(image: Bluehole Studio)
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Bluehole Studio Inc. revealed its plans on Monday to distribute bonuses to the developers of the hugely popular online game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG for short), developed by its subsidiary PUBG Corporation.
According to Bluehole, the company will pay out up to 5 billion won per employee in incentives.
Bluehole described the bonuses as rewards for the game’s success, which elevated the reputation of the Korean gaming industry.
Around 20 employees that have been with the project from the beginning will receive bonuses ranging from 1 billion won to 5 billion won. Those who joined the project after the game’s release last year will be given bonuses that total 30 million won on average.
The total sum of the bonuses awarded to over 300 employees is estimated to be in the tens of billions of won.
A Bluehole representative said that the bonuses “had always been part of the plan from the beginning stages” and that the details of the bonuses were decided by Kim Chang-han, the CEO of PUBG Corporation.
After PUBG’s worldwide release on March 24 last year via “Steam Early Access,” an American platform for PC online gaming, the game broke records due to its immense global popularity.
Sales on the Steam platform have totaled over 40 million copies and even its console version released last December has raked in sales exceeding 4 million copies.
According to Bluehole, its sales for 2017 stood at 666.5 billion won, up from 51.4 billion won a year before. During the same period, Bluehole posted operating profits of 251.7 billion won.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
