LogInThe company says its expansion efforts didn't go as it had anticipated.
Krafton has released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022 as well as the full fiscal year. The report reveals a decrease in the full-year revenue and net profit as well as mixed results in Q4 2022.
The company's revenue in 2022 amounted to KRW 1.85 trillion ($1.47 billion) representing a decline of 1.7% and its net profit for the year decreased by 3.8% to KRW 500.2 billion ($398 million). Revenue for the fourth quarter grew by 6.8% year-on-year to KRW 473.8 billion ($377 million). At the same time, the company saw a net loss of KRW 165.4 billion ($132 million) in the quarter representing a decrease of -2,751.1% compared to Q4 2021.
In 2023, Krafton began a significant expansion beyond PUBG, branching into new genres and platforms. The most notable of these ventures was the launch of its AAA console and PC horror game, The Callisto Protocol.
While the company didn't provide any exact figures on sales of the title, in the Q&A section at the end of an earnings call, Krafton CEO CH Kim noted that the sales volume of the game was either in line with market expectations or slightly above.
During the call, Kim also admitted that the company's expansion efforts hadn't gone as anticipated, although he stated that Krafton still valued the experience.
He highlighted that, apart from the PUBG studio, Krafton currently has nine studios worldwide working on their own games, which, according to Kim, until now, had been operating independently, and indicated that the parent company would now become more involved in their operations in the future.
"Our philosophy had been to give creative studios their own autonomy in production until now, but to live up to customer expectations, we decided to strengthen Krafton HQ's production management role," he said. "This does not alter our belief that new creative can only be borne from the aspiration of creators. It's just that HQ will take on the role of managing expectations as those of the creators and the customers may differ."
Kim also discussed Krafton's upcoming projects, which include a new installment in the Subnautica series being developed by Unknown Worlds, and an adaptation of The Bird that Drinks Tears from Krafton's Montreal studio.
Along with these titles, Kim mentioned Project BlackBudget, an open-world extraction shooter developed by a team made up of core PUBG Studio members, and Project GoldRush, an action-adventure sandbox game planned to feature seasonal updates, produced by a joint effort between Krafton's Czech and Korean teams.
The head of the company also talked about Krafton's new open-world user-generated platform that will leverage the latest AI and machine learning technology and will allow creators to make money from their work. Kim noted that "deep learning is no longer at a demo or test lab stage." According to him, AI transformation has already started and it will revolutionize both people's work and daily life.
Regarding the user-generated element specifically, he noted that when AI becomes more prevalent, even a small team of developers or an individual will be able to develop high-quality games.
You can learn more by reading the full report and listening to Krafton's earnings call here. Also, don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform, our Reddit page, and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.