Krafton steps up efforts to grow India's game industry, expanding incubation support for the first time

[Financial News] Krafton is stepping up efforts to establish India as a hub for discovering and developing globally competitive game intellectual property (IP). It is expanding the support offered by its local incubation program beyond early-stage developers for the first time, extending its support system from idea discovery to entry into global markets, including games that have already begun generating market feedback.
Krafton announced on the 22nd that it had begun accepting applications for the fourth cohort of the KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator (KIGI), a program designed to foster India's game development ecosystem.
KIGI was launched by Krafton in 2023 to invigorate India's game development ecosystem and nurture game companies with global competitiveness. Selected startups receive funding, mentoring from game industry experts and opportunities to connect with global platforms.
For the fourth cohort, KIGI will retain its focus on supporting early-stage teams and ideas while expanding eligibility for the first time to games that are already well into development. The goal is to support not only the discovery of early-stage developers but also the growth and global expansion of games approaching market entry.
For mobile games, eligible projects may include those that have entered the beta-testing or pilot-launch stage and shown promise in their early metrics. For PC games, the program will also support titles that have released demos on Steam and gauged user response through wish-list figures and awards.
Some games that went through KIGI are now entering the market. Participants in the first cohort completed development and successfully launched their games on a pilot basis. Singular Scheme, a participant in the second cohort, released the action tower-defense game 'Frontier Paladin' on Steam on April 24, marking the first PC game release by a KIGI participant. In the third cohort, which joined in April, four studios—including Jode Games Studio, Evolx Games, Ether and Red Devil Studio—are developing games.
Krafton emphasized that, alongside nurturing game developers, it is also focusing on securing local development talent. On the 1st, Krafton India launched KIGI Academy, an industry-academia cooperation program, with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
KIGI Academy is a six-month program that covers the full game-production process, including coding, game design, user interface and user experience (UI/UX), and art, with all tuition costs covered. Ten of the 30 students in the first cohort will also have the opportunity to gain two months of practical game-development experience at Krafton India. The program adapts the expertise of KRAFTON Jungle, Krafton's developer-training program in South Korea, to the conditions of India's game market.
Sean (Hyunil) Sohn, head of Krafton India, said, "Through support tailored to each stage of development, we will contribute to establishing India as a creative hub for the global game industry."


[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Reporter