South Korean video game publisher Krafton is best known for being behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and, more recently, Dead Space’s spiritual successor, The Callisto Protocol.
Starting today, however, they’re going to be known for something else: becoming an AI-first company.
The company has announced a “complete reorganization” of its operational development system, with AI front and center. The goal, which is filled with buzzwords, is to, and I promise I’m paraphrasing here, transform how Krafton works with agentic AI-based automation while also enhancing employee growth and corporate competitiveness.
“Starting today, Krafton will automate work centered on Agentic AI and fully implement an AI-centered management system where members focus on creative activities and complex problem solving,” said Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han. “We will leap forward as a company that promotes the growth of members and expands the organization’s areas of challenge through AI.”
Agentic AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can perform tasks and make decisions with little to no human intervention.
To achieve this goal, Krafton will invest nearly KRW 100 billion (just under $70 million) to build a new GPU cluster that will serve as the foundation for implementing agentic AI. Krafton plans to complete its AI platform by the second half of 2026, allowing it to establish a company-wide infrastructure backed by AI. We’re talking AI-linked workflow, agentic AI management, the works.
Krafton will also invest KRW 30 billion (just under $21 million) annually starting in 2026 to “actively support its employees in directly utilizing and applying various AI tools to their work.”
Several Other Prominent Names In Video Games Are Adapting AI
Earlier this year, Blizzard confirmed that they have been using AI tools to help their developers be more creative. The focus here is on more tedious tasks and manual labor, which makes total sense. I use some of Canva’s AI tools to make my life easier, especially their background remover. However, not every use of AI is the same.
There have been conflicting reports about the usage of generative AI at Halo Studios. Meanwhile, Candy Crush developer King saw layoffs earlier this year due to employees being replaced by AI.
Arguably, no one has been more vocal about the benefits of AI than Glen Schofield, creator of the Dead Space franchise and The Callisto Protocol, which was again published by Krafton. Schofield recently said that he is, and I quote, “100% behind AI.” His reasoning? It’s because Photoshop and motion capture didn’t take jobs away from animation departments, so clearly, AI isn’t going to do the same.
Except that it has. I literally just said that two paragraphs ago: Candy Crush developer King laid off staff and replaced them with AI. This news even happened before Schofield bragged that AI isn’t coming for anyone’s jobs, so he was wrong from the get-go. In a world where major players in the industry are consolidating, as seen in the recent $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts, you better believe these new private equity firms that own our favorite game franchises will be looking for any way to save money and get a return on that investment. That includes, yes, agentic AI that requires little to no human interaction or supervision, that can do the job of real-life employees.
