Battlegrounds Mobile India latest update: Krafton partners with Castlevania producer Adi Shankar to create PUBG animated project

 

The partnership with Adi Shankar represents a step into our broader strategy of expanding the PUBG universe into a multimedia franchise, said CH Kim, chief executive, Krafton Inc. in a statement.

• South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc on Wednesday announced that it has signed Netflix animated series Castlevania producer Adi Shankar to create and showrun an upcoming animated project based on the popular gaming PUBG franchise.

  South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc. on Wednesday announced that it has signed Netflix animated series Castlevania producer Adi Shankar to create and showrun an upcoming animated project based on the popular gaming PUBG franchise. In India, the company recently launched an upgraded and localised version of PUBG Mobile called Battlegrounds Mobile India after the original game was banned by the Indian government. PUBG Mobile, though developed by Krafton, was distributed and run by Chinese Tencent Gaming in India, which is how it landed on the list of apps the Indian government banned over the past year.

The details of the new animated project have not been divulged yet.

"In addition to the continued development of new and engaging in-game PUBG content, our partnership with Adi Shankar represents a step into our broader strategy of expanding the PUBG universe into a multimedia franchise," said CH Kim, chief executive, Krafton Inc. in a statement.

Shankar is an Indian-born American film producer who is best known for Netfl ix original animated series Castlevania which ended its fourth and final season in May. He has also done films such as The Grey with Liam Neeson, Killing Them Softly with Brad Pitt, superhero hit Dredd with Karl Urban, The Voices with Ryan Reynolds, and Lone Survivor with Mark Wahlberg. Along with his traditional work, Shankar is also known for creating the Andy Warhol inspired award winning unauthorized video street art series, The Bootleg Universe, where he reimagines and subverts pop culture iconography.

“As a player, I've been crushing the competition in the Battlegrounds since PUBG released in 2017. To me, this animated project represents another step in the evolution of mending the torched bridge between the games industry and Hollywood," Adi Shankar said in a statement.

This project is a step towards Krafton's larger plan to turn its original IP into larger multimedia franchises. In addition to Shankar’s announced animated project, the PUBG Universe has expanded with the recent releases of its first live-action short film, “Ground Zero," starring Train to Busan fame actor Don Lee and its investigative docuseries starring Star Trek fame actor Jonathan Frakes called Mysteries Unknown: Birth of the Battlegrounds.

Other company investments include Hidden Sequence, a Korean drama production company, and the announcement of Project Windless, which Krafton plans to develop into a game and larger multimedia franchise based on the Korean fantasy novel, “The Bird That Drinks Tears."

The company claimed that with more than 55 million gamers playing daily across all platforms, the PUBG franchise has sold over 70 million copies on PC and console and received over 1 billion downloads on mobile.