Krafton acquires controlling participation in the Indian Nautilus Mobile game studio for $ 14 million

KraftonThe giant of the South Korea game known for the titles of which PUBG: Battlefields And Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI)has acquired majority participation in the 12 -year -old Indian game studio Nautilus Mobile For 14 million dollars in an all-the-day agreement.

On Friday, the South Korean Games company confirmed in Techcrunch that it had acquired “participation in the north of 75%” in Nautilus, the popular game studio for its real cricket franchise focused on cricket.

The PUNE -based studio will continue to operate independently after the agreement, which should end by the end of the month, with all its 45 employees remaining on the pay of Nautilus, Krafton told Techcrunch.

Founded in 2013, Nautilus has collected millions of downloads for his franchise Real Cricket, which currently has five titles, including Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Premier League.

Krafton aims to strengthen Nautilus’ “basic competence” in mobile cricket games – where demand is high in India which likes cricket – by refining its short -term titles and exploring new long -term genres, Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO of Krafton India, in an interview.

“Our development capacity in Nautilus will help Krafton double its game strategy in India, and together, we can probably build more games, more genres, both for the Indian market and the global market in the future,” the CEO of Nautilus, Anuj Mankar, Techcrunch, told Techcrunch.

The company plans to extend the presence of Nautilus to other geographies over time.

The Mobile Games Market in India increases regularly, driven by a large base of young smartphones users. Mobile games dominate the country’s overall industry by spending, taking into account 77.9% of total incomeby intelligence company of the Niko Partners market. The company also estimates that the country’s mobile game revenues will drop from $ 640 million in 2023 to $ 1.1 billion by 2028.

Krafton, who saw Growth of 119.3% in annual shift In its net profit from last year to around 889 million dollars (KRW 1.3 Billion), India considers that India as a promising and key market to continue its success. However, most of India’s growth has so far been of its flagship title for the local public, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which struck its highest sales last year and exceeded 200 million downloads.

The company has other titles, including Bullet Echo India, Road to Valor and Cookierun. However, they have not yet helped repeat the success of the Battle Royale game, a localized version of PUBG.

The agreement could help Krafton to go beyond the BGMI and to explore new ways of success, including cricket and other sports games, to attract new players.

In 2020, the Indian Entertainment and Digital Technology Company JetSynthesys acquired 100% participation In Nautilus Mobile. Which was followed by Krafton Strategic investment of $ 5.4 million in 2022.

Sohn told Techcrunch that even if Nautilus’s potential was the reason for the initial investment, Krafton found his role of minority partuse limiting in terms of support for the development of content in the studio. Winning controlling participation, he said, would allow more in-depth collaboration and greater involvement in basic development efforts with Nautilus.

“We firmly believe that cricket games have a lot of potential. And we want to work with Nautilus to make the best possible efforts to really make the potential of this market, not only in India, but in other cricket countries and other countries, which become more active in cricket,” said Nihansh Bhat, development of business manager at Krafton India, told Techcrunch.

Jetsynthesys will remain an “important minority” investor in Nautilus Mobile and will continue to work with the studio in areas, including ESPORTS. The company has already worked with the studio to help associate its real cricket game with cricket teams, including those associated with the Indian Premier LeagueThe most lucrative cricket tournament in the world in India.

“We want, over a long period of time, to examine, of course, the increase in income, the increase in the user base, the improvement of retention, all the usual things and, we hope, also new offers,” said Bhat on the question of how Krafton would measure the success of the agreement.

So far, Krafton has invested more than $ 200 million in India, excluding the Nautilus Mobile.

The 20% of Krafton’s investments in India were in adjacent games and games, although the company has also invested in Indian startups, including the payment platform Unnamedaudio platform Kukuku FMand influence marketing platform An impression. He also supported funds, including focusing on the game Lumikai And First India Fund of Imm Investment.

“We are examining the opportunity for acquisitions, moderate investments and even commercial collaboration with notable actors in the country,” said Sohn.

Nautilus will join the other Krafton game studios operates on markets around the world.