Govt support can help India up its eGame: Krafton India CEO

India needs more aggressive government policies to compete globally in the gaming industry, said Krafton India chief executive Sean Hyunil Sohn.

“We welcome the recent initiatives for the industry announced in the budget,” he told ET on the sidelines of GAFX 2026, a three-day conference on animation, visual effects, gaming, comics (AVGC) and extended reality held in Bengaluru. “But to deliver the growth the industry expects, the government needs to go further with stronger policies and early-stage grants for upcoming players.”

"Government and public institutions in India have not been very supportive of the gaming industry in certain cases...you have to take certain risks, within reasonable limits, to create opportunities that might not otherwise exist," said Sohn.


South Korean video game firm Krafton is known for developing Battlegrounds Mobile India, which has more than 250 million downloads in the country. In the budget for 2026-27, the government announced the establishment of 15,000 AVGC content creator labs across schools and colleges, allocating Rs 250 crore for AVGC talent development during the fiscal.

“If India wants to catch up with the global top players, countries like the US, parts of Europe and maybe China, the government needs to be truly aggressive,” Sohn said. “That’s what we saw in Korea in the early 2000s during the rapid development of its gaming industry.”

His comments assume significance in the context of the government’s regulatory crackdown on the real-money gaming (RMG) segment. On the other hand, companies in the non-RMG segment, such as Krafton, are doubling down on their India bets. The company acquired a 75% stake in Pune-based game development studio Nautilus Mobile in March last year and has invested more than $200 million in India since 2021. Nautilus Mobile is the developer of the Real Cricket mobile game, which is one of the country’s most-played mobile games centred on the sport.

Krafton, along with Naver and Mirae Asset, is also setting up an India-focused fund targeting up to Rs 6,000 crore to back growth-stage technology companies across Asia, ET reported in December 2025.

Sohn further said user-generated content (UGC) is the next major growth driver for the industry. Platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox have significantly lowered the barrier to entry, making it easier than ever for independent creators to build and publish games, he said.

“As a teenager, you can create something on your own, put it on a platform and invite friends to play. That wasn’t possible before,” he said.

Several Indian studio teams have already launched games on Roblox and are generating meaningful revenue, he added, highlighting the scale of the opportunity ahead.

“Combining UGC platforms with AI (artificial intelligence) tools will improve accessibility for Indian developers who may have lacked the final 20% or 30% of quality needed to build a commercially successful game,” Sohn said. “These platforms and tools enable them to reach a larger global audience and test their ability to create something truly great.”