PUBG publisher Krafton has shared a pretty unusual workplace statistic: its employee birth numbers have doubled after the company rolled out a much stronger childbirth and childcare support programme.
Back in February 2025, Krafton introduced an enhanced support package for employees who welcomed newborns from January 1, 2025 onwards. The headline-grabbing part was huge — 100 million won, roughly USD $60,000, given over each child’s lifetime.
Now, the company says the numbers have moved. From January 2025 to April 2026, Krafton recorded 46 employee births. That is exactly double the 23 births reported during the same period a year earlier, and also more than double the 21 births from the year before that.
The programme was created in response to South Korea’s ongoing low birth rate issue, which has become a major national concern. But what makes this interesting for the gaming industry is how direct Krafton’s approach was: instead of only talking about “work-life balance” in a HR brochure, the company actually changed benefits, schedules and support systems around parenting.
According to research Krafton conducted with Seoul National University’s Center for Population Policy Research, the cash support was not necessarily the main thing that convinced employees to have children. Instead, the study found that money-based benefits helped communicate that the company was serious about supporting families and responding to the country’s demographic problem.
The bigger shift came from non-cash measures. Krafton introduced telework options for parents caring for children, extended parental leave up to a maximum of two years, added leave for prenatal checkups during pregnancy, automatically hired substitute staff, and provided psychological counselling for employees returning after becoming parents.
That part matters because, realistically, RM-equivalent cash bonuses are nice, but they don’t solve the daily grind of raising a child while trying to survive a demanding tech or games job. If your workload still punishes you for taking leave, or your team silently suffers because nobody replaces you, then the benefit becomes more marketing than real support.
For Malaysia and SEA readers, this is worth watching because our gaming and tech industries are also trying to mature. Studios, esports organisations, publishers and creative teams here often run on passion, long hours and “just tahan first” culture. That can work when everyone is young and single, but it becomes a real retention problem once people start families.
Krafton’s case suggests that companies wanting to keep experienced talent may need to think beyond salary. Flexible work, proper parental leave, actual coverage for staff who go on leave, and mental health support can make a big difference — especially in industries where burnout is already common.
Of course, Krafton is a major company with resources many smaller SEA studios do not have. Not every local developer can suddenly offer a USD $60,000 newborn incentive. But the lesson is not just “throw money at the problem.” The more practical takeaway is that parenting support needs to be built into the work system itself, not treated as a one-off perk.
For a company best known globally through PUBG, this is a different kind of headline. No patch notes, no esports trophy, no new acquisition — just a very real look at how a gaming giant is trying to make its workplace more liveable for employees who want families.
Source: Automaton Media