PUBG Publisher Krafton Partners With Solana Labs

Video game developer Krafton announced a partnership with Solana Labs on Wednesday that could bring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to its popular battle-royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).

South Korea-based Krafton said its plans for the Solana Labs partnership include the “development and operation of blockchain and NFT-based games and services,” according to a press release.

A source familiar with the deal told CoinDesk the partnership is a memorandum of understanding, meaning Krafton can still pull the plug on the partnership without legal repercussions.

PUBG is one of the all-time top downloaded games on the Steam platform, with an active user base in the tens of millions; it was reported to have as many as 696,000 active users playing concurrently in early 2022. The game is second in popularity in the battle-royale genre only to Epic Games' Fortnite.

“Krafton will continuously see ways to work closely with blockchain companies like Solana Labs as we work toward establishing our Web 3 ecosystem,” HyungChul Park, lead of Krafton’s Web 3 division, said in the press release. “Solana represents the best of the Web 3.0 ecosystem and its technologies. Through this cooperation, Krafton will acquire the insight needed to accelerate its investment in and output of blockchain-based experiences.”

The announcement comes as attitudes toward NFT adoption in the traditional gaming sector remain tepid, stemming from recent instances of backlash to the technology.

In February, Krafton invested $6.6 million in a pair of Korean-based NFT startups to help build out its budding Web 3 operations.

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