Krafton launches voluntary resignation program weeks after declaring its 'AI-first company' future

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In October, PUBG and Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton announced that it would be undergoing a "complete reorganization" to become an "AI-first" company, planning to invest over 130 billion won ($88 million) in agentic AI infrastructure and deployment beginning in 2026. This week, as it boasts record-breaking quarterly profits, the Korean publisher has followed that strategic shift by launching a voluntary resignation program for its domestic employees, according to Business Korea reporting (via Automaton).

The program, announced internally, offers substantial buyouts for domestic Krafton employees based on their length of employment at the publisher. Severance packages range from 6 months' salary for employees with one year or less of service to 36 months' salary for employees who've worked at Krafton for over 11 years.

The voluntary resignation program follows a November 4 earnings call in which Krafton announced a record quarterly profit of 1.052 trillion won ($717 million). During the call, Krafton CFO Bae Dong-geun indicated that Krafton had also halted hiring for new positions, telling investors that "excluding organizations developing original intellectual property and AI-related personnel, we have frozen hiring company-wide."

Given its hiring freeze, the voluntary resignation program, and its heavy AI investments in GPU clusters and "an AI-centered management system," it certainly seems like Krafton is betting on cutting labor costs by replacing human workers with AI work automation. A Krafton representative, however, told Business Korea that the resignation program isn't an attempt at workforce reduction, but an effort to "support members in autonomously deciding whether to continue the direction of change."

Whatever Krafton calls it, it remains unclear whether the games industry's recent gambling on AI automation is capable of paying off. Recent reports indicate that current AI tech—while being used as a justification for layoffs—is making developers miserable at major publishers like EA by creating more frustrations than productivity gains.

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Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.

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