Krafton has decided to acquire a 10% stake in People Can Fly. The deal will also help the Polish developer finance its updated business strategy.
People Can Fly announced Krafton as its new minority shareholder on March 29. The company didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal, only saying that the Korean publisher will acquire 60% of newly issued series F shares at PLN 40.2 per share.
Earlier this week, People Can Fly decided to issue 5.85 million series F shares in a secondary public offering (SPO) to finance its new business strategy and the development of several games. Thus, Krafton will acquire 3.51 million shares for around PLN 141 million ($32.8 million) and own a 10% stake in the Outriders developer post-SPO.
“We announced our new strategy not only with a view to dynamizing the growth of People Can Fly, but also to attract partners to implement it,” PCF CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski said. “Conclusion of the investment agreement with KRAFTON, with whom we share our business ambitions and our shooter DNA, is excellent news for our studio and confirmation of the quality of the projects we are carrying out in the self-publishing model.”
The agreement with Krafton, concluded for the next 10 years, implies that if the Polish company decides to release two of its upcoming titles, Project Victoria and Project Bifrost, in a model rather than self-publishing, Krafton will have the right of the first negotiation of a publishing agreement.
The recently announced SPO should provide People Can Fly with the resources to increase the number of development teams and finance its own publishing business.
Under its updated strategy, People Can Fly decided to focus on the self-publishing model. It currently has four AAA games in pre-production, which are expected to launch between 2025 and 2026. In addition to Victoria and Bifrost, the list includes Project Dagger and Project Gemini. The latter will be published by Square Enix in 2026.
On top of that, the company plans to launch VR game Project Thunder, developed by its subsidiary Incuvo, later this year.