Despite Krafton's record-high sales, its third quarter performance decreased compared to the same period last year due to rising operating costs and differences in timing of 'Battleground' updates.
Krafton [259960] announced on the 10th that its operating profit in the third quarter of this year on a consolidated basis was provisionally calculated to be 225 billion won, a 35.5% decrease from the same period last year.
Sales amounted to 971.4 billion won, an increase of 11.6% compared to the same period last year. The net loss was 68.4 billion won, turning into a deficit.
Cumulative sales in the third quarter were KRW 3.633 trillion and operating profit was KRW 1.1975 trillion, up 51% and 14%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, breaking the all-time record for the third quarter.
As for sales by division, mobile sales increased by 3.2% compared to the same period last year to KRW 504.3 billion, but PC sales decreased by 32.5% over the same period to KRW 238.9 billion.
While the PC version of 'Battleground' saw a significant increase in sales in the third quarter of last year due to a large collaboration update, this year's sales were mainly concentrated in the fourth quarter.
ADK Group's other sales, including advertising and content sales, were newly recognized at 219.6 billion won, an increase of 1,118%.
Operating expenses in the third quarter were 746.4 billion won, an increase of 43% compared to the same period last year, reflecting operating expenses resulting from the acquisition of ADK Group.
In addition, the decline in exchange rates had an impact, resulting in a net loss for two consecutive quarters following the previous two quarters.
Krafton plans to expand the 'Battleground' IP franchise into a gameplay platform that allows for a variety of plays.
Following the introduction of user-generated content (UGC) in December last year, 'PUBG Playgrounds' was introduced, allowing users to find and enjoy various UGC right away, and UGC was also introduced in the mobile version.
Krafton added that the low-capacity version 'BGMI Air' for the emerging market in India has surpassed 14 million pre-orders ahead of its launch on December 10, and that the series is preparing the largest-ever update in celebration of its 10th anniversary in 2027.
Krafton announced that 'Subnautica 2', which was released in early access this year, has surpassed 5 million units in cumulative sales.
Subnautica 2 plans to focus on its official release by improving its completeness with a large-scale Early Access 2.0 update at the end of the year.
'PUBG: DED.NET', a new game based on the PUBG IP that was first revealed at Gamescom in August, is preparing for release next year, targeting Western console shooter users.
Krafton unveiled its self-developed large language model (LLM) 'Raon-1 Mini Preview' last month and announced that it confirmed the highest level of performance among domestic equivalent models in the areas of Korean-specific performance, response speed, and inference efficiency.
In the future, Krafton plans to increase the competitiveness of game AI such as 'PUBG Ally' with its own model that learned the game's unique grammar, and expand its lineup with the scale-up model 'Raon-1' and a full-duplex voice model in the future to expand the AI capabilities accumulated in games into the development of models specialized for future new businesses.
