Krafton Saw Its First Quarterly Net Loss In Q4 2022, Teases New Create-To-Earn Platform

It’s been a rough quarter for Krafton as the South Korean video game developer and publisher sees its first quarterly net loss since the company went public in 2021. During its Q4 2022 investor call, the studio reported $1.47 billion in total revenue and a 15.5% increase in operating profit for the entire 2022 period despite a 1.7% drop in sales.

Krafton also reports a 6.8% increase in revenue in the final quarter of the fiscal year, but apparently that wasn’t enough to prevent the company from losing money. PUBG remains the game’s primary revenue generator which accounted for nearly a third of the company’s Q4 sales.

In light of the poor performance of its other titles, Krafton CEO Changhan Kim says that they plan to step up and take more control of their other studios “to live up to customer expectations.” Kim is also a big supporter of play-to-earn games, deep learning, metaverse, and other cryptocurrency-related innovations. He also revealed plans to start testing a new mobile-first open-world virtual platform service in the first half of 2023 that will allow the company to launch a create-to-earn ecosystem to connect creators and brands all over the world.

“Deep learning is no longer at a demo or test lab stage,” Kim said. “AI transformation has truly begun and will change our work and life as we know it. […] Once AI becomes more widespread, it will become easy for a small group of developers or even a single person to create high quality games.”