Unpacking Krafton’s Strategy: PUBG, New IPs, Investments & More!

[Music] welcome to the novic gaming podcast where it is our mission to explore the business and future of video games we bring together the industry's brightest Builders investors and thinkers to keep a pulse on current events dissect emerging Trends and games share Lessons Learned and have a great time this podcast is also part of novic growing ecosystem which ranges from free and premium research to Consulting and AD advisory services for more information visit [Music] www.nic.edu overwolf is the guild for in-game creators whether you're a gamer Creator or game studio overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating ugc in games

for Game Studios overwolf offers curse Forge for Studios a white label solution that lets game makers and Publishers easily integrate mods safely and seamlessly into their games both existing and new at zero cost it's battle tested by triaa Studios and games including Maxis with the Sims 4 Studio wildcard with Arc take to interactive and others for creators overwolf is the all-in-one platform that enables creators to build distribute and monetize in-game apps mods and Game servers in 2022 overwolf paid over $160 million to in-game creators proving that they truly value the talents and contributions of The Gaming Community you can check out everything over wolf has to offer at overwolf decom or check out the details in the show notes and with that let's jump into the episode hi everyone I'm your host Aaron Bush and today I'm excited to chat with Maria Park Maria is p and head of corporate

development at Crafton she played an important strategic role in pubg in the height of Battle Royale and today she is involved in all sorts of growth strategy and investment work at craftin which of course is now one of the world's largest Publishers with over 10 Studios a multiplatform presence a growing number of franchises and Investments and much more and today we're going to try to learn as much as we can about Crafton its strategy and everything Maria has worked on so with all of that said Maria welcome to the novic gaming podcast Aaron thanks for having us uh it's a great pleasure um awesome well I think the best place to start is just to set the scene so Maria maybe um could you just quickly tell us about your personal journey in the games industry so far sure um I actually began my career in business Consulting helping out the companies with the business grow

strategy improving operational efficiency uh Financial optimization across various Industries uh but working in Consulting for about 10 years um I always dreamed of combining my professional skills with my passion something that I really love to do um uh growing up my younger brother and I spent countless hours playing video games together and I've been a hardcore gamer all my life so this passion draw me to speak opportunities opportunities exclusively within the game industry so um I found my break with Riot games uh that was one of the few companies that actually appreciated my background in Consulting in my gamer passion back then um so after speaking with them I immediately connected with their philosophy like their completely player focused and the team i' be working with were just great um so I joined Riot as a strategy lead um focusing primarily on Korea's Regional publishing and Esports strategy um in my fourth year at rot a

close friend introduced me to a game game his company had invested in uh he he ran a VC company uh which was launching his Early Access day one uh the game was pubg um I hadn't played anything exciting in years uh ended up recommending it to over 30 friends and colleagues on the first day I played um given my enthusiasm for pubg it was no surprise to anyone when I decided to join pupg and leave Riot as a head of strategy it was about six and a half years ago um since then my role had uh evolved to cover corporate development from the corporate strategy uh which includes investment and m&a uh strategic Partnerships and the company's growth strategy well it sounds like a lot of fun and we'll dig into all of that um over over this interview um but just to kind of continue setting the scene and providing some some context for everything we talk about could you just

remind us of crafton's History um I know that after pubg exploded Crafton was formed in 2018 I believe to become the parent company to Blue Hole which made pubg um and some other subsidiaries but um you know what what was that time like like how did you and the team think about and work through that transition in 2018 uh the had been the parent company of pupg uh later on it we just uh sort of rebranded uh the company as Crafton and now the the new blue hole is actually uh one of the our independent Studios subsidiary to Crafton but um found uh the company was founded by a group of Engineers and developers so Crafton has always uh maintained a very developer friendly culture I thought that was like the biggest difference uh in terms of culture of from Riot uh when I first joined the company

they they value the creative autonomy of our Studios and development teams uh and given this ethos pupg was run quite independently from the start so uh there wasn't really a significant shift in our work setting um and the core values of fostering creativity and granting autonomy to development Studios remain unchanged so this continuity allowed pupg to like continue to innovate and expand as an independent studio um and the transition was more about like formalizing our structure to support future growth like making alignments and uh diversification across uh the different Studios uh so rather than altering the day-to-day operations um that already made pubg a success it was more about uh sort of like structur change yeah was that pretty much the same then for going public and I know that took place um a few years later I think 2020

um uh was that pretty much business as usual or did going public unlock you know new and interesting things for Crafton but also the work specifically you were doing uh uh it definitely did bring a lot of changes uh and opportunities of course like uh a going public means that you raise a lot of capital that opens doors to New Opportunities uh but at the same time uh going public brought a like a new level of accountabil ility and transparency to our operations uh so it require us to implement a more strategic like a strategic uh planning process and a uh and also play place a much greater emphasis on shareholder value and also be able to tell the the growth strategies and also like the planning to to our shareholders and the market and uh one thing that hasn't really changed even after going public is our focus on creating something unique and truly different

um we believe that the biggest risk in gaming is not taking any risks at all and I believe a great game will find or even create its own Market uh but on the other hand like operating as a public company in the gaming industry can be quite tricky due to the inherent inherent uncertainty in commercial success of a new game um predicting the success of a a game is particularly difficult I think it's because like interactive content involves a complex combination of many variables um as well as other external variables such as like player psychology and social atmosphere so like during the covid you know the the people have start playing like party games like uh with the friends so um this trend changes like over time and there are so many different variables that affect uh this trend and it's hard to gauge the true player experience until the game is fully playable so as a

reasonable public company we've learned uh to share a reliable growth strategy in the story and also demonstrate Success Through like tangible results um so um now I think we better like we know better about how to balance short-term performance and long-term growth and also ensure that uh we continue to innovate while also like a meeting market and player expectations gotcha yeah that makes a lot of sense and it's refreshing um to hear about the willingness to still take some risk and and you know taking risk and innovating go hand inand in a lot of ways and sometimes I feel at least in the west that you know many of our largest Publishers have become so risk averse lately um and so um yeah it's just great to hear that um Crafton is thinking a little bit differently about it even though you have to balance more stakeholders with different expectations um these days as well um one more

question um to set context for listeners who might not be as deeply familiar with your business um what all does Crafton Encompass today just in terms of like the studios it covers the strategies it covers how would you break that down for anyone trying to catch up with all that Crafton is today so um our mission is to scale up the creative we sort of fine-tune the the message the phrase a little bit um so we've been dedicated to discovering unique and Innovative gameplay we just don't want to like replicate what's already successful but uh try to deliver something different like a unique experience to The Gamers um so from inception production to service um we focus on mainstreaming core gam play through our scaleup approach um as a publisher or like a development partner part um and um we we are definitely

committed to nurturing these ideas and persistently striving to P them into uh Bel loveed IPS that could last for for a long time uh firstly uh we have a long-term growth strategy centered around PG uh pubg IP s alongside providing an evergreen service for pubg vet Royale um so we have a VTO Royale pubg but at the same time we try to sort of grow pubg IP uh around this uh uh Signature Title and um in addition to pupg we have a multiple exciting projects in development by teams across the glob uh for various platforms um You probably seen this uh somewhere but enoy is our life simulation game um the seams fans were just amused by this uh new game that we just announced uh and it's a hyper realistic uh life simulation game that will be coming out sometime next year uh dark and darker mobile is an extraction RP G we thought uh there

is a much uh wider audience on mobile platform and that uh a lot of optimization for the gamer experience on mobile platform was needed so the team has been working very hard on it and we just had a close data test uh Rec me uh and there's another game called dink mobile um this this was one of my favorite games that I discovered last year uh this was a uh the PC game was actually developed by a a single developer based in Australia and I just fell in love with the game at first it looks like animal crossings but but once you play you know that the game is totally different uh and uh it's a more like of a survival sandbox like simulation game with the farm simulation as to it um and we thought that there would be a a huge potential to grow into a multiplayer sort of uh uh survival sandbox game and there's nothing like it on mobile so we're actually U the teams are working hard to to bring it to the

mobile and it will probably come out um sometime next year and black budget is an extraction shooter uh uh developed by puup Studios they know how to build the shooter games so uh the team we're pretty excited about it and subn Catu is the underwater survival adventure and crafting and we're hoping to uh show it to the the world as an early access um sometime next year um and the bird that that drinks tears of the game adaptation of the Korean fantasy novel with a very strong fan base and and many more to come so we're very excited and all these uh projects are uh that have the unique and uh Innovative aspects Al so um so we're very excited about it and also uh besides the the the new projects um we're expanding into Emerging Markets uh so we're establishing our position as India's Premier gain company starting with the bgmi uh it's a pubg mobile game

and uh this has definitely captured the nation's heart and is by far the the largest game uh in the country and so we have been heavily investing in India's ecosystem growth over the past few years uh not just in games but overall like the startup and tech industry and um also like we're constantly exploring new technologies to bring our bold imagination to life uh I know we will talk more about AI in a few moments but uh we view deep learning in three main areas and have invested significant resources uh the first is like AI to introduce a new form of game play and AI as a new way to create and AI to improve game production efficiency so these are the three perspectives that we look at Ai and uh we've been forming Partnerships um ramping up the teams uh and investing in AI research um and um also U investing in the tech company ianes relevant companies um and lastly

we have been proactively investing in game studios that's that's one of my main jobs um we believe that creativity cannot be easily taught and so it's better be discovered um so and also like while a big budget can help a team achieve High Fidelity we've learned over time that it does not necessarily guarantee a fund game um uh so we invest in and form Partnerships with uh so many different uh companies from small size to large size and last year alone we uh made about 15 different uh Investments and Partnerships um and in the first quarter of this year we met with over 250 game studiio so we've been Pro very proactively um meeting and supporting the studios all over the world and and I guess uh yeah that that's about it for this year well that's a lot um clearly has a lot going on um and that's

exciting it seems like a growing amount um going on as more attempts are being made on different genres different franchises um different Technologies um all sorts of of interesting things um you mentioned that your role a big part of it is making Investments um we can talk more about what that entails a bit later but um what else does you know being the head of corporate development mean day today for you at Crafton so as head of corporate development I oversee uh Investments uh uh it sort of uh branches into the minority Investments and the the full Acquisitions like na um and also um even if it doesn't entail the the equity investment we sometimes for form strategic Partnerships with the companies uh that we would love to work with

and also uh my role involves discovering talented teams across the world um identifying their growth opportunity opportunities um also negotiating the deals um we try to uh structure like a win-win strategy for our partners um so so no one party uh takes all for for uh the the efforts and the success um and um addressing the needs of our investors Studios as their uh Studio Champion or like board member is also a big portion of my uh daily job um additionally I develop strategic planning to create synergies across the company um so we have multiple Studios and invested Studios across the world and uh we I try to identify you know where we can help and sort of make connections across the the studios to really like help each other um and also like uh ensure our strategic initiatives are align with the

crafton's overall vision and goals got it okay very cool um again there's there's so much of that that we'll we'll dig to in a bit but before we really dig into uh the weeds of uh Crafton strategy the Investments all of that um I kind of want to go back in time and discuss your your days at at pubg because that was such a unique game at such a unique moment in time um in the games industry you were the head of strategy at pubg Corporation um from 2018 to 2020 I think and that was really when Battle Royale was peaking and becoming super competitive and so I would just love to to know like what was that time like for you like what were some of the challenges and opportunities you were working through at the time so it was uh an incredibly Dynamic

and challenging period uh because uh everything was the first time for many of us uh but it was also a lot of fun um the B Royal JRE was exploding uh with the new titles emerging every day and but like the first thing we focused on was identify the core elements that made pupg irreplaceably fun and addictive uh and we also aim to understand like why some players were leaving the game um and this study actually helped us determine like what to keep and what to enhance to differentiate pubg from the rest um because a lot of players especially they like once they play the hundreds and thousands of hours like they want more fast-paced uh experience but once we get change our game to uh you know one of many like fast-paced Shooters uh like there there'll be no pupg anymore right so um like so while highlighting our core

values uh we continuously innovate Pupi to elevate our life service like offer vibr and gameplay experiences um and keep player uh base engaged uh it was a time of intense competition but also like one of the great creativity and strategic thinking and we actually learned to like uh prioritize and where to focus so um yeah it was a valuable timing for for for all of us yeah um for sure and um I know pubg the engagement of that game peaked in late 2017 but what many people listening might not realize is that if you take a look right now pubg's Revenue has actually grown each of the past three years and um over the past year in fiscal 2023 revenue for the game was up 37% year-over-year um so I would just love to you know learn a bit more about like how has the team thought about rejuvenating and finding

new growth opportunities for that franchise now several years after it became a big phenomenon I I don't want to sound like a textbook but uh I don't really think there's a one turny solution for this uh the team has been hardworking and uh uh and they've been Innovative in keeping pup relevant and I guess like a the most important part is that they listen closely to the player community and have learned to sort of reinterpret uh interpret their uh the community's true needs because a lot of players they ask for um you know one thing but they uh they don't really like it doesn't really necessarily make the game fun but you just have to reinterpret what they really want and uh and be able to deliver the the content or the changes that uh they they s so uh we introduce new content mod like events

a lot of collaborations marketing campaigns that sort of resonate with our community um and I think it's all about consistently delivering value and evolving with other players pref preferences um and by staying ATT tuned to what our players want and continuously enhancing the game we've managed to keep that experience fresh and engaging uh and I think this has really contributed to our Su team Revenue growth um just an example when I first joined the company in early 2018 like players were struggling with the chips and bugs and um and also we hadn't done any marketing campaigns for puup at that point uh and we just uh my team was just like a small team to begin we it was just three people incling myself back then and uh we did everything so on the business side and designed a community campaign to closely communicate with the players about our plans you know like pupg relase their pain points and of

course like the developers were engineers worked super hard to sort of uh improve the game and enhance and minimize any of those issues that that the players were addressing and it sort of took us time uh but over the years like I think we learned to manage it and um and the team also designed our very F first Global Marketing campaign to promote s uh that was the third new map and well we we work day and nights and but we were so grateful to uh for the for the love and support the players uh were showing us and also get the opportunity to make the game better and um pubg is a PVP game with 100 players in a session and it was actually premium game um the it was like 20 to $30 range and um it is a lot more fun when there are more friends and players to play together and also like if you meet a friends that or and enemies that at a similar skill level right so as head of strategy I also work closely with our

development team to determine the right timing uh for transitioning to a breed of play model um and also the requirements we needed to meet beforehand um and these requirements actually included the addressing antichat and developing a monetization model that could sustain a global St life service anti-chat was like a big concern for us back then because um like there is a lower hurle for new players to come in um so uh before like when you buy a game you get banned for cheating then like you have to buy it again right but then like with the freeo playay model this price total uh is eliminated so the people can just easily get in so we we did improve a lot on how to detect the the real cheats um and also um how to ban them like more like per so that they don't they cannot come back like permanently so and I I think um I'm pretty confident to say

that our like anti-che team has been the one of the most effective uh internal uh teams like for the ging companies and U I guess that these initiatives were quite successful and paid the foundation for the game yeah very much so and since since that time pubg has also become a multi-product franchise that's you know remains very much like the core of crafton's um business now with mobile games there's pubg Mobile in partnership with 10 cent um and now new state which was originally pubg branded which kind of had a different spin um in attacking the mobile market now as you mentioned um Battleground mobile India which was taken India by storm um and obviously that market has been super volatile with Battle Royale um over the years um but I'm really curious um about this because

we've seen many Publishers change their approaches to multiproduct strategies and Partnerships over time and I'm curious how um you and Crafton have evolved your views on building and maintaining these multi-product franchises any Lessons Learned so far with pubg when it comes to uh that perspective um and first of all we've learned the importance of maintaining a coherent brand identity while diversifying our offerings um each game needs to cater to a specific audience while contributing to the overall franchise and we want to make sure that it makes sense for everybody um like PC console mobile Gamers have different needs and preferences due to their distinct gameplay environments um while seeing true to our core we found it crucial to

understand each platform and optimize The Experience accordingly uh for instance like a mobile users they tend to play games like while they're on the road um so we want to make sure that the section is not too long and also the sound play uh in pubg PC is super important but for the mobile players uh it may not be so we sort of uh um added the the the marks like uh to help them guide where the this you know the some of the gun shop like the sound that's coming from Etc and for console players we've learned that a lot of them are actually uh the they play games on couch and um with the friends and they have this all this like a loud music going on in the background and the controller uh may not be as deled to to uh to the shooting game so um they tend to uh prefer those like SMG type of and St so all these different preferences uh we've

learned uh to tailor to each platform and um that has been the the big asset for the company uh over time and from specifically from the new State uh that was the new mobile game that uh we like uh built internally in addition to the pubg mobile that uh has been in COD development with ATT tensent um from New State we learned that the gameplay experience in a new version must be vastly differentiated and unique um like High Fidelity alone is not enough to satisfy players um but this project was valuable as our internal death team like was able to demonstrate that they could create a high quality uh mobile game in a very very Source efficient manner so um but at the end of the day we that was the biggest learn that we we learned and and also like collaboration and

communication between teams are essential to ensure that consistency and the quality across games uh the like we formed the Strategic Partnerships uh like our collaboration with the tensent and that have been instrumental in our mobile success and and all this approach has allowed us to sort of Leverage external expertise like while M maintaining our Brand's integrity and Innovation so um yeah I guess like those are some of the biggest lessons that we we've learned yeah no that's all very well said um and naturally since um pubg was an outsized success Crafton has also prioritized um diversifying the business not just with you know new pubg games but also just completely new um I IPS um different genres thinking about more platforms um how has the thinking around how to best

diversify the business evolved over the past few years any notable learnings here so far so leveraging our experiences with pupg p and other titles that we developed in the past um we've focused on identifying opportunities where we can actually leverage what we learned um and scale up the original creative ideas um over time uh we become more strategic and sort of pinpointing specific niches and trends that where we can actually Excel based on our skill sets um so we drawn our expertise in developing multiplayer like PVP games across multiple platforms and managing long-term Service uh uh life service like worldwide and um additionally we've um emphasize fasing creativity with our within our Studios like providing them with the resources and support needed to scale successful ideas uh so this

approach allows us to sort of nurture Innovation while like ensuring that we can bring this Creative Concepts to a board our audience effectively um being a public company like uh going back to that point um in order to uh to meet the market expectations we have to show them we're Contin uh continuously growing um and we don't want to do this by just uh replicating similar experiences for gamers but delivering a new experience and uh we want to make sure that uh the diverse like uh uh attempts um and our efforts um do make sense to to many players so um but at the same time being able to make sure that they grow like a bigger and a rich larger audience this is our approach to sort of scale up and help them help each Studio to scale up M and it also seems like Crafton has

relied on Acquisitions to add new Studios working on you know many of these types of new wide- ranging games on on the new platforms um and you know that's been the case for a few years now um what have been some lessons learned here uh about best making these deals and ensuring that they actually have the the impact that was originally desired one critical lesson is like finding the right balance of autonomy and support um allowing new Studios uh to maintain their creative freedom while benefiting from Crafton resources and expertise because um sometimes like a lot of uh Studios with the strong IND Spirit uh they might say uh no health is the biggest help to them just don't bother right but I just the same time uh um

there are a lot of things that they can benefit from um so we acquire studiio because we respect their Creative Vision and approach and we want to ensure that they retain their unique strength and identity but at the same time um we've also observed that many smaller students tend to feel more comfortable staying in the existing framework and maybe reluctant scale up so it's important to respect that identity and culture of which Studio but uh we want to provide a shared vision and the right guidance for gross um this approach ensures that while we support their expansion like we also preserve the distinct qualities uh that made them successful in the first place but ultimately uh we want to like we're the company that understands why the players the gers love the game so much but at the same time um sort of addressing the the need of the players and really like uh making it uh possible

to reach a larger audience uh with you know more fun um that that's our ultimate goal and we we try to sort of create the balance and it's not always easy but I I think we've been learning slowly so yeah well that's good yeah I'm sure it's definitely not easy all the time um sort of you know shifting gears uh crafton's strategic Focus has shifted from what was called Original creative to now what you call um scaled up creative um which I I think you mentioned earlier on can you just talk a bit more about this new Direction what it means and just what it tangibly takes to pull off as one large organization it was funny I was listening to a a show on YouTube uh it was the more like a game podcast in Korea and they're like oh like what's the difference like what does scale of

the creative mean um um and thanks for the opportunity to sort of uh explain that little bit better about what what we believe we should do uh our focus on finding unique and Innovative gaml has not changed so that's what it means by original um I don't really think that has to be something completely new to the world sometimes like a combination of different things could be something unique to The Gamers um um but we do want to deliver different experience a fresh experience to to The Gamers that so um our focus on the original creative has changed um but scaling up the creative uh effort means taking proven Concepts and expanding them to reach a for our audience um so our like leadership has been asked to sort of use our imaginations to to Really uh bring it to to the the bigger role World um it involves leveraging our

uh Capital to invest in talented teams fund their projects as well as utilizing our Global development and Publishing infrastructure to support larger scale initiatives um it could be as a development partner or a a a publisher and dark and darker mobile dinker mobile were some of the examples that we actually uh are we think that's the the the best examples of a scale up the creative uh cases because we've found these uh uh we call them Jewels um you know these core ideas there are so fun uh but we want to make it right for the Right audience so um these these cases are uh they speak for that uh the mission that we have and this shift requires uh identifying growth opportunities um fostering effective cross team collaboration uh and Partnerships m ciming a strong focus on the efficient allocation of resources

and also like precise execution like by combining creativity with the Strategic investment and support we aim to elevate the successful ideas to a new heights and broaden their impact so sometimes it could be just a funding but sometimes it could be a a code development efforts sometimes it could be a publishing a support so it comes in different forms but eventually really really um once we discover this uh core game play ideas um that could really be a fun moment for the players uh we want to sort of bring it to the next level and uh make it uh bigger to reach a larger audience got it and um I guess related to some of this there also appears to be a renewed focus on second party publishing um and obviously many big Publishers have also done second part second party publishing um to publish

new creative games alongside smaller independent teams um but what's crafton's angle here like who should work with Crafton versus other Publishers and what does uh Crafton uniquely bring to the table when it comes to second party publishing I guess it's uh some relevant to what I just said um like our approach to second party publishing is centered on expanding and nuring those unique unique and Innovative gameplay experiences and scaling up um so we are committed to providing smaller independent teams with the resources and support they need to realize their Creative Visions of this allows St teams to focus on content creation without having to stretch their resources uh them to build the publishing capabilities uh especially when they're uncertain if the game will make a large enough hit to to sustain their own publishing arm I think it makes more

sense for uh like when it comes to publishing I think it does make more sense to publish like multiple doings right um so um in doing so like U we focused on long-term Partnerships and Strategic investment like we just don't fund the projects um we actively collaborate with the teams to sort of identify growth opportunities like uh advisor monit sches um and also U direct the marketing campaign leverage our resources and infra U and our CEO s Kim he's the the one who B pupg uh and he's been very active as an advisor to these team so he visits them regularly uh have calls and and play their gam and share his advice uh that's uh like so like the the mentorship is another Park um I guess like this means like we offer comprehensive support from development to marketing ensuring that each project can reach full potential so like there's no like a tailored uh like

a one solution that provide we provide to the to every Studio but we sort of customize them based on the the studio can um and the teams that choose to work with the Crafton can expect a partnership that will respect uh their Creative Vision offers the guidance and resources need needed to scale up their ideas um leveraging our experience and resources especially like building multiplayer like light service games across all platforms um um I find a lot of Western Studios uh they they want to learn um how to like to live service for free to play games and like how to run a multiplayer uh experience um so for instance like non rolls is one of our uh Studios that that we Acquired and they had a subnautica uh which was L for almost uh years and um now a lot of players want the a multiplayer

experience for subnautica the next subnotica so so we've been working together sort of uh sharing ideas on like what really brings best to the players um while preserving that Core Essence of the team and uh so uh yeah there there's a lot of interesting discussion around it uh um and and I think we we set apart uh from others as a global publisher with a very strong developer DNA uh so uh as I've mentioned in uh previously we have a very de developer friendly uh culture and um it's know so the respect that we pay to the development teams and Studios uh is just uh huge and um and a lot of our uh invested Studios uh say that you know we we speak the same language so um I think that that's a part the Crafter from from many others um and so we see creative passionate

teams we are looking for a partner to help them Elevate their projects to new heights um uh by combining our Strategic investment with the the respect for their Creative Vision like we aim to provide that unique environment and um so um and also like succeed on the global scale that's something that that we would want for for for both parties for sure yeah that's really well said um and you know obviously thanks to you and and your team Crafton has you know been stepping up its game as an investor scaling its its presence across um the industry across the world um um investing in all sorts of uh different teams obviously you know as an investor you want good returns but beyond the returns like what's the Strategic goal of all of this Investing For for craf in

like what are what's the team hoping to to unlock um from this this strategy over the next few years I guess a as a strategic investor our goal maybe a very different from uh like VCS or like the private Equity firms um C strategic goal in investing is to Foster like Innovation um and we want to find great ideas uh and um of course like our internal de development teams been working super hard to to really make a fun unique games but as I said uh we we think you know the creativity is something that should be discovered uh so that's why we've been actively investing in smaller teams uh and we do want to help them Reach a broader audience and and you know share in the larger successes so like the sort of like make the pie bigger and and share the larger fruits um and we aim to

continuously innovate uh while supporting the B game development community and um over the next few years we expect these Investments to drive new growth opport opportunities um and enhance our ability to deliver unique and engaging experiences to players worldwide um and also um like the pron is uh the I I think from our the root uh it's uh this is the the the company that loves learning experiences and um even working with the smaller Studios like uh there are always things that we learn together and uh we definitely enjoy this uh the the whole process uh that we've been going through together and by supporting creative and Visionary teams uh we hope to push those boundaries uh of like what's possible in gaming and bring fresh and exciting content to our audience uh but just like we want to do together like uh with the the the development Studios so um I

guess like ultimately we do want to deliver fund and uh a unique game to to Gamers uh every time we uh show to the world that the new games that would uh unveil so yeah I mean it makes sense to you know focus on unleashing Innovation and um you know learning as much as you can as an organization from that is part of the Strate to just to become you know the publishing partner to uh these Studios over time or maybe some of them become um like Acquisitions or like how how does that tie into your investing if at all um I guess like uh if both uh interests meet uh we would love to have the team as a part of our family uh and um we definitely adding strong IP to our portfolio that goes beyond popg that

would be a huge Plus for for uh for us but we only do this if uh know the needs meet from each side like both sides so uh we don't push forward or put it in our uh an agreement uh when we make a minority Investments uh rather like uh that's why we sort of form a publishing uh Partnerships together uh uh is in parallel to the the equity investment because um we want to put the best resources out there for the our second party studio um and um and put the best resources for publishing and I think it does make more sense if you're uh you s we call it sharing a blood and uh if you become a partial family uh that sort of makes more sense for us to really uh put our best resources out there to to help them grow um so yes um it um if it if

the needs meet we would definitely be interested in welcoming uh those Studios to our family uh but uh it's not a must at the end of the day yeah makes sense uh well let's talk about technology for a moment and um two major trends that everyone across the industry seems to be talking about right now um are ugc and AI so I just want to ask um maybe one question on each of those and with ugc um maybe big picture just I'm curious what crafton's view on the impact of ugc is um maybe on its existing games or as an additional growth Avenue with new games I haven't heard a lot from Crafton when it comes to um ugc yet um so I'm just curious to what degree is it being considered what does the team uh think about about it um we we definitely view EGC as a

significant Avenue for enhancing player engagement and extending the life cycle of games um by allowing players to create and share their own content we can foster a more active and invested Community for sure uh and it also helps the development team from falling into a Content tread meal for the most time uh you just see provides like fresh and diverse experiences they can keep players coming back and uh driving sustained engagement for new games like I guess the integrating youc can speak creativity Innovation um encouraging players to continue uh contribute to the gamers uh evolution in uh in unique ways uh even within pup G we see players like getting super creative and finding new ways to enjoy the game uh absolutely there was like no intention of them to play it in such way but I was it's a lot of fun watching them like how they sort of uh uh make a creative like Innova B

to really play with the objects or the the settings that we we give them and um but at the same time I'd like to note that creating a meaningful virtual cycle in a UDC platform requires time and patience uh so it it does take a lot of efforts and our patients to really get to that point where the players really uh generate fun uh contents uh for for for each other and uh for instance uh we have a an interesting project it's not our mainstream project uh that we've SP off recently it's called over there um it's sort of like a web three version of roblo uh so it's sandbox it's got a uh unreal based um Game editor in it um and we try to experiment the the the create to earn ecosystem so for the Creator like we sort of incentivized to give the virtual currencies uh so that they get

more heavy more heavily incentivized to create things but I know that a lot of uh uh the creators like the UTC creators um u in a community they don't necessarily uh create these things uh to to earn money alone but was more about contribution to the community and getting the fame and uh the credits uh so uh we do want to make sure that we understand the sentiment and the psychology of like why people really want to uh create for the communities and um and sort of uh to promote that the virtual cycle over time so yes we we uh are running some interesting projects on it um but um and but since it takes a lot of patients we sort of want to wanted to make it uh sort of start small and um and see where we can go uh uh throughout the evolution okay yeah that's interesting

but in general it sounds like when Crafton thinks about ugc it's really thinking more about how to embed it in its own games to unleash creativity more so than thinking about building on Roblox or you know some other platform out there is that correct okay cool and then with AI um there's such a wide range of reaction um that teams have you have some teams that you know are taking it very slow to you know make sure everything you know is is all sorted out legally okay like waiting for other companies to come up with best practices and then there's the whole other side of the spectrum where where companies are going super hard trying to figure out how to plug AI into as many aspects of the business um as possible um I'm curious from Crafton point of view um what is your company's

mindset towards using AI across your organization right now and and and if this is something you are deeply thinking about which which you mentioned I think it is um earlier in the episode like what are the the main areas um in which you know you see the most upside and maybe you can just share a bit more detail on what Crafton is actually doing here if you can uh definitely closer to the the move fast end of the spectrum um because we recognize the potential to revolutionize various aspects of game development as I uh briefly mentioned in uh in the beginning um we believe that AI could completely change the way we build the gamees uh making the process more efficient enabling new gameplay Styles and jamras um in a few years like our deep learning uhe of deep learning they he expects to see virtual friends embedded in almost every game uh and we

are actively exploring and implementing it AI Technologies to enhance game development optimize player experiences and improve operational efficiency the largest benefits of AI are expected in areas such as personalized game experiences um ADV best analytics uh streamlined content creation process um to make this happen we have built a sizable learning division so with the top tier ai ai experts coming from all over the world um and we've been actively investing in AI research and also the partnership opportunities with relevant tech companies um and our AI publication portfolio is among the largest ones in Korea so we've been very active um for over the past few years um our deep loing team has been working closely with pupg Studios and anti- Chin initi initiatives from the very early days um and they're also collaborating

with the enoy team the life simulation uh project uh to enhance personalized interactions with NBCS um and this integration of AI uh not only improves the gamees security and interactivity but also I think it helps deliver a more immersive uh engaging experiences for our players so uh we are definitely uh looking at uh the different aspects and being very proactive um and I know there's been a concern around like a larger companies like whether they are willing to adopt uh given all the the legal uh controversies around like Western Regional and respecting copyrights um um I think the the bigger issue is that uh with the abundant resources in a larger company a lot of uh developers Engineers they might not really have the biggest uh motivation to try a new Tool uh because they already

have something that they feel comfortable with um and I think it's true that startups can quickly adapt to and integrate AI due to their smaller scale and sort of more origin needs uh and due to the limited resources and to address this like we've opened a studio called Ru uh it's a smaller DMO Studio that leverages deep learning technology to create innovative game playay experiences so it's a spinoff uh Studio fully owned by uh krton but um they their mission is to to uh learn and uh apply the Deep learning Technologies when building are doing and they've come up with some very interesting games that I don't really think we uh we would have got to sort of put it out there as a large company but as a small team uh they've been doing a very interesting project um and on the other hand like big Publishers like uh kton can leverage

our ex extensive resources and experience to sort of sort of overcome this challenge um so we we try to sort of make the balance between uh the and taking the advantages as a smaller group and also uh as a a large company with greater resources awesome yeah I really like that approach I think it's really smart to break out smaller teams inside of companies that can kind of be like the hubs of like moving fast innovating as quickly as possible just trying to push boundaries um and then the rest of the company can um can learn um uh sounds sounds sounds wise I'm excited to see um how that turns out um and works for you all uh but we're we're getting close to time so a couple final questions for you Maria as we wrap up um first of all all um I'm just curious what else non crafting related that you're that you

might be thinking about or excited about in the games industry right now could be a trend a game another company um what are you excited about oh I'm not so sure if it's completely non-related because uh it's my role as a head of investment who covers the investment in like I always uh put a radar on these creators too but as a gamer I'm I'm super excited by games like elal company man and P worlds U the advancments in game development tools and AI technologies have unlocked incredible creative potential for uh for these individual developers and small teams and now with all this they can create great games with a fewer resources and I I strongly believe that this is an era where like if you have a great ideas uh you can really uh make like your dream come true and realize it and reach a much wider

audience even with the limited resources so that's why we pay attention to smaller teams and sort of help them uh really like uh uh learn like a learn more in a a shorter amount of time and uh sort of uh um fund them to bring their great ideas to to to the gamer World um and game engines uh geni tools and remote collaboration have definitely leveled that playing field uh allowing smaller teams to compete with larger Studios I think um and this sort of like democratization of game development faster the creativity and Innovation and I think this will definitely uh bring a more unique and engaging games for players to enjoy so uh this um I love just um even if you don't get a chance to sort of invest in these Studios or small teams because they sometimes want to work alone for years uh but I just

love watching these games coming out and playing myself as a gamer so yeah it's a lot of fun I think that's a very good answer um second to last question for you um we have many aspiring Corp Dev and strategy people in the industry that um will listen to this this episode I'm curious Maria what advice would you give all of these listeners about how to be as valuable and confident as possible um in these roles especially as they're looking to to grow their impact and have uh a job like yours one day um I I think this is a tough role because uh of a high uncertainty in predicting the success of a game but also it's very rewarding uh once you get to the point uh and my advice is to never lose the gamer perspective I uh and let that sense and passion guide your decisions uh We've uh come across

multiple opportunities were missed out because we we thought we had it but like we sort of stopped from the very investor or like a sort of we I call it supplier perspective uh so uh being a developer you feel like you know the game but sometimes you have to make sure that you are uh thinking from the gamer the customer perspective so we try not to lose that and we sort of uh uh like uh overhaul the whole uh game review process uh to to Really uh get to that point and also um I think staying curious and adaptable uh is also important uh because the gaming industry is not just the content business uh it there's a technology around it and it it is constantly evolving and keep learning and stay informed about these changes is super important um as a co-ep and um

additionally like be many teams you never know who's going to really make that uh the the fun game and um and so we we try to meet as many teams as possible like when the opportunities come by and and also when we meet them uh like we really try to like identify their needs like sincerely uh try to help help them grow uh and building the strong relationships uh and the friendships and understanding the the unique challenges and opportunities that each team has uh I I think uh that really makes you a valuable and uh a contrib contributor in these worldes so I I would say these three are my advice to to anybody will be in the industry great and very last question for you if anyone wants to connect with you or your team to chat where should they go where's the best place to contact

you we go to almost every game show in the world so feel free to reach out uh if anyone wants to connect uh they can reach out by our email it's bb icon.com or uh connect me with uh on LinkedIn so and we're always open to engaging uh with passionate individuals and potential partners uh we share our vision for the future of gaming so please uh write write us an email awesome well let's go ahead and wrap up there Maria thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of your insights and as always a big thanks to all of our listeners as well for tuning in we'll catch you all next time if you enjoyed today's episode whether on YouTube or your favorite podcast app make sure to like subscribe comment or give a fstar review and if

you want to reach out or provide feedback shoot us a note at podcast nvic.org w.n. thanks for listening and we'll catch you in the next episode