Krafton plans a $5 trillion IPO in S. Korea; eyes 50 Million userbase acquisition in India

Krafton Inc, the South Korean company that owns “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)” and the much-anticipated Battlegrounds Mobile India, has announced that it would raise upto ₩5.6 trillion ($5 billion) in a record IPO. This IPO would beat Samsung Life Insurance’s ₩4.9 trillion IPO in 2010. Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent is currently Krafton’s second-largest shareholder with a 15.35% stake through an investment vehicle, according to a regulatory filing. The Tencent-backed company said in a regulatory filing that it expects to offer 10 million shares (7 million new and 3 million existing shares) at an indicative range of 458,000-557,000 won ( $410-$499) per share.

Krafton has invested in Nazara Technologies, which recently went up for a blockbuster IPO in India. Further, following the ban of PUBG in early October 2020, the company has launched two new games; PUBG New State and Battlegrounds Mobile India. The latter is specifically built for the Indian audience, in compliance with the Government privacy guidelines.

Apparently, the previous game, PUBG Mobile and its variants had over 50 Million users in India. The game was downloaded over 175 Million times in India, a whopping 24% of total downloads, according to Sensor Tower. PUBG Mobile still had over 19 million users in India in April, where the users used VPN tools and other workarounds to bypass the geo-restrictions. These users are eagerly awaiting the launch in India.

About Battlegrounds Mobile India

Battlegrounds Mobile will be quite different from PUBG Mobile. For example, it says that all the players will stay fully clothed when they land on a map. Reports suggest that the game will have less visual bloodshed and the blood will be in green instead of red. Though the maps could be similar to PUBG Mobile, they could have different names.

Further, the game will allow only 18+ year-olds to play the game because of safety issues. Under 18 years players will need to have to get consent from parents to play the game. As per the policy, players under 18 years of age will have to provide the mobile number of their parent to confirm that they are eligible to play the game.

This game will also include gameplay of three hours only and a cap of Rs 7,000 on in-app purchases, due to the various previous controversies on the game. There is also a possibility that Battlegrounds Mobile India will have a different Royale Pass season than PUBG Mobile. But, many famous PUBG players have said that ex-PUBG users will be able to retain their games.