Tencent might have all the fuss of having Player’s Unknown: Battleground (PUBG) banned in China. But Tencent actually only has 10% share on the best selling game. The original developer is Bluehole Studio from South Korea. And the game has put the company in a bath full of money since the release.
Bluehole has been around for a while since March 2007. It sold its first hit game, TERA in 2011. The development of PUBG itself did not start until 2015, when its subsidiary, PUBG Corporation (then Bluehole GInno) invited Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene to South Korea.
Together, they started the development of the now hit game. Even at the development stage, many companies and game developer put interest on the project. The company found itself crowded with game developers willing to voluntary work overtime to finish the project at time.
Tencent’s investment and Bluehole rise to stardom
The beta version of PUBG started to be available since march 2017, ahead of the release schedule by the end of that year. Seeing the potential of the game, Tencent insisted on investing in Bluehole.
At first, the Seoul-based company denied the news of the investment. Later, Tencent announced that it had acquired 1.5% of Bluehole’s stake for around $70 million. And it was not the end. The Chinese company continued to invest $500 million more in 2018, acquiring 10% of Bluehole stake.
Tencent’s prediction hit the bull eye. By that year, the prerelease of PUBG earned its company $100 million within 79 days. The company’s revenue jumped more than threefold to $1 billion. And it went profitable for the first time with a net profit of $220 million, even though it had to struggle with $820 million lost the previous year.
Now, the company has more than 400 million players on its X-Box, Playstation 4, Windows and mobile versions. Although it has faced bans in various countries such as China, Iraq, Nepal and Jordan, it is still the most popular multiplayer game.
Chang Byung-Kyu, the founder and chairman of Bluehole and its parent company, Krafton, entered Forbes Korea’s Richest 2019 list for the first time. Mostly for his and his wife’s 20.6% stake at the company, that strikes his debut in the list with $890 million fortune.
