KRAFTON did not escape the business structure reliant on 'Battlegrounds' in the second quarter of this year, as its performance stagnated. Despite aggressive investments in fostering new intellectual properties (IPs) and global publishing strategies, the performance of new releases did not meet expectations, leading to the analysis that more time is needed for a full rebound.
KRAFTON announced on the 29th that it recorded a consolidated revenue of 662 billion won and an operating profit of 246 billion won for the second quarter of 2025. Revenue decreased by 6.4% compared to the same period last year (707 billion won), and operating profit fell by 25.9%. However, for the first half of the year, cumulative revenue reached 1.5362 trillion won and operating profit amounted to 703.3 billion won, achieving the highest performance on a half-year basis.
The decline in second-quarter performance is attributed to a still high dependence on revenue from the Battlegrounds IP, along with the content update cycle and delays in the release of new titles. Released in 2017, Battlegrounds marks its 8th year this year and is a core IP, accounting for most of KRAFTON's revenue of about 2.7 trillion won last year. Cumulative global revenue is estimated to exceed 18 trillion won.
Looking at the first-half revenue by platform, mobile generated 960 billion won, PC generated 543.2 billion won, and consoles and others generated 33 billion won. The PC sector's growth was driven by content diversification, such as the character upgrade system 'Contender' in Battlegrounds, while the mobile sector benefited from growth-oriented skins like 'X-Suit' and local marketing of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).
Bae Dong-geun, KRAFTON's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), noted during a conference call that "we plan to strengthen the content diversification strategy for the sustained growth of the Battlegrounds IP in the second half of the year," adding, "We will expand collaborations with global brands such as Bugatti, including an aespa collaboration, and also aim to increase the influence of the IP through the release of new titles such as the top-down shooting game 'Blindspot' and the extraction shooting game 'Black Budget.'"
KRAFTON is also aggressively investing in discovering new franchise IPs and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In the first half of this year, it acquired Japanese animation company ADK Group (710.4 billion won), domestic gaming company Neptune (165 billion won), and Eleven's Hour Games, developer of the action RPG 'Last Epoch' (132.4 billion won), in search of IP diversification.
However, short-term results are limited. Last year's anticipated titles 'The Callisto Protocol' and 'Moonbreaker' performed poorly in the market, and the newly released life simulation game 'inZOI,' launched in March of this year, has failed to maintain its initial performance. The number of simultaneous users recorded 87,000 on the first day but drastically dropped to about 1,800 by the end of June.
In response, Oh Jin-ho, KRAFTON's Chief Global Publishing Officer (CGPO), explained in a conference call that "inZOI implemented publishing based on global organizations, considering regional characteristics and user culture," stating, "Although it achieved sales of over 1 million copies within a week of release amid positive user feedback in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia, we acknowledge that user attrition occurred later due to a lack of content."
He continued, "We are approaching the release of the first DLC 'Chahaya' in August, and through Gamescom, we are actively engaging with global users and creators to enhance our long-term player community-centered publishing strategy."
Bae added, "inZOI is establishing its position as a long-term service IP as KRAFTON's new original IP," and noted, "We will continue to invest and develop proactively to ensure that our goals are not limited to the single-player and life simulation genres."
KRAFTON is also actively investing in AI technology and strengthening global publishing capabilities to improve second-half performance. During the conference call, Bae stated, "We are continuing research and development to secure our own AI source technology, and we have achieved meaningful research results, publishing several papers in the top 5% at ICLR, one of the world's top academic conferences in AI." Notably, in June, they unveiled their self-developed AI benchmark 'Orak' and plan to continuously push for the advancement of AI technology optimized for gaming.
The development status of the highly anticipated title 'Subnautica 2' was also revealed for the second half of this year. Bae stated, "Subnautica 2 is the sequel to the original IP Subnautica and has not achieved key internal development milestones due to a lack of content," adding, "As a result, we are replacing existing executives and have hired Steve from Striking Distance Studios to enhance the quality, aiming for an early access release in 2026."
Additionally, KRAFTON mentioned that the new title 'Pale World Mobile,' scheduled for release next year, is also a significant anticipated work. Oh Jin-ho, CGPO, stated, "The gaming industry is unpredictable, and we do not know which game will become a blockbuster," adding, "Pale World is a very popular IP, and we plan to reveal specific game details in the future." He also noted, "Although the release schedule for Subnautica 2 has been postponed to next year, we believe that we can showcase content that meets players' expectations," and stated, "We are preparing other anticipated titles that we cannot disclose yet."