Krafton

Bluehole Studio was founded in Seoul in March 2007 by Chang Byung-gyu.[3] Chang previously established Neowiz in 1997, along seven other co-founders, moved on to found search engine developer First Snow in 2005, and sold that venture in 2006.[4] The company announced on 22 April 2015 that they had changed their name to simply Bluehole.[5]

In August 2017, Chinese holding company Tencent announced that it had, following a rejected acquisition bid, invested an undisclosed amount of money into Bluehole.[6] Bluehole initially denied that any investment had been made,[7] but later stated that they were in talks with Tencent in multiple partnerships, including the acquisition of an equity stake in Bluehole by Tencent.[8] Subsequently, Tencent acquired 1.5% of Bluehole for a total of ₩70 billion.[9] Tencent reaffirmed their intents to fully acquire Bluehole in November 2017.[10][11] Korean magazine The Korea Times suggested that an initial public offering, through which Bluehole would become a public company, was "out of question" due to Chang Byung-gyu's position as chairman of both Bluehole and the Fourth Industrial Revolution committee.[12] At the time, 38 Communications, a company that tracks unlisted Korean stocks, valued the company at ₩5.2 trillion.[13][14] Tencent plans to invest further ₩500 billion to acquire further 10% ownership, raising their total stake to 11.5%[15] Through the acquisition, Tencent is set to become Bluehole's second-largest single shareholder, following Chang Byung-gyu, Bluehole's founder and chairman, who owns 20.6% of the company.[16]

Pnix is a mobile game developer. The company was founded as Pnix Games in 2012.[17] Bluehole announced that they had acquired Pnix Games, alongside Squall, on 22 April 2015.[5] Pnix Games changed their corporate name to Bluehole Pnix in June 2016.

In September 2020, En Masse Entertainment announced that it would be shutting down its offices after 10 years of service in the gaming industry,[18] where it was decided that Bluehole Studio would be publishing TERA's Console version globally[19] - taking over a self-publishing role, in place of En Masse Entertainment, whereas the PC version would be published by Gameforge.[20]

Delusion Studio was founded in April 2011 and is headed by Kang Moon-chul.[21] On 22 June 2018, Bluehole announced the acquisition of the studio.[22] Delusion developed mobile games such as Guardian Stone, Jellipo, House of Mice and, most notably, Castle Burn.[23]

PUBG Studio, formerly Ginno Games and PUBG Corporation, is an internal studio of Bluehole's that developed one of the establishing battle royale games, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), based on user mods in other games by Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene and who was hired by PUBG to develop it into a full title. Originally, Ginno Games had been founded by Kim Chang-han to develop MMOs, but around 2014, he had been forced to lay off a third of his staff as their last product had not performed well.[2] He sold Ginno Games to Bluehole on 27 January 2015, with the sale to close on 27 March that year.[24][25] At the time, Ginno Games employed 60 people.[25] Ginno Games changed their corporate name to Bluehole Ginno Games in May 2015. Shortly after Bluehole's acquisition in 2015, Chang-ha reached out to Greene to offer him support to build out his battle royale at Bluehold Ginno, which Greene accepted. PUBG was first released in early access in March 2017 as a highly popular game. Following the success of PUBG in 2017, Bluehole Ginno Games was renamed PUBG Corporation in September 2017.[26]

A second office was established in Madison, Wisconsin in late 2017, with two further offices in Amsterdam and Japan opened later.[27][28] On 12 March 2018, PUBG Corporation acquired New York-based studio MadGlory, which was renamed PUBG MadGlory.[29]

Greene, having been based in the Seoul offices of PUBG Corp., left that division in March 2019 to lead a new subsidiary, PUBG Special Projects, at the Amsterdam office, later renamed to PUBG Productions.[30] PUBG Productions announced their first game Prologue at The Game Awards 2019 in December. Unrelated to Battlegrounds, Prologue is called an exploration of gameplay and technology, and said "to give players unique and memorable experiences, each and every time they play".[31]

At the end of 2019 Tencent announced some big plans for PUBG in India's upcoming future, as well as its general eSport.

PUBG Mobile announced a new Metro Royale mode with 1.1 beta update.The main highlight of the update was reported as two new maps, pre-configured weapons, introduction of Agile bandits, new weapon called Tikhar, new thermal sight/night vision equipment, new Tikka rifle and special black market place, along with some unique challenges like, special monsters, and more.[32] On November 9, 2020, it was announced that Krafton will participate in G-Star 2020 to introduce their upcoming multiplayer online game Elyon through Krafton, an e-sports reality show where celebrities and streamers entered a special school that specialized in battlegrounds conduct episodes and talk related to PUBG Series 3. Celebrities (G)I-dle's Song Yuqi and Ailee and streamers Chyo Man and Choi Kwang-won appeared in the show.[33]

In December 2020, Krafton announced the merger of PUBG Corp publishing and support business into Krafton, while the development side of the company continues to exist, renamed as PUBG Studio since it'll focus on the development of PUBG and its universe.[34]

In June 2019, a new studio called Striking Distance was opened in conjunction with Glen Schofield, the co-founder of Sledgehammer Games. Striking Distance, headed by Schofield as chief executive officer, is set to develop narrative-driven games based on PUBG.[35] The studio's first game is The Callisto Protocol, a survival horror game set within the PUBG universe. It is set to be released in 2022.[36]

Red Sahara Studio is a mobile game developer headed by Lee Ji-hoon.[37] On 12 March 2018, Bluehole completed the acquisition of the studio in a stock swap deal.[38] Red Sahara is developing a mobile game based on TERA.[37]

Rising Wings is a mobile development and publishing company responsible for Archery King, Golf King and other mobile games.

L-Time Games was founded in June 2009.[39] The company attracted a ₩2 billion and a ₩5 billion investment from Knet Investment Partners and IMM Investments, respectively.[40] L-Time Games was acquired by and merged into Bluehole in January 2014.

Maui Games was a mobile game developer founded in 2013 by Woonghee Cho,[41] previously head of business development for Neowiz.[42] Bluehole Studio announced on 16 January 2015 that they were acquiring the company, which was completed in October that year.[41] At Bluehole's January 2017 shareholders' meeting, it was decided that Maui Games would enter liquidation, which was effective immediately.[43] Nine staff members of Maui Games, a fraction of that company's total employee count, were reemployed directly within Bluehole.[43]

Bluehole Squall is a mobile game developer. The company was founded as Squall by Park Jin-seok, a founding member of Neowiz, in 2013.[44] Bluehole announced that they had acquired Squall, alongside Pnix Games, on 22 April 2015.[5] Squall changed their corporate name to Bluehole Squall in March 2016. It was shut down by Krafton Game Union after internal conflicts in 2020. [45]

En Masse Entertainment was Krafton's North American publishing arm. The company was established as Bluehole Interactive in June 2008. On 26 February 2010, the company announced that it had changed its corporate name to En Masse Entertainment.[46]