Yes, I made that title confusing on purpose because this is Krafton in a nutshell with yet another attempt at reinventing and rebranding their business organizations.
https://blog.krafton.com/3161/
Krafton CEO Chang-Han Kim continues to reorganize and re-streamline the company by pulling back in the non-development aspects of PUBG Corp into the parent company. Kim was previously the CEO of PUBG Corp (previously, it was Bluehole Ginno – the backstory on that). In late August, Bluehole (the MMO design studio) was spun off into its own production corporation with its own CEO.
Basically, there is a massive re-branding and restructuring effort to have the corporate functions integrated (back) into Krafton while the development functions are the core aspects of the design studio/production subsidiaries. PUBG Corp was initially structured the way it was because Bluehole at the time (when PUBG was flying high), had plans to try to go public with an IPO or to sell it off as a complete company. Both never came to pass though since Fortnite BR began eating everyones lunch.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated changes to how a lot of companies do business and it is safe to presume that there were business inefficiencies (duplication of effort) within PUBG Corp that no longer made sense given how the company failed to go public or to be purchased by a buyer.
The development and production subsidiary corporations are now known as PUBG Studio and Bluehole Studio (previously, the Studio portion was dropped and the design studio was simply known as Bluehole while the parent company was Bluehole, Inc before that was rebranded to Krafton) where those studios will still cooperate and share resources and design ideas with each other in what was previously called the KRAFTON GAME UNION and before that, the Bluehole Alliance; it is now known as KRAFTON CI (Creative Identity).
Basically, this restructuring allows these main production subsidiaries to create content for different media including dramas, movies, and e-sports (besides the usual mobile, PC, and console games). The objective is to leverage IP’s across an array of entertainment media with potential tie ups and cross licensing promotions. I think it is still way too lofty a goal though since they don’t have IP’s with a broad appeal (I mean compare TERA or PUBG with Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft IP where you have RTS’, an MMO, a card game, comics, novels, and a movie). I doubt a PUBG themed drama will really be that huge of a hit but it was one of the ideas floated with their investment and partnership with Korean drama production company, Hidden Sequence.
I guess it’s the old try adage to see if something sticks. But to date, all of Krafton’s initiatives post PUBG has not borne fruit.
