Prologue _ Lee Ki-moon

2017.
No Pause Button: Since Battlegrounds Launch
2018.
A Roadmap for Game Maps: What We Learned After Fast and Diverse Trials
2019.
Back to basics: For the fun of Battlegrounds
2020.
Deleting the Hurdles: Between Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios
2021.
Krafton's Path: Redefining the Word "Us"

Epilogue _ Kim Chang-han

"The success of Battlegrounds wasn't the end, it was the beginning."
Since the launch of Battlegrounds, it has become more intense than the battlefield in the game.
A record of five years of struggles on the real battlefield.

“A human being who boards a rocket soaring into the sky must endure, and become stronger as he rises higher.

"How far will you go? As far as you can go!"

Krafton achieved operating profit of 1.1825 trillion won in 2024.
This is the greatest achievement since its founding in 2007.
PUBG: Battleground, a survival shooting game released by Krafton in 2017, recorded the highest number of concurrent users ever on the PC gaming platform Steam, and that record still stands.
Battleground won the Korea Game Awards that year.
The gaming boom continues, and Krafton is set to go public in 2021.
The story of 10 years from the preparation period for founding the company to the immediate launch of Battlegrounds, which changed the global gaming landscape, "Krafton Way" (published in 2021) received as much attention as Krafton's explosive growth.
Starting out as 'Bluehole Studio' in 2007 and changing its name to 'Krafton' in 2018, the name was inspired by the 'Craft Guild', a union of medieval European artisans, and embodies the spirit of craftsmanship and challenge.
Will Krafton's dream come true?

The second story of 'Krafton Way', "Battleground, Towards a New Battlefield", is a record of those who tried to continue the game's success and the love of fans from 2017 to 2021, going through both big and small successes and taking steps outside the game.
There are no stable organizations, and no eternal bestsellers.
Management principles and methods for success learned through Krafton's growth process.

“We had another problem to solve,
That is also a very complex and difficult problem.”

The problems behind dramatic success and rapid expansion, and the efforts of members to solve them.

“It was impossible to know whether 100 gamers who landed on the ground by parachute would move east or north.
“If there is an intention, there will be a right answer, but Battlegrounds is a game without a right answer.”

Battlegrounds was a worldwide hit.
Now it was time to share the profits.
Actual profits far exceeded the incentive threshold.
“The problem, if there was one, was that no one had any idea how to share this unexpected profit.” The problem did not end there.
As the number of members increased from 591 in 2017 to 2,110 in 2021, noise and conflict also increased.
From selecting collaboration partners to organizational restructuring, corporate image (CI) renewal, internal transfer systems, holiday gifts, lunch money, and commuting times, the process of confronting each issue, reaching conclusions, and executing them is fully documented.


The amount of information the author referenced to write this book, including Krafton's corporate announcement video, board meeting minutes, management evaluations and sales, and email and messenger content, was a whopping 500 gigabytes.
Based on this information, the author conducted interviews with members and recreated the growing pains the company experienced as it rapidly expanded, realistically like a reportage and dramatically like a novel.
There was no correct answer.
Trial and error continued.
Indeed, Battleground's success was not the end, but the beginning.

“From wind to typhoon, from flame to sun
“We wanted to go higher and further.”

To continue the game's success and the love of fans
Krafton's growth story

Players at Battlegrounds were dwindling, another new game wasn't performing as well as expected, members of the alliance and departments were feuding, the developers' capabilities were stagnant, and the company couldn't establish a system that could satisfy its growing membership.
However, Krafton, who “did not want to miss a single one of the possibilities that unfolded that year,” “stood silently for five years in fear and terror, feeling like they would die every day.” Their trial and error will serve as a guide for those struggling on the real battlefield.

▶ Securing Passionate Customers: How to Expand Your Game World
As Battleground traffic declined and competitors enjoyed success, stress within the organization reached a peak.
To create content that can be loved for a long time, we had to increase quality and stability.
Once a world was created, users became accustomed to it and it was not easy to fix it, and even when it was fixed, users would criticize it in droves.
This is because the development was carried out sporadically and no integrated updates were made.
Accordingly, Krafton established a mid- to long-term roadmap, changing the battle environment and the number of players while returning to the core of “simple and realistic play without any unnecessary elements” that is considered a key factor in the success of Battlegrounds.
Enthusiastic customers began to respond.


▶ Be Open to the Possibility of Failure: How Companies Take Off
The expansion of the game worldview soon led to the expansion of game platforms, game service regions, and IP (intellectual property).
The intensity and difficulty of work were increasing, but the decision-making and execution processes were not properly organized.
When results are bad, it shouldn't just end with one person or one team being held accountable.
Problem solving was more important than responsibility.
To solve the problem, a cyclical structure of 'decision-execution-evaluation' was needed.
We introduced a 'dual line' method that does not concentrate decision-making power in one place.
On one side, decisions and actions are made through frequent discussions every day, while on the other side, a supporting role is taken with a slightly longer-term perspective.
It was to quickly repeat the decision-making, execution, and evaluation processes.
There are many companies in the world that are evaluated as 'good', but there is no company that is good for everyone.
“If there are 2,000 people, there are 2,000 ideas.”
It was a preparation to gather the core ideas and move forward in one direction.

▶ Constraints Drive Innovation: How Team Members Become Professionals
The creator speaks through his work.
Krafton people lived as a battleground that was serviced day and night all over the world.
Resources, time, and experience have always been and always will be scarce.
Within those very constraints, Krafton developed a gunfight game.
Battlegrounds brought about unimaginable results.
However, because the success of Battlegrounds was unprecedented, few people were determined to create a second Battleground and achieve success.
Everyone makes choices between challenge and security, risk and reward.
Even the most talented people who were recruited with great difficulty have left the company.
I was also reluctant to propose projects for fear of failure.
They were dissatisfied with the low incentives and salaries and even blamed each other.
Where in the company do the talents who will lead production come from? They say they'll accumulate lessons from failure, but where are they being accumulated? We needed to design a personnel and compensation system that would retain key talent and attract talented new talent.