South Korean gaming giant Krafton is strengthening its India-focused gaming incubator, Krafton India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), by offering deeper technical mentorship and better assistance to help developers grow and monetise their games, as it seeks to attract new game makers to the programme.
"Our major learning from the first and second cohort is that a lot of teams need support on technical understanding, know-how, and how to make optimised and polished games," Anuj Sahani, Head of Krafton India Incubator Program, told Moneycontrol.
"They also need guidance on understanding the market, how to monetise, knowing your competitors, and a deeper understanding of performance marketing to acquire users for these games," Sahani said.
KIGI journey so far
KIGI was first introduced in October 2023, focusing solely on supporting video game development in the country. The incubator provides developers with tailored mentorship from industry experts in game development, design, marketing, and business strategy over 6–12 months, along with financial assistance of up to $150,000 to help develop their games.
So far, the company has selected 10 studios from cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Madurai across two cohorts, and has now opened registrations for the third cohort, which is expected to be announced in April 2026.
"Our vision is to empower the next generation of Indian game developers and shape India into a global creative force. Through KIGI, we’re strengthening the local ecosystem and supporting studios that will define the future of gaming from India. We're committed to nurturing a thriving environment where innovation, talent, and ambition can flourish," said Krafton India CEO Sean Hyunil Sohn.
Sahani noted that all four teams, three mobile and one PC studio, from the first cohort have soft-launched their games, with ambitions to launch them globally later this year. Studios in the second cohort are also expected to soft-launch their games by early next year.
The incubator is part of Krafton’s plan to deepen its presence in India, aiming to capitalise on the country’s growing potential as a global gaming hub.
Krafton's new incubator partners
Krafton has roped in a range of partners to provide necessary tools for gaming studios to build, test, and scale competitive gaming experiences globally. These include AccelByte, a game backend platform that helps studios build, publish, and operate live service games; Liftoff's GameRefinery, a data-driven mobile game optimisation tool; Lysto, a startup offering an AI-powered playtesting workspace; and AppMagic, a mobile apps market intelligence solution provider.
Startups selected for the third cohort can also access resources from Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS), particularly the latest advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
"We encourage these studios to use AI a lot. They are typically a small team of around 6 to 10 members and can't hire a large number of resources to get the job done," Sahani said "If they use AI efficiently, it can speed up their work."
Sahani said that the company will also "double down on providing more market research and understanding of their competitors to gaming studios so that studios can scale up their games," Sahani said.
He added, "I normally see it in two parts. One is creating games, and the other is growing and marketing the game. It is a different challenge to understand live operations while keeping users engaged and bringing them back to the game again and again. Those are the things we are focusing on now so that developers can build better retention and more engagement in the game."
Govt's gaming push
This development comes as the Indian government seeks to promote game development in the country through various measures such the newly established Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and the recently introduced online gaming law.
In a recent interview with Moneycontrol, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the government plans to promote game-makers through IICT by providing "better technologies, better tools, and better access to tools."
Sahani called it an 'encouraging move' for young developers in India. "We see that, because of the support from the government, there is also a mindset change happening right now. People were skeptical about it earlier," he said.
"Once we have this college infrastructure in place, we will probably be able to get much better teams to incubate," Sahani said.
Krafton's India presence in a nutshell
Krafton, the maker of the popular battle royale title Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), pledged to invest $150 million in Indian gaming and interactive entertainment startups over the next two to three years in August 2023. This brings its total commitment to the Indian market to about $290 million, making it one of the most prolific strategic investors in the country in recent years.
In March, the company also acquired over 75 percent stake in Nautilus Mobile, a Pune-based game development studio best known for developing the Real Cricket mobile game franchise, for Rs 118 crore.
Krafton has also released several games in the India market in recent years. This includes Bullet Echo India, CookieRun India, Garuda Saga, Road To Valor: Empires, and Defense Darby, apart from the flagship title BGMI.
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