CraftonSouth Korea’s gaming giants include PUBG: Battlefield and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI)has obtained control of the 12-year-old Indian Game Studio Nautilus Mobile A full-cash deal was reached for $14 million.
On Friday, the South Korean gaming company confirmed to TechCrunch that it had acquired a “75% stake in North” in Nautilus, the gaming studio is popular for its cricket enthusiast-focused Real Cricket series.
Krafton told TechCrunch that the Pune-based studio will continue to operate independently after the deal, with its 45 employees remaining on Nautilus’ payroll by the end of this month.
Founded in 2013, Nautilus has received millions of downloads for its true cricket franchise and currently has five titles, including Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Empier League.
Krafton India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn said in an interview that Krafton aims to enhance the “core competence” of Nautilus in cross-country cricket by refining its existing titles in the short term and exploring new genres over the long term.
“Our development capabilities at Nautilus will help Krafton double down on the Indian gaming strategy, and, we may be able to develop more games, more genres for the Indian and global markets,” Nautilus CEO Anuj Mankar told TechCrunch.
The company plans to expand the presence of Nautilus to other geographical locations over time.
Driven by a large number of young smartphone users, the mobile gaming market in India is growing steadily. Mobile games through spending, taking into account the overall gaming industry in the country 77.9% of total revenueaccording to market intelligence company Niko Partners. The company also estimates that the country’s mobile gaming revenue will grow from $640 million in 2023 to $1.1 billion in 2028.
Crafton, see Year-on-year growth of 119.3% Net profit last year was approximately US$889 million (KRW US$1.3 trillion), seeing India as a promising and key market for continuing its success. However, much of the growth from India so far has come from its flagship title of local audiences, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which hit its highest sales of all time last year More than 200 million downloads.
The company has other titles including Bullet Echo India, the road to Valor and Cookierun. However, they have not helped repeat the success story of Battle Royale Game, a local version of PUBG.
This deal could help Crafton surpass BGMI and explore ways to succeed, including cricket and other sports games, to attract new gamers.
2020, Indian digital entertainment and technology company Jetsynthesys Acquired 100% stake In Nautilus Mobile. Then came Crafton’s A strategic investment of $5.4 million In 2022.
Sohn told TechCrunch that while Nautilus’ potential was the reason for making initial investments, Krafton found its role as a minority stakeholder limit in supporting studio content development. He said that gaining control would allow for deeper collaboration with Nautilus’ core development efforts.
“We want cricket to have great potential. We want to work with Nautilus to do our best to truly realize the potential of this market, not only in India but also in other cricket games and other countries and other countries, which are becoming more and more active,” said Nihansh Bhat, who is from Krafton India, India, said.
Jetsynthesys will remain a “significant minority” investor in Nautilus Mobile and will continue to work with the studio in regions including esports. The company has worked with the studio to help work with the cricket team on its real cricket game, including Related to the Indian Premier LeagueIndia’s most profitable cricket game in the world.
“We will be looking to study revenues for a long time, increase in user base, increase in retention, all the usual things and hope to get new deals,” Bhat said on the question.
So far, Crafton has invested more than $200 million in India, excluding Nautilus Mobile.
Krafton has been engaged in gaming and game plastering companies with 20% investment in India, although the company has also invested in Indian startups, including payment platforms No cashaudio platform kuku fmand influencer marketing platform An impression. It also supports funds, including game-centric Lumikai and The first Indian fund invested by IMM.
“We are looking for opportunities to acquire, medium investment and even business collaboration with famous players in the country,” Thorne said.
Nautilus will join 14 other game studios Krafton in markets around the world.
