After Many Failures, Coding Guy Behind PUBG Will Be A Billionaire In 2021

Despite facing a ban in several countries, PlayerUnknown¡¯s Battlegrounds or PUBG is turning out to be a long sought gem for its developers. The game was recently ranked as the top grossing game of 2020, accumulating more than $2.6 billion in revenue.

This success might soon take the founding company public in what could be South Korea¡¯s biggest IPO ever.

Reuters

As reported by Bloomberg, Krafton is planning an initial public offering in mid-to-late 2021. Citing Krafton¡¯s chief executive officer Kim Chang-han, the report mentions that the share sale could raise billions of dollars for the company.

An estimate of the IPO is provided in a report by Eugene Investment & Securities Co., which values the startup at as much as $27.2 billion.

To date, South Korea¡¯s biggest IPO has been the $4.3 billion offering of Samsung Life Insurance Co. in 2010. Netmarble Corp., a Seoul-based gaming company opened to a $2.4 billion listing in 2017.

A child prodigy

Kim Chang-han, CEO at Playerunknown Battlegrounds Co Ltd. (Image: Jean Chung/Bloomberg)

Kim, who holds 1.5% of the company¡¯s shares is now working towards maintaining this success of the firm. As a child prodigy, Kim won several national coding competitions in South Korea in the 1980s. He later went on to find several gaming startups over time.

Most of them failed. In 2014, Kim had to lay off a third of the employees at his gaming startup. ¡°That was the darkest time in my life,¡± Kim was quoted as saying in the report. In 2015, he sold his firm to Bluehole Inc., the company now known as Krafton Inc. He also joined the firm as an executive producer.

Kim then tried his luck at a battle royale game, an online last man standing game in a shrinking battlefield. ¡°Every fiber in my being was telling me to make this game,¡± Kim said. The game came to be known as PUBG and its success is now for the world to see.

PUBG Mobile

As per Kim, PUBG now accounts for the majority of sales and profits for Krafton out of its four game studios. Krafton now aims to continue this success story with several PUBG related titles in the lineup.

This includes a new battle royale title for mobile, another PUBG-related game for PC and console, as well as a survival horror game in 2022 that will depict the PUBG universe three centuries into the future.

Kim also confirmed that Krafton is developing a web cartoon and an animated show for streaming services. The company eventually plans to make movies and dramas, he said, and is open to acquisitions in these areas.