PUBG developer Krafton acquires a “north of 75% stake” in Pune-based gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14M in an all-cash deal, its first acquisition in India
Context & Ripple Effects
Krafton’s India activity had already extended beyond PUBG: it backed Indian storytelling platform Pratilipi in 2021, while Battlegrounds Mobile India returned to Google Play after a nine-month absence. The Nautilus transaction moves that presence from investment and distribution toward majority ownership of a local studio.
The deal also fits Krafton’s stated 2025 plan to invest in more than a dozen game studios and foreshadows its later-reported push for further Indian acquisitions as it seeks growth beyond China and the US.
First-order effects
- Krafton gains a more-than-75% ownership position in Nautilus Mobile for $14 million in cash, making the Pune studio its first acquisition in India.
- Nautilus shifts from an independent studio to a Krafton-controlled portfolio company, tying its strategic direction more closely to Krafton’s India operation.
Second-order effects
- The purchase turns Krafton’s planned studio-investment program into direct ownership in India, rather than only the minority-style backing represented by its Pratilipi investment.
- For Indian game studios, the transaction establishes a concrete local acquisition route with a large overseas publisher; Krafton’s subsequent acquisition focus makes that route more credible than a one-off deal.
Third-order effects
- If Krafton repeats this model, India could become a production and ownership base in its global studio portfolio, not solely a market for distributing its existing titles.
- The broader signal is consolidation through cross-border majority stakes: local studios may increasingly weigh the capital and distribution benefits of publisher ownership against remaining independent.
The trend: Global game publishers are using targeted acquisitions in India to build local development capacity as growth opportunities in established markets become harder to find.