Krafton India
If you know Battlegrounds Mobile India (it was PUBG Mobile India before), the company that makes it, Krafton India, has picked six teams of game creators from all over India to be part of their second support program for new game studios.
Krafton, a major gaming company from South Korea, is now expanding its focus in India through its special program called the Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), which supports new game developers. They’ve also partnered with key industry players and recently announced the six new startups selected for the second batch of the program.
A game studio from Madurai called Kleanup Games is one of the startups that got picked. They’re working on a game called Chromadi, which is like a classic arcade shooting game. The gameplay will focus on mixing colors and trying to beat your high score. Jaiwanth Shanmugam is the director of this studio, and their game is expected to be ready in 2026 for iPhones, Android devices, and computers (like the Steam Deck).
Advaita Interactive is working on Inspectorium, a detective game where you find hidden items in a steampunk Kolkata. Started by Judhajit Sarkar, this episodic game will have AI for questioning characters and puzzles that make you feel involved. It’s expected to come out on phones, PCs, and VR between 2025 and 2026.
A game company in Bengaluru called Smash Head Studio is making a mobile game called Cricket Rivals. It’s a fast and exciting cricket game where you can play against other people at the same time on your phone. It’s meant to feel like real cricket but with quicker, more competitive games. The studio was started by Surendran Ramachandran and Pawan Sandhar, and they’ve made other games before, like an action shooting game called Gravity Shooter.
A game studio in Mumbai called Singular Scheme is creating Frontier Paladin. It’s a role-playing game where you explore a cursed battlefield with powerful religious items and fight ancient monsters, but you also have to defend against attacks like in a tower defense game. This is the second game from the studio, led by Ahad Oomerbhoy. You can actually download and play a demo of it right now on Steam.
Ginger Games, a studio from New Delhi, is creating a mobile game called Monkey Mayhem. It’s an exciting mix of action and adventure, set in a funny place called the “Monkey Universe.” You’ll play as a courageous monkey named Piklu trying to rescue his buddies in a crazy mission. The game is planned to be released in February 2026. The studio was founded in 2024 by Shrey Mishra, Sumit Batheja, and Piyush Kumar.
Unwind Games, a company in Hyderabad that makes games for phones (founded by Jayant Shukla and Khozema Abuwala), is creating a relaxed puzzle game called BaoBao’s Journey. The game is about a panda who is trying to build the mountain cabin of his dreams.
In the coming 6 to 12 months, these game creators will be guided by experienced professionals in the gaming world who can teach them about making games, designing them well, marketing them, and planning their business. They will also get financial support, somewhere between $50,000 and $150,000. On top of that, Krafton will share its own resources with them, like information on game data and what’s happening in the market.
According to Anuj Sahani, when they picked the first set of teams, they were really looking for specific things. However, for this second set, they’ve loosened up a bit because they realize that game development in India is still in its early stages. He also explained that they are willing to take a few more risks now by supporting brand new companies, including those started by recent graduates or people with not much experience.
He further mentioned that Krafton will offer more in-depth technical help to the teams in the next program. “We learned that this was a big problem for the first group, and we’re fixing it for the second one,” he said.
Sahani also noted that even though there are a lot of gaming companies, young people who want to make games and new small studios don’t have enough support to learn and grow by themselves.
To help game developers build and grow successful games worldwide, Krafton has teamed up with some important companies. AccelByte will give them the basics to build and run online games. Liftoff’s GameRefinery will provide information to help them make their mobile games really good. And AppMagic will give them insights into the mobile app market.
Also, Amazon’s online services, Amazon Web Services, will give each of these new companies $10,000 to use their cloud computing.
Krafton, the big gaming company from South Korea, first announced its special India program, KIGI, in October 2023. This program is only about helping people make video games. This is different from what Krafton has been doing in India lately, where they’ve been investing in all sorts of online entertainment and companies that help creators.
For their first group in the program, Krafton chose four new companies: ReDimension Games from Nagaland, Shura Games from Bengaluru, Dunali Games from Gurugram, and Arjuna Studios from Delhi.
The first group of companies is already showing progress. ReDimension Games, Shura Games, and Dunali Games have recently released early versions of their games to test them out. Arjuna Studios is expected to do the same with their game next month.
Krafton is doing all this because they want to become a bigger part of the gaming scene in India. They believe India has a lot of potential to become a major center for gaming worldwide.
Sean Hyunil Sohn, the head of Krafton India, said, “At Krafton India, we think the future of gaming will be full of different ideas and lots of creativity. Gaming isn’t just fun – it’s also a way for people to connect, express themselves, and influence culture.”
He also said, “By giving power to different voices and supporting new ideas with our second group, we’re helping to create a future where Indian game makers will be setting trends, telling new kinds of stories, and making gaming even more amazing.”
Krafton, the company that made the popular game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), promised in August 2023 to put $150 million into new Indian gaming and online entertainment companies over the next two to three years. This means they’ve now promised to invest a total of about $290 million in the Indian market, making them one of the biggest companies investing in India’s startup scene lately.
Krafton has also released several games in India in the past few years. Besides their main game BGMI, these include Bullet Echo India, CookieRun India, Garuda Saga, Road To Valor: Empires, and Defense Darby.
Just last month, Krafton bought more than 75% of Nautilus Mobile, a game-making company in Pune that’s famous for creating the Real Cricket mobile game series. They spent 118 crore rupees on this.
