PUBG’s Parent Firm Krafton Strikes Deal With Solana Labs to Launch Blockchain-based Games
On Wednesday, March 23, Krafton Inc, the creator of the globally popular game PUBG, entered into a long-term partnership with Solana Labs. As part of the agreement, the two players will work together on the design and marketing of blockchain-based games and services.
Solana has emerged as one of the strongest Layer-1 alternative to the Ethereum blockchain network. It employs a consensus model dubbed Proof-of-History. The Solana blockchain offers high-end scalability and low transaction costs which makes it ideal for several decentralized applications (DApps) to run on the platform. Thus, this could be the reason for Krafton to choose Solana as its preferred blockchain.
Apart from blockchain games, Krafton and Solana Labs will be also working on developing NFT-based games and services. Speaking of this development, Johnny Lee, Head of Games Business Development at Solana Labs said: “We’re excited by KRAFTON’s commitment to build the future of gaming on Solana. KRAFTON is an established innovator in the games industry and we are excited to be part of their next level up. We are seeing gamers increasingly seek out on-chain games and gaming companies who respond quickly to this demand will set themselves up well for ongoing success.”
On the other hand, South Korea-based Krafton Inc has turned into a billion-dollar company with popular titles under its belt. Last year in 2021, Krafton earned a revenue of $1.57 billion. Out of this, PUBG alone contributed a staggering revenue of $1.18 billion.
Krafton’s recent foray into blockchain-based games seems to be a smart move as even some of its other competitors like Ubisoft and Sqaure-Enix are making similar moves. Furthermore, Krafton said that it wants to take its game development capabilities further by venturing into Web 3.0 and other NFT businesses.
Speaking of the current development, Hyungchul Park, Lead of Web 3.0 Roundtable at KRAFTON, Inc said: “KRAFTON will continuously see ways to work closely with blockchain companies like Solana Labs as we work toward establishing our Web 3.0 ecosystem. As one of the best global high-performance blockchain with strength in high speed and low fees, Solana represents the best of the Web 3.0 ecosystem and its technologies. Through this cooperation, KRAFTON will acquire the insight needed to accelerate its investment in and output of blockchain-based experiences.”