Earlier this week, Pocketpair Publishing boss John Buckley made it clear that his company isn’t interested in handling games built with generative AI. He stated, “If you’re big on AI stuff or your game is Web3 or uses NFTs, there are lots of publishers out there [who will], but we’re not the right partner for that.”
One of those partners, it seems, is PUBG maker Krafton, which announced today that it is transforming into an “AI-first” company. The goals of this new strategy include fostering change in individuals and organizations, increasing company-wide productivity, and accelerating mid- to long-term corporate value growth, the company said.
To make this vision a reality, Krafton revealed plans to invest roughly 100 billion Korean won ($69.7 million) in a GPU cluster. This infrastructure will support multi-stage tasks requiring sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning, serving as the foundation for accelerating the implementation of agentic AI.
Additionally, Krafton will allocate another 30 billion won ($21 million) annually, starting in 2026, to actively support its employees in directly utilizing and applying various AI tools to their work.
“Through our AI First strategy, Krafton will expand the growth opportunities for each member, expand creative attempts centered on player experience, and lead AI innovation across the gaming industry,” said Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han. “We will establish operational standards centered on AI and present best practices that can be referenced in the global gaming industry.”
What this looks like in practical terms remains to be seen. But on a gut level, I have my doubts. Broadly speaking, I see two likely outcomes:
1. Layoffs – Because C-suite executives often imagine that good video games can be made by thinking machines that don’t need to be paid or given time off.
2. A catastrophic collapse – When the AI bubble bursts and companies find themselves stuck with mountains of Nvidia hardware destined for Craigslist, along with the massive debt they took on to acquire it.
Or maybe it’ll be the classic one-two punch: first layoffs, then collapse. After all, that’s often how these things play out.
https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/krafton-is-now-an-ai-first-company-will-spend-usd70-million-on-a-gpu-cluster-to-serve-as-the-foundation-for-accelerating-the-implementation-of-agentic-ai/