PUBG Engine Will Upgrade To UE5 And Krafton Prepares 4 New Games

Krafton's 2024 financial report showed strong performance. However, in order to improve the trend of the gradual decline in the number of PUBG players in recent years, Krafton decided to upgrade PUBG's engine to UE5. At the same time, 4 new games will be released.

By on

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developer Krafton announced its fourth quarter and full-year financial report for 2024.

According to the financial report data, Krafton’s full-year sales in 2024 reached 2.7098 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 41.8%; operating profit was 1.1825 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 54%, setting a record since the company was founded.

PUBG Engine Will Upgrade To UE5 And Krafton Prepares 4 New Games

Krafton 2024 Financial Report

  • Annual sales: 2,709.8 trillion won, up 41.8% year-on-year
  • Annual operating profit: 1,182.5 trillion won, up 54% year-on-year
  • Fourth quarter sales: 617.6 billion won, up 15.5% year-on-year, but down 14.1% month-on-month
  • Fourth quarter operating profit: 215.5 billion won, up 31.1% year-on-year, down 33.6% month-on-month

Krafton’s strong growth is mainly due to the continued success of its core game PUBG. Over the past five years, PUBG games and non-game businesses have achieved an average annual sales growth rate of 20%, continuing to be the main driver of the company’s revenue. In addition, Krafton’s sales on PC and mobile platforms have also performed well, with PC platform sales increasing 61% year-on-year to 941.9 billion won; while mobile platform sales increased 36% to 1,689 billion won.

Krafton is actively promoting the diversification of PUBG, planning to launch a number of new games, and also plans to replace PUBG with Unreal Engine 5, and introduce new features such as user-generated content (UGC) to further promote the diversification of the game. The company hopes to improve the service quality of the game through technical upgrades, attract more Western users and reduce player churn.

2025 New Game Release Plan

Looking forward to 2025, Krafton plans to release four blockbuster new works:

  • INZOI: Expected to start early access in March
  • Dark and Darker Mobile: Planned to soft-launch in North America in February
  • Subnautica 2: Will be launched on Xbox Game Pass in 2025 and provide early access
  • Dinkum Mobile: Will be officially released on PC and Nintendo Switch platforms this year

Significance Of Using Unreal Engine 5

At the earnings conference, Krafton CEO was asked about the impact of PUBG’s replacement of Unreal Engine 5 on sales. He said that although the engine upgrade will not bring an immediate increase in sales, and it is a key step in building PUBG into a long-lived game. By applying the latest technology and improving service quality, Krafton hopes to attract more Western users and reduce player churn. He also mentioned that the success of Counter-Strike 2 fully proves the importance of technological upgrades to the long-term vitality of the game.