Gaming company Krafton Inc. has announced its 2026 management strategy and mid-to-long-term growth plans, including those for India, during its company-wide town hall meeting Kraftom Live Talk or KLT.

The strategy was discussed in the KLT on January 15 and, according to a media statement from the South Korean game publisher, reinforces its commitment to gaming as its core business, with a clear emphasis on building original franchise IPs through a structured, execution-driven development model, rather than relying on one-off successes.

The official statement from the company quoted CEO CH Kim as saying that in 2026 Krafton will continue to pursue its mid-to-long-term strategy to secure a ‘big franchise IP’.

As Kim announced in 2025, this strategy focuses on three key areas: significantly increasing investment in first-party production, expanding publishing volume, and optimizing resource allocation. The goal is to extend beyond a single game experience — expanding across genres, content, and service formats to drive sustainable, repeatable growth over the long term — ultimately creating an original and competitive Franchise IP.

During the past year, KRAFTON has prepared for franchise IP development by strengthening its creative leadership, as well as upgrading its overall game development and publishing frameworks. In 2026, the company will ramp up development of new titles with potential to grow into franchise IPs, while at the same time accelerating the growth of the PUBG IP franchise.

“We will remain focused on Krafton’s core gaming business as we begin to move into the execution phase of producing new titles,” said Kim explained, adding, “While expanding the PUBG IP franchise as a content platform, we will begin to create franchise IPs via our new title pipeline and creative leadership.”

To boost game development, Krafton, according to the statement, significantly strengthened its creative leadership in 2025 by establishing a small-team development structure centered on 15 newly recruited key players. This structure enables early or targeted releases, such as early access or limited market launches, allowing teams to quickly validate a game’s potential before committing additional resources and scaling successful titles.

The company currently operates a 26-project development pipeline that is intentionally structured around early validation and clear decision gates, with 12 titles, including ‘Subnautica 2’, ‘Palworld Mobile’ and ‘NO LAW, targeting release within the next two years. Each project begins in markets with a clearly identifiable core fan base, enabling data-driven assessment of long-term potential rather than simultaneous full-scale launches.

Over the past year, Krafton has laid the groundwork for this shift by strengthening creative leadership and upgrading its global development and publishing frameworks. In India, this is supported by the company’s focus on running large-scale live games, publishing India-first titles, and developing a pipeline of early-stage studios through the Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), creating stronger links between talent, production readiness, and long-term IP thinking.

“We will remain focused on Krafton’s core gaming business as we begin to move into the execution phase of producing new titles,” said Kim, “While expanding our existing IPs as content platforms, we will begin to create franchise IPs via our new title pipeline and creative leadership.”

In India, Krafton is responsible for premier mobile games, including ‘Battlegrounds Mobile India’, which has surpassed 240 million downloads, ‘Bullet Echo India,’ ‘Road To Valor: Empires’ and ‘CookieRun India’, among others. Committed to enhancing the start-up ecosystem in India, it has also invested over $170 million in several Indian startups across interactive entertainment, gaming, esports and technology since 2021.