Little-known video game studio that created hit ‘PUBG’ plans IPO that could bring its value to $ 27 billion, report says

• The video game studio behind “PUBG” plans an initial public offering in 2021, Bloomberg reported.
• Bloomberg noted a recent estimate that an IPO could value South Korean company Krafton Inc. up to $ 27 billion.
• The CEO of the company plans to release three more games based on or related to “PUBG” by 2022.
• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

The South Korean video game studio that created the 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 genius, was one of 30 people who worked to create the battle-royale multiplayer game.

Kim is now the CEO of Krafton Inc., the company that launched “PUBG” in December 2017. The game has attracted gamers from around the world, grossing $ 100 million within 13 weeks of its release. global.

“PUBG” in November of last year had a peak of around 438,000 people playing at the same time, according to data released by Statista. The highest number of people playing simultaneously – around 3 million – was recorded in January 2018.

Before Krafton, Kim had his own game studio. But he laid off a third of his employees in 2014, Bloomberg said. By that time, he had created three multiplayer video games that failed to take off.

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“It was the darkest time of my life,” the 46-year-old told Bloomberg. He sold his startup to Krafton in 2015, leading to a series of events that changed his outlook in the gaming world.

He joined the company as an executive producer, landing the CEO position last year. Krafton now plans to list a public offering that could be one of South Korea’s biggest for years. A sale of shares could earn the company billions of dollars, Kim told Bloomberg.

Bloomberg cited a recent report by Eugene Investment & Securities that estimated that an IPO could value the company up to 30 trillion won, or $ 27.2 billion. He further predicted that South Korea could raise nearly $ 11 billion from 120 IPOs in 2021.

Krafton plans to release three more games by 2022, all of which are based on or related to “PUBG”. One of them is expected to be a horror survival game that portrays the “PUBG” universe in the distant future.

“We will not be left as a one-time wonder,” Kim said in the Bloomberg interview.

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