이 기사는 2022년 05월 11일 08:12 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korean gaming firm Krafton offered generous conditions to purchase U.S. video game developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment last year as it aims to secure top-tier talent to expand its intellectual property (IP) and diversify its portfolio of groundbreaking games.

Founded by Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire in 2001, the US game studio created the highly popular Half-Life mod, Natural Selection, which went on to see a commercial sequel. Continuing with its community-focused roots, the studio went on to release critical and commercial PC and console successes, Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero, in early access, before official launches.

Krafton initially announced it would acquire Unknown Worlds for $500 million in November 2021, but changed the acquisition cost to $553 million (approximately 650 billion won) in December. The company, however, recognized the transfer price of 844.7 billion in its financial statements in 2021.

Krafton paid 650.8 billion won to take over 100% of Unknown Worlds and took on financial liabilities of 193.9 billion won. The stock purchase agreement it signed with Unknown Worlds included earn-out provisions to pay up to $250 million depending on the American game developer’s future performance.

Krafton offered such conditions to secure founders and skilled developers of Unknown Worlds, including McGuire. Krafton will pay an earn-out of up to $250 million if two new titles, which are being prepared by Unknown Worlds, meet certain milestones by 2025. Unknown Worlds is scheduled to release a new game 'Project 1' later this year, and is aiming for its global release in May 2023. Its 'Project 2' is currently under development to be launched in 2024.

Krafton will pay the lesser of an adjusted post-deal revenue multiplied by a certain multiple or $250 million. The company has recognized 195.3 billion won as conditional earn-out payments in its book.

Krafton raised 4.3 trillion won in its listing in August 2021, of which about 2 trillion won was allocated to acquisitions of shares in other corporations. Among Krafton’s purchases of Between Us, DreaMotion and thingsflow, the acquisition of Unknown Worlds is the largest deal.

Krafton has made a big bet on Unknown Worlds as it aims to enter the North American market through console games. While mobile and PC games are the mainstream in Korea, console games dominate markets in the U.S., Japan and Europe.

The sales of the Japanese console video game industry amounted to 367.3 billion Japanese yen (3.6 trillion won) in 2020. The global console game market is expected to reach $56.9 billion won this year, according to market research firm Newzoo.

Krafton generated 75.13% of its total revenue from mobile games. PC games accounted for 21.12% of its total revenue, followed by console games with a mere 2.69%. Krafton aims to strengthen its console game business by acquiring other game developers like Unknown Worlds. (Reporting by Choong-hee Won)