expansion of PUBG as a content platform runs alongside the development of new Franchise IPs, reinforcing diversification rather than replacing it. First, KRAFTON plans to expand sandbox-oriented UGC that leverages PUBG’s core gunplay, mechanics, and physics engine, consolidating an ecosystem where players can create and share their own content. Further, mobile and cross-platform titles will extend reach across established and emerging global markets. New titles such as PUBG: Black Budget and PUBG: BLINDSPOT will test the PUBG IP’s expansion into new genres, while new platform advancements will bring PUBG to the next step for growth.
Building KRAFTON’s Future Value Through AI
While remaining focused on its core identity as a game developer, KRAFTON continues to explore opportunities rooted in its game technology. Since 2021, the company has applied AI technologies primarily to enhance gameplay experiences and improve development efficiency, including concepts such as CPCs (Co-Playable Characters). In October, KRAFTON declared its transition to an AI First company to implement workflow automation, with the goal of reinvesting time and resources back into creative game development. Looking ahead, KRAFTON is evaluating how its game technology may eventually be applied to areas such as physical AI and robotics. These areas are viewed as long-term exploratory opportunities, not near-term business initiatives, and are informed by KRAFTON’s experience operating large-scale virtual worlds and physics-based simulations. KRAFTON plans to continue reviewing new opportunities that expand upon its core capabilities as a game company based on the technology and R&D expertise the company has accumulated over time.
