The little-known video game studio that created the smash hit 'PUBG' is planning an IPO that could take its value to a whopping $27 billion, report says
- The video game studio behind "PUBG" is planning an initial public offering in 2021, Bloomberg reported.
- Bloomberg noted a recent estimate that an IPO could value the South Korean company Krafton Inc. as high as $27 billion.
- The company's CEO plans to release three more games based on or related to "PUBG" by 2022.
The South Korean video game studio that created the smash hit "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," or "PUBG," is planning an initial public offering in the second half of 2021, according to a Bloomberg report.
Kim Chang-han, who started out young in the gaming industry as a coding whizz, was one of 30 people who worked on creating the multiplayer battle-royale game.
Kim is now the chief executive of Krafton Inc., the company that launched "PUBG" in December 2017. The game attracted players around the world, raking in revenue of $100 million within 13 weeks of its global release.
"PUBG" in November of last year had a peak of about 438,000 people playing at the same time, according to data released by Statista. The all-time highest number of people playing simultaneously - about 3 million - was recorded in January 2018.
Before Krafton, Kim had his own gaming studio. But he laid off a third of his employees in 2014, Bloomberg said. By then, he had created three multiplayer video games that failed to take off.
"That was the darkest time in my life," the now-46-year-old told Bloomberg. He sold his startup to Krafton in 2015, leading to a series of events that changed his prospects in the world of gaming.
He joined the company as an executive producer, only to nab the post of CEO last year. Krafton now plans to list a public offering that could be one of South Korea's biggest in years. A share sale could raise billions of dollars for the company, Kim told Bloomberg.
Bloomberg cited a recent report by Eugene Investment & Securities estimating that an IPO could value the company as high as 30 trillion won, or $27.2 billion. It further predicted that South Korea could raise close to $11 billion through 120 IPOs in 2021.
Krafton plans to release three more games by 2022, all of which will be based on or related to "PUBG." One of them is expected to be a survival-horror game that portrays the "PUBG" universe in the distant future.
"We will not stay as a one-hit wonder," Kim said in the Bloomberg interview.