PUBG Developer KRAFTON Partners with NAVER Z to Launch Migaloo Metaverse

South Korean developer KRAFTON has announced a $36.8m North-American joint venture with augmented reality company, NAVER Z to launch the Migaloo metaverse. While KRAFTON will hold controlling stakes with 85% ownership, NAVER Z controls the remaining 15%.

KRAFTON is best known for its battle royale game, PUBG: Battleground. The game platform boasts about 289 million active players monthly. The game is also available on iOS and Android and is considered hugely popular. With over $172 million in financing, NAVER Z is also responsible for the development of Asia’s largest metaverse platform, Zepeto. The technology company has more than 49 million monthly active users across three of its products.

Pulling their expertise together, both companies will cooperate on a Web3 metaverse gaming platform, called Migaloo. KRAFTON will bring its expertise in game development and publishing. On the other hand, NAVER Z will focus on planning, building partnerships, and acquisitions.

Speaking about the partnership, the head honcho of Migaloo, Henry Hyung-chul Park said, “As both companies have abundant experience in successful global content services and have united their efforts, we will definitely achieve good results.”

The Migaloo Metaverse and Asian Developers Web 3 Strides

Per the announcement, the Migaloo Metaverse platform will launch before the end of 2023. While information about the project is scant, the Migaloo metaverse could resemble Roblox, but feature NFTs. Upon launch, Migaloo will run the create-to-earn (C2E) model, which allows users to develop in-game assets and sell them like NFTs.

Commenting on this, the CEO of NAVER Z, Chang-wook Kim, said, “We will grow Migaloo as a new metaverse platform where creators can realize new values in an NFT-based ecosystem based on their own creations.”

KRAFTON and NAVER Z are not the only Asian developers creating games and leveraging blockchain. Recently, Japan-based Final Fantasy creator Square Enix announced its own Web3 game. Also, South-Korean based Nexon is developing MapleStory Universe on Web3. Similarly, Razer has also launched a Web3 incubator, whereas WeMade is planning to launch its most successful products overseas, adding Web3 integrations

Meanwhile, the Migaloo metaverse will not be KRAFTON’s first or only Web3 initiative. In March 2022, KRAFTON partnered with Solana Labs to develop games on the Solana network. Since announcing the partnership, there have been no further updates as to the state of the partnership and the progress of the plans.