PUBG Developer Krafton To Buy Japanese Animation Company For $517 Million
Chang Byung-gyu, founder and chairman of Krafton. Jean Chung/Bloomberg
South Korean billionaire Chang Byung-gyu's online gaming giant Krafton has agreed to acquire Japanese advertising and animation production company ADK Holdings for 75 billion yen ($517 million).
Krafton, the developer of the mega-hit PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) online game, said in a statement on Tuesday it's acquiring ADK from Bain Capital Japan.
ADK was founded in 1956 as an advertising agency in Tokyo. Since then, the company has expanded into digital marketing and animation production. ADK has participated in more than 300 animation productions for intellectual properties including Crayon Shin-chan and Doraemon.
Krafton said in the statement that it seeks to expand its gaming IPs into animation. 'ADK is a partner with deep understanding and strong execution capabilities across Japan's content industry,' said Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han. 'Through our collaboration, we aim to continuously discover new intersections between games and animation, and create new opportunities in the global content business.'
Krafton's deal to buy ADK comes as the online gaming giant is trying to diversify its revenue stream after years of dependence on its battle royale game PUBG . In March, Krafton released inZOI , a life-simulation game similar to Electronic Arts' the Sims . The company said it sold more than a million copies of inZOI in its first week, which helped boost Krafton's first-quarter sales to a record-high of 874.2 billion won ($641 million). inZOI's concurrent players, however, have dropped more than 98% since its launch as of Tuesday, according to gaming data tracker SteamDB.
While inZOI appears to be losing steam, Krafton is going on a spending spree to expand its portfolio. In February, the company led a $53 million funding round in Indian payments startup Cashfree Payments. The investment was part of Krafton's strategy to strengthen its presence in India, a key market to Krafton where its Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) is among the country's most popular mobile games. It came after Krafton injected $90 million in Spoon Labs, a Seoul-based company that operates a short-form K-drama streaming platform, last September. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes PUBG Developer Krafton Leads $53 Million Funding Round In India's Payments Startup Cashfree By Zinnia Lee Forbes PUBG Developer Krafton Invests $90 Million In Bite-Sized K-Drama Startup Spoon Labs By Zinnia Lee Forbes Founder Of PUBG Developer Krafton Returns To Billionaire Status On The Back Of Record Sales By Zinnia Lee
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Animation inspired by mother's poem to her daughters ready for Galway premiere
A filmmaker mother-of-three from Co Fermanagh is to have her book-turned-animation premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh next month. Ciara Tinney, 39, a former assistant director on hit fantasy drama Game Of Thrones, said it does not feel real that the film Wildkind will be shown at the festival. The mother-of-three began writing her poem Wildkind after giving birth to her first daughter Adabelle, 11, and began to illustrate it when her daughters Fiadh Ros, eight, and Birdie Blue, six, were born. The book is an ode to the landscape and nature of her homeland. 'Motherhood naturally became a really creative time, because you just had these huge thoughts,' she told the PA news agency. 'So I just started to write them. 'The book is a poem written for my daughters, and it is, very basically, just a story of how I want them to live, and how I want to live with them, focusing on being kind and staying connected to the wild. 'Kids today are being labelled as digital natives. 'The idea that they're spending half of their time in a digital landscape is just crazy, especially for someone who grew up in Fermanagh and used to just run about the fields.' Tinney self-published Wilkdkind and sold around 300 copies, before embarking on transforming the book into an animation, voiced by her mother. She added: 'A lot of the kids books and things that were around when Ada was tiny, it's very rainbow coloured and very high stimulation artwork and crazy animals, like tigers. 'But we just didn't have that here. So I kind of thought it'd be lovely to have a more realistic and view on what our wild is. 'It's not going to be a rainforest jungle, but there's still so much to explore here in Ireland. 'It's just this little grounding, the fluid wilderness, and the watercolour imagery, it's supposed to feel like it's slowing you down.' She said the black-and-white theme of the book was about simplicity, but also about connection. Tinney is hoping that the film, which is available in English, Irish and Arabic, will resonate with a wide audience. 'The overall idea that I really wanted to come across in the book was of 'one land and one sea', and it's here for sharing, a kind of a universal landscape that could be shared by everybody. 'There was a gorgeous conversation I had with some of the people who did the voiceover in Arabic. 'We were looking at the book one day, and I said 'Does anywhere here make you think of home?' 'Two of the mums, Rasha and Arwa who are from Sudan, started telling the story about the River Nile. 'The idea of the river was making them think of the River Nile, and being under this mountain where the river flows by and there's a woman selling fish freshly caught out of the river. 'And it was just amazing, it's just a class little moment to think, if that can make them feel at home with this imagery, then I feel a real sense of accomplishment in that.' The film will be shown as part of the Galway Film Fleadh on Sunday July 13 at 12:30pm in Town Hall Theatre. 'I'm just so proud of the film, getting to work with the Arabic speaking families in that way was just amazing, because that's a whole part of the story. 'It's about integration too, and it's about art for all and everybody being able to be a part of this artistic piece of work and that exploration of mother tongue. 'The overall story of the book I always say is a call to come home, it's a mother's call to come home, to come home to Mother Earth. 'I just think it's a nice message, especially in today's world.' Wildkind is directed by John McDaid, animated by the creative studio Dog Ears, and received funding from Northern Ireland Screen.
Wall Street Journal
31 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Tencent Shareholder Prosus Expects Profitability to Be Boosted by AI
Prosus, Tencent Holdings' 700 0.59%increase; green up pointing triangle largest shareholder, expects to keep growing substantially in the coming years, supported by increased investments in artificial intelligence. The technology investor anticipates a $1.3 billion improvement in consolidated e-commerce adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization over three years. The company also expects to double its consolidated e-commerce revenue over the same period, Chief Executive Fabricio Bloisi said Wednesday at the company's capital markets day.
Bloomberg
32 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
CATL Prioritizing Overseas Expansion Amid EV Price War
CATL, the world's largest electric vehicle battery maker, is making overseas expansion its 'number one priority' as intense competition in China's domestic car market threatens the industry's health. Bloomberg's Stephen Engle speaks exclusively with Ni Jun, the company's Chief Manufacturing Officer, on the sidelines at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin. (Source: Bloomberg)
