While Krafton’s sales and operating profit both declined in the second quarter of this year, attention is focusing on whether ‘BGMI (Battleground Mobile India)’ will reverse the mood in the second half.
Krafton’s sales increased by 35% in the second quarter of this year due to the free release of the PC game ‘PUBG : Battlegrounds’, but sales of the larger mobile game ‘PUBG Mobile’ decreased, and another source of revenue emerged. It’s a look that was needed. Meanwhile, BGMI , which resumed service in India on May 29th, is counted as having recovered its previous traffic, so it is possible to expect full-fledged monetization in the second half of the year.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, sales decrease due to mobile reduction despite
PC growthKrafton announced on the 9th that it recorded sales of 387.1 billion won and operating profit of 131.5 billion won on a consolidated basis in the second quarter of this year.
Both sales and operating profit decreased from the previous quarter and the same period of the previous year. Sales decreased by 28.2% QoQ and 8.6% YoY. Krafton explained, “The seasonal off-season effect and the release schedule of major contents are concentrated in the second half of the year, and the range of quarterly fluctuations has increased.”
Operating profit decreased by 53.5% from the previous quarter and by 20.7% from the same period last year. Net income was 128.5 billion won, down 51.9% from the previous quarter and 33.8% from the same period last year.
For Krafton, the influence of PUBG IP (intellectual property) was absolute in this second quarter as well. In particular, sluggish mobile game sales were cited as the reason for the decrease in sales in the second quarter of this year. Sales by platform in the second quarter were 244.9 billion won in the mobile game division, down 29.7% from the previous quarter and 23.4% from the same period last year. As mobile game sales accounted for 63.3% of PC , mobile, and console platforms, the decline in mobile game sales affected the overall top line decline.
Sales in the PC game division decreased by 34.5% from the previous quarter to KRW 117 billion, but increased by 32.1% from the same period last year. It is believed that the growth of the PC game sector was possible as the free service, which was carried out early last year, was stably established.
Bae Dong-geun, CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of Krafton, said in a conference call announcing the 2nd quarter earnings on the same day, “After the transition to free, P2W(Pay-to-win, the act of paying for victory) led to a large amount of traffic even without the element,” he said. It is proving the continued potential of PUBG.”
Console game sales were KRW 19 billion, up 163.9% from the previous quarter and 97.9% from the same period last year.
A splendid return after a 10-month hiatus…
BGMI expected to monetize in the second half of the yearKrafton’s 2H relief pitcher is expected to be India’s mobile game, BGMI . CFO Bae predicted that BGMI ‘s monetization would proceed in earnest.
BGMI is a game that Krafton started servicing directly in India from July 2021. PUBG Mobile in India was previously serviced by Tencent, but the service was terminated in 2020 due to a border dispute between India and China. As the Indian region is a major region in which Krafton invested more than 100 billion won in local IT companies, Krafton turned to BGMI ‘s direct service.
In fact, Krafton’s sales by region in the second quarter of this year were 19.3 billion won in Korea, 316.4 billion won in Asia, and 46.4 billion won in North/South America and Europe, with a large portion of sales in Asia excluding Korea.
BGMI was banned from service again in July of last year according to the Indian government’s policy, but Krafton did not give up and resumed BGMI’s service 10 months later with the approval of the Indian authorities in May.
Bae CFO said, “We have recovered traffic to the level before the service ban in July of last year,” and “In the second half, we are trying to grow sales through localized content and large-scale e-sports events.” He added, “As India is a very important country for Krafton, we will continue to invest in revitalizing the game ecosystem in India.”
Bae CFO also reported that BGMI’s traffic has recovered.Full-fledged monetization is expected to occur in the second half of the year. He suggested that monetization activities begin in earnest in the second half of the year, saying, “Now that user traffic has increased, monetization must begin.”
At the same time, Bae CFO said, “However, Krafton is not a company that damages the user base for short-term sales performance.” We plan to focus on operations,” he said메이저놀이터.
Meanwhile, Krafton is focusing on strengthening its game development and publishing capabilities by setting a new strategy called ‘Scale -Up the Creative ‘.
Scale Up The Creative is a new ‘new work proposal project’, a new strategy established to accelerate the discovery of creatives that expand into global IP . It is developed by a separate subsidiary, and Krafton decides whether to officially publish it according to the results of the soft launch.
Bae CFO explained, “We aim to soft-launch within a year and a half with 30 development personnel.”
Independent studios affiliated with Krafton are currently developing about 20 games, including ‘The Bird That Drinks Tears’ and ‘Project Black Budget’. On the 3rd, independent studio Rising Wings’ real-time strategy defense mobile game ‘Defense Derby’ was released to the global market.