Similar to how PUBG Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary corporation of Krafton (with its own CEO), Bluehole now has a similar arrangement with its own CEO. The announcement was made back on August 27th.
This arrangement allows Bluehole to operate more independently as a unit that specializes in the MMORPG genre while still being allowed to utilize the entirety of the KRAFTON GAME UNION (where ideas for designs can be shared along with engineering and production resources). Bluehole has both TERA (PC and Console) and ELYON in its current portfolio. Similar to how PUBG Corp was able to formulate strategic alliances and licensing deals for PUBG, it’s expected something similar will be in play with these two IP’s going forward.
TERA Console has sort of forked off on its own (no longer exactly following the PC design as there are some console specific designs made including a different gear and enchanting system and the decision not to implement the EP system to name a few) while the PC version made a crucial foundational update to the 64-bit client (a change that will allow content which could not be deployed before). Something that will likely be pursued again is leveraging of the IP (cross promotion licensing as an example).
One of the other new initiatives at Krafton is expanding into other media with their investment and partnership with Hidden Sequence which is a drama production company. The idea is to leverage their IP’s in Korean dramas, movies, and e-sports thematically; one of the ones hinted is a PUBG themed drama or movie. Another angle is to take a drama/movie produced by Hidden Sequence, and to leverage that into a game. And that’s one of the reasons for compartmentalizing the MMORPG IP’s into its own corporation.
Bluehole as a corporation (prior to the corporate rebranding) has long tried to monetize their IP’s externally but always fell short. The company earlier leveraged TERA IP in the now defunct Devilian franchise (an MMO-ARPG whose parent studio Ginno Games, was acquired by Bluehole and became Bluehole Ginno; the studio that was later renamed and spun off as PUBG Corp). The game as originally acquired was visually more like Diablo III but underwent a complete overhaul graphically (borrowing heavily from TERA) and games systems. Part of that intent was to expand that IP into other games via licensing. That never came to fruition except on the mobile side with several studios licensing the TERA IP (Bluehole eventually acquired two of those studios).
There are some TERA cosmetic assets in PUBG and ELYON and there was a PUBG cross promotion with TERA back in early 2019. Krafton has also deliberately moved away from heavily leveraging one of their other franchises IP into their other properties as a way to expand the potential leverageable assets). This too really hasn’t born fruit besides the PUBG pan and helmet. Mini-Life had too short of a life and MISTOVER is unsurprisingly a small niche. I honestly don’t believe this renewed attempt (into other media) will bear fruit (but we shall see).
The near term focus however for Bluehole is launching ELYON (which will be published by Kakao Games in Korea, North America, and Europe and Asiasoft in South East Asia).
