"AI Developer" Declared by a Game Company

In October 2025, Krafton (known for PUBG/Battlegrounds) officially announced its transition to an "AI-First company" and disclosed plans to build a GPU cluster costing approximately 100 billion won ($70M+). Covered by The Verge, PC Gamer, and Windows Central as "Krafton transitioning from game studio to AI infrastructure company," the announcement goes beyond efficiency improvements to restructuring the entire organization around AI as its core engine. Infrastructure investment: Krafton is building a self-owned AI research infrastructure for AI research, game simulation, and agent training — moving from "borrowing AI via external APIs" to "an R&D company that directly trains and deploys AI." Organizational transformation: Krafton's AI Lab is internalizing generative models and AI agent systems across nearly all departments including game art, animation, QA, and operations; internal toolchains and data pipelines are being redesigned for AI automation; NPC dialogue/behavior design, simulation testing, QA automation, and world-building support systems are already in applied stages. Long-term vision: AI-native game development pipeline where AI agents handle routine production tasks while human designers focus on creative direction; AI-driven personalization enabling dynamic game experiences that adapt to individual players. Industry significance: if Krafton's transition succeeds, it may establish a new model for how game companies should integrate AI — not as a productivity tool but as core organizational infrastructure, with implications for talent strategy, competitive positioning, and the definition of what a "game company" means in the AI era.