이 기사는 2022년 05월 17일 08:01 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korean gaming firm Krafton will inject 11.5 billion won ($8.9 million) cash into Bluehole Studio, its wholly owned subsidiary, whose shareholders' equity turned negative last year due to the weak performance of the studio’s main game titles.

Bluehole Studio, which specializes in developing massive multiplayer online (MMO) games, raised 11.5 billion by issuing 230,000 new shares to its parent company at a price of 50,000 won per share, according to a regulatory filing on May 12.

The company’s accumulated deficit sharply increased last year to reach 25.5 billion won at the end of 2021, pushing down its shareholders’ equity into negative territory of minus 19.8 billion won.

This was primarily due to disappointing revenue from Bluehole Studio’s main game titles. As a result, the company made an operating loss of 25.2 billion won last year.

Bluehole Studio started publishing TERA, one of the game studio’s early hits, itself instead of Nexon in January last year. But the company announced the closure of the game last month following its poor performance. ELYON, another MMO game developed by the studio in 2020, also lost most of its players.

The capital increase will help improve Bluehole Studio’s financial position. But the 11.5 billion won cash remains short of wiping out the company’s accumulated deficit of 25.5 billion won.

Bluehole Studio is expected to focus on the non-fungible token (NFT) business, one of the two key pillars for Krafton’s future growth alongside Web 3.0 announced by the gaming firm earlier this year.

Krafton made equity investments in online art auction service Seoul Auction Blue and its subsidiary, XXBLUE, through Bluehole Studio in January, and signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate with them on NFT projects. XXBLUE owns and curates the intellectual properties of various digital content.

Bluehole Studio also intends to continue efforts to develop new games, an industry insider said. (Reporting by Won-ji Hwang)