Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. We would like to begin Q4 2022 earnings conference call. We will begin with a presentation by KRAFTON, and then we will begin the Q&A session. Please, if you have any questions, press star and then one to submit your questions. For that, I would like to turn it over to KRAFTON.
Good afternoon. I'm Claire Lee from KRAFTON's IR team. We're grateful to analysts and investors, both domestic and overseas, for joining our Q4 and full year 2022 earnings conference call. With me today are KRAFTON's CEO, CH Kim, and CFO, Dongkeun Bae. Please also note that today's earnings presentation is K-IFRS consolidated estimates. As such, business and financial informations are subject to change following the independent auditor's review.
For that, I would invite our CEO to run through 2023 business strategy, after which CFO Dongkeun Bae will present on business and financial highlights. I extend my gratitude to investors and analysts from both home and abroad for joining KRAFTON's annual earnings conference call.
I am CH Kim, the CEO of KRAFTON. Today is a second annual conference call since the listing of the company. In 2022, KRAFTON explored new domain to expand our business and release games of new genre and platform. Although the outcome of these challenges fell short of market expectations, it left behind core values for KRAFTON. In the case of PUBG PC and console, it solidified its positioning as free-to-play service, laying the basis for sustainable growth through exploring new monetized content which is user-friendly. For the mobile platform, we produced and globally serviced high-quality open world shooting games.
Fast update cycle was well managed, building upon production capabilities and securing servicing experiences. By developing AAA console games that have high entry barrier and by taking on the global challenge, we try to expand our production capabilities to the console market, which allowed us to internalize capabilities behind AAA console game development and global publishing. In 2022, we laid the foundation for sustainable PUBG IP, and to broaden the scope of games which we make and publish, we attempted to expand into mobile and the console segment, during which we will be able to build on our strength and know-how as we take new titles and go beyond the platform and the genre and minimize opportunity costs and the implementation risk. PUBG IP is the core business of KRAFTON and a fertile soil for KRAFTON's sustainable growth.
Underpinned by free-to-play and monetization efficiencies of year 2022, we will continue to display a trend toward growth this year. Like the other IPs that showed growth for more than a decade, we will grow PUBG IP to one whose traffic and revenue continues on an uptrend. Through continuous content updates, the game will always have a fresh feel to it, enticing people to want to come back and attracting new burgeoning users experiencing such game for the first time with an up-to-date appeal. KRAFTON is a global company and is by far not a small company at all. Aside from PUBG, there are nine studios globally working on many game titles, and our philosophy had been to give creative studios their own autonomy in production until now. To live up to customer expectations, we decided to strengthen KRAFTON's HQ's production management role.
This does not alter our belief that new creatives cannot be born at the instruction of the head office. New creatives can only be born from the aspiration of creators. It's just that HQ will take on the role of managing expectations, as those of the creators and the customers may differ. For every step along the milestone, we will put forth appropriate tests and validation methods and manage based on two pillars, which are game ability and level of completeness of the game, to develop games that satisfy the expectations that customers have of KRAFTON. To date, KRAFTON only published in-house developed games, and we have many years of live servicing experience globally, taking KRAFTON PUBG PC and console, and on the mobile platform have done global servicing with scale. We've also carried out publishing for console, which is a different type of publishing.
By realigning such experience and organizational capabilities, we plan to expand into second-party publishing, where we will publish games that we invest in. We will be making equity investment into early-stage studios who have great potential but in need of resources and capabilities. By proving and providing support in the production stage and through global publishing, we will maximize the potential driving synergies for both. This will allow KRAFTON to use its capital efficiently, discover more game IPs, and give entertainment to more number of customers to come. Number of titles in the pipeline is also growing as we speak. There are four titles under second-party publishing, and as we expand on second-party publishing this year, that number subject to second-party publishing will rise further.
Let me briefly introduce major titles under production at KRAFTON and its studios. Project Black Budget is an open world extraction shooter game developed by the core members from the PUBG Studios who created PUBG itself. It took gunplay of PUBG a step further upgrading and offering new and non-repetitive experience through exploration, looting, player versus PVE against changing open world backdrop with a view towards bringing extraction shooter genre to mass popularity. Project Gold Rush is a joint project between Czech and the Korean team, and is an action adventure sandbox game. It's a combination of trendy and interesting elements of action, adventure, and sandbox, offering familiar yet new experience via play controls of hyper movement and hyper shooting, and the objective is to make it a game for seasonal updates.
Subnautica is a major IP of Unknown Worlds beloved by many, and many fans are waiting for the upcoming title. Next version of Subnautica will bring broader scope of content, high quality powered by next generation engine, and an element of extended experience to meet the expectations of the existing fans while broadening the user base itself. The Bird That Drinks Tears is Korea's fantasy novel with well-knit universe and storyline. To make it into a content that can appeal also to global customers, we put in a lot of time and effort to develop the visual bible, which was published last year as an art book, which ranked number one in weekly best seller list.
To make this into a game, we put in quite a bit of effort to have on board, experienced production talent with leadership qualities, and have engaged Patrick Méthé, who has many years of experience in building successful open world-based games, and decided to set up a studio in Montreal. We have, at this point, 10 key people hired, and with the art team in Korea who developed the visual bible, we will make the key elements required for the first title of this IP that can scale for over a decade. These four major titles in the pipeline has their unique market positioning in the game genre and offers new gameplay against the global audience. I'm certain that this is well in line with KRAFTON's direction towards having a strong global IP.
During 2022, at KRAFTON, we also tapped into non-game domains in order to expand our business. This year, we will embark on a challenge in two of such domains, first of which is deep learning. KRAFTON has been focused on technology development around the generative domain, where game production can hinge on, including audio, vision, and conversational. We are proud to say that when it comes to TTS, we are the top player in emotional expression and are taking the in-house developed deep learning modules and making them into a plug-in engine to be used out of box for game production. Already in 2020, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion were all rolled out and are in use. Recently, the world has been pleasantly surprised at the usability of ChatGPT. Deep learning is no longer at a demo or test lab stage.
AI transformation has truly begun and will change our life and work as we know it. KRAFTON's deep learning division is speeding up tech development to further enhance production efficiencies in addition to developing generative technologies. We are also focused on exploring new game ability that can be created with the use of deep learning. We are first making virtual game friend by fine-tuning and creating connection to technologies that are already developed. Virtual game friend is an AI that you can play the game together with as it visually recognizes user's game screen and chat in natural language. Second is an open world UGC game platform. It's a virtual 3D space where users can enjoy game content they developed and engage in various community activities. This platform targets Gen Z who are more open to interaction in the virtual space.
The platform will provide a space for various activities, provide nonstop content generated by users, and allow for create to earn through the creators' ecosystem. Open World UGC game platform has great business potential and is where KRAFTON's game production and platform development tech can be used, and is a good fit with the trend of the so-called creator ecosystem. Once AI becomes more widespread, it will become easy for a small group of developers or even a single person to develop high quality games, and this platform will be a place for creators to meet users and benefit from monetization. We carry out development for the last year and plan to test in the first half, make enhancements, and release before the end of the year.
Because there are non-game elements to the service, the business will operate as a subsidiary, a joint venture with a company that has successful track record globally, which will be beneficial domestically. Amid global uncertainties, in year 2023, KRAFTON will continue to grow our strong IP, namely PUBG, and will add on new strong IPs on top of this foundation. We will also upgrade production capabilities and enhance game ability and the level of completeness of each of the titles and bolster our publishing capacity to live up to expectations of the market and the customers. Aside from own games, we will unearth precious stones through second party publishing. We will also work on deep learning tech developed so far and make it into one that actually can be used in game development.
We will make future-proof investments into the UGC game platform so that it may grow into a business domain with great potential. Thank you. This ends KRAFTON's 23 strategies. We will now go through Q4 and 2022 full year annual financial performance.
Hello. I'm CFO Dongkeun Bae. Following our CEO's highlight on the strategies, I will now walk through the financial performance of the company. Last year, after free-to-play conversion for PUBG PC and console, new user count reached 45 million, a rise by a large margin. Following the expansion of the global user base, newly featured and user-friendly content, such as the seasonal Workshop, it was met with great positive reactions, setting up a strong feedback loop for live services.
As a result, PUBG PC in 2022 was one of the top grossing 11 platinum games on the Steam platform, solidifying its global top game position. Year 2022 was KRAFTON's first year of challenging the global console market. To date, focusing on PUBG, KRAFTON has elevated its concurrent servicing capabilities for PC and console, and with the rollout of Striking Distance Studios TCP, we embarked on a new challenge in publishing beyond just game development. Thanks to such effort, annual combined sales mix of PC and console together increased to 31% in 2022. At KRAFTON, we are also making preemptive investments into future technologies, speeding up R&D efforts. We see biggest outcome from AI and deep learning as we are running around 4 deep learning R&D projects as we speak.
AI deep learning will broaden its field of application, driving scalability of existing games and enhance and strengthen our capabilities in discovering, developing, and servicing new lineup of titles. KRAFTON's unrelenting challenge ended up bringing robust financial results despite uncertainties both internal and external. 2022 consolidated revenue was flat year-over-year, with overseas revenue share accounting for 94% of annual sales. Consolidated operating profit was also up 15% YOY, with adjusted EBITDA at 43%, sustaining high profitability. Next, I will elaborate in more detail and look at Q4 and full year results. KRAFTON's FY 2022 consolidated revenue was KRW 1,854 billion. Q4 consolidated revenue was up 9% QoQ and 7% YOY, reporting KRW 473.8 billion.
Q4 consolidated revenue for PC games was KRW 139.1 billion, up 6% QoQ and 22% YOY, reaching KRW 465 billion for the full year, growing by 17% year-over-year. Looking at PUBG PC, we focused on stabilizing large scale traffic on the back of F2P and finding monetized content to satisfy non-paying up to high-paying users. In 2023, in terms of services, we will continue to strengthen core gameplay and focus on offering content that is a good fit to user preference and user play and provide a healthy gameplay environment. In terms of monetization, we will be more aggressive in trying out sophisticated BMs.
In the case of Guardian's Progressive Skin first showcased mid-January, it was a large scale promotion which took a step further from previous progressive weapon scheme skin and was met with great enthusiasm, attesting to its potential as a best case of promotion for monetization. Mobile games Q4 consolidated revenue was down 10% QoQ and 16% year-over-year, reporting KRW 254.7 billion, while annual revenue was KRW 1,252.8 billion, down 12% year-over-year. During 2022, PUBG MOBILE continued to strengthen user loyalty through new mode updates, rollout of fast-paced, small scale maps, and expanded collaboration with many brands to broaden our paying user base. Currently, global reopening is having an effect on the mobile market growth and game user count.
Supported by PUBG MOBILE's many years of live servicing competitiveness, we've been able to successfully defend key measures, keeping our top position as a mobile battle royale title. In Q4, as school season begins in some key markets and due to slow seasonality, and since there were major sporting events like the World Cup, which impact time spent on games, we saw a drop in revenue. Suspension of BGMI in India in July also was a drag on mobile top line growth. The console games Q4 consolidated revenue, it was up 478% on quarter and 912% on year, reporting KRW 67.7 billion, with annual revenue up 430% on year, reporting KRW 104.1 billion, supporting KRAFTON's overall top line growth.
Q4 console game was supported by steady growth from existing titles of PUBG and Subnautica, on top of which Callisto Protocol release drove growth by a large margin. Q4 combined revenue of PC and console was 44% of total revenue, while annual revenue accounting for 31% of total revenue mix. With the start of Callisto Protocol release, we're developing PC and console titles concurrently from many different genre inside the KRAFTON ecosystem, we expect bigger contributions going forward from console games. Next, I will run through consolidated operating expense and operating profit.
Labor cost in Q4 was KRW 63.4 billion, which is down KRW 35.5 billion and Q on Q and KRW 29.1 billion year-over-year, which is due to a one-off reversal in Q4 relating to other provisions previously booked for bonuses on a conservative basis. In terms of app fees and COGS line item on Callisto Protocol release last December, expense were up KRW 9.9 billion Q on Q to KRW 57.7 billion. It was flat year-over-year because India's BGMI service was suspended in India last July. For Q4 commissions paid, including esports investment and production of in-house creative content and outsourcing costs for game development and server cost, and with the hosting of PUBG Global Championship in Q4, it was up KRW 17.5 billion Q on Q.
On year-over-year basis, lower cloud server related costs, it was down KRW 15.4 billion, reporting KRW 102.7 billion, driven by higher levels of marketing activities for The Callisto Protocol. A&P expense was up KRW 61.5 billion quarter-over-quarter and KRW 34.8 billion year-over-year, reporting KRW 81.2 billion. SBC was down KRW 17.5 billion quarter-over-quarter to minus KRW 9.7 billion, while on a year-over-year basis on one-off accounting expense relating to gift of shares to the majority shareholders during Q4 of previous year. Such base effect drove stock-based compensation down KRW 68.7 billion.
All in all, Q4 operating profit was down 13% QoQ, but up 179% year-over-year to KRW 126.2 billion, while FY 2022 annual operating profit was up 16% year-over-year to KRW 751.6 billion, with OP margin of 41%. Q4 adjusted EBITDA reflecting SBC was down 8% QoQ and up 31% year-over-year, reporting KRW 160.3 billion. FY 2022 adjusted net EBITDA impacted by SBC reversals was down 10% year-over-year at KRW 792.7 billion. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 43%. Looking at non-operating profit due to FX fluctuations leading to FX related losses, there was impairment from intangible asset, from previously invested assets, and losses from disposition of financial assets and valuation thereof.
Q4 non-operating loss was KRW 349.1 billion, while annual non-operating loss reported KRW 67.7 billion. Q4 consolidated net loss was KRW 165.4 billion and KRW 500.2 billion was recorded for FY 2022. This ends the part on Q4 and annual financial performance. is on KRAFTON's shareholder return policy for the upcoming three years. going public in 2021 as a listed company, we took an in-depth review at different ways to enhance shareholder value. During March AGM, we decided to set off losses with a view towards securing distributable income and ran close analysis around different practices of shareholder return and also received feedback from many investors, based on which we came up with a mid to long term shareholder return policy.
Shareholder return policy of the company to be in effect for three years is not about short term measure to drive up share prices, but all about taking large amount from free cash flow net of investment to use for shareholder return, with a strong focus on enhancing trust of the market and shareholders. Accordingly, we plan to acquire treasury shares within 40% limit against previous year's free cash flow net of investment. In 2023, the first year of the program, we will cancel 100%, after which we plan to cancel at minimum 60% of treasury shares acquired. KRAFTON will continue to have faith in games as the strongest media and continue on with relentless challenge to develop creatives which are truly original.
On top of growth in size and quality through pipeline of new titles and investment-based business growth, we will bring as much growth as possible. I share my sincerest gratitude to everyone at KRAFTON and the creative studios who are dedicated with great passion. I also thank all the analysts and investors for your support. This brings us to the end of the presentation. We will have a Q&A session. I would like to ask that you ask no more than two questions per person.
Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, star and one if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone. The first question will be provided by John Yoo from Citi Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Language]
Thank you. I am Yu Ying Cho from Citi Securities. Thank you for taking my question. I would like to ask two questions. First relates to your 2023 new title pipeline. I see that on the slide there are six titles from Creative Studios while one is under publishing. Can you provide a little more detailed color as to each of these titles under pipeline? Out of these game titles, for instance, what, you know, which title are you most heavily expecting in terms of its outcome and trip any AAA titles that is currently under pipeline?
Also for these individual games, can you also provide color as to timing of the release, for instance, in which quarter or at least either you're planning to release this either in the first half or the second half?
[Foreign Language]
Yes. This is the CEO. Responding to your question about any large-scale AAA type of a title. I think before answering that question, it's important to define as to what that AAA is. It's actually a game title that would accompany significant amount of cost and investment with regard if one is to define it that way, at this point. Also, we do not believe that it's not necessarily always the case where a big amount of investment is going to bring about the better performance.
The games that we are preparing in terms of these large scale AAA type of games, we will see the releases starting from next year. Most of the games that you see on the slide, slated for release this year, including the mobile games and one of the game titles under publishing. Those were out, will be the type of games that we would introduce. With regards to specific timing, please understand that I won't, at this point, be able to share with you the specific date. Regarding that one title that is, that is scheduled to be published, you know, scheduled to be published this year. Basically, starting this year, we're going to really focus on further enhancing our publishing capabilities, and we will be able to showcase ourselves as a publisher that is competitive.
In terms of strengthening our publishing capabilities, it's all about how fast we could prepare more number of games and make sure that, you know, they are introduced and they are introduced to the field. How do we actually position the batting sequence, if I were to use the baseball analogy. Also what would be the order in which we will introduce these game titles into the market. From a methodological perspective, those strategies are important. Those are the aspects that we will strengthen internally. In terms of the publishing deals that we have for today, for this year, we won't be able to share with you any specific date as of today, but we will do our best to make sure that we actually showcase the initial one within the year.
The following question will be presented by Jaemin An from NH Investment and Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Language]
Thank you for taking my question. My name is An Jaemin from NH Securities. My question relates to AI. Recently, we've seen a lot of interest around ChatGPT, and would like to understand as to what the company's plans are in applying the deep learning that you develop for yourselves in applying that to your game development. What are your commercialization plans, if you have any, and what will be your competitive edge in this AI domain?
AI deep learning 관련해서 말씀드리면 지금 나오고 있는 ChatGPT나 이런 걸 사람들이 많이 관심이 있을 텐데, 그런 AI 모델들을 저희가 볼 때는 굉장히 large-scale의 foundation model이라고 부르고 있고요. Foundation model들이 실제로 여러 분야에서 활용될 수 있는 tipping point가 넘어섰다고 보고 있는데, 이 foundation model 자체를 개발하는 경쟁에 저희가 뛰어드는 것은 아닙니다. 참고로 말씀드리면. 왜냐하면 foundation model이라는 것은 엄청나게 많은 자본과 그런 것이 필요하기 때문에 그 경쟁을 통해서 우리가 굉장히 큰 Big Tech company가 된다는 것은 아니고. 다만 그 foundation model이라는 것은 하나의 모델이 모든 영역에 다 적용되는 것은 아니고, 그것들을 각자의 domain에 맞게 fine-tuning 해서 쓸 수 있게 되는 시기가 오고 있는 거고요. 저희는 게임 업계, 게임 제작에 맞는 각 제작 단계, 예를 들면 컨셉을 만들거나, 스토리를 만들거나, 3D model을 만들거나, 또는 프로그램을 기획에 따른 프로그램을 만들거나, 이런 제작 단계에서 AI adaptation을 빠르게 할 수 있는 기반을 지금 하고 있는 게 첫 번째입니다.
두 번째는 게임 자체에, 이제, 기존에 우리가 하던 게임 자체에 들어가는 TTS라든지, 대화라든지, 그다음에 애니메이션이라든지, 게임 플레이하는 인공지능이라든지, 이런 것들을 이미 몇 년 전부터 개발하여 오고 있었고, 그 domain에 specific한 그 기술들을 가지고 일차적으로는 자체 게임에, 이제, 적용하는 것을 하고 있고요. 이것이 상용화될 수 있느냐라는 것은 아직은 좀 말씀드리기 이른데 과거에 보면은 자체 제작을 위해서 만든 툴이 결국엔 범용성을 획득하면서 상용화된 케이스들이 있습니다. 예를 들면 Slack 같은 경우가 게임 회사에서 사내 커뮤니케이션 도구로 시작해서 테크 업계에서, 이제, 범용적인 도구가 된 케이스들이 있는데, 우리가 먼저 이 게임 제작에 빠르게 도입한다면 그것이 범용성을 획득할 가능성에 대해서는 열어두고 있다고 말씀드리고 싶습니다.
Yes. Regarding your question on AI and deep learning, yes, there's been quite a bit of interest building around ChatGPT. If you look at AI model, I believe that we have now reached a tipping point where these large scale foundational models can be used and adopted for many different applications. Just want to, however, make sure that the space that we are competing is not building that foundation model of AI, because that is something that requires significant amount of capital and it is something that the big techs do and you know, we do not have intention to compete in that space. The space that we are in is that based on those foundational models, you go through different fine-tuning to make sure that it is applied appropriately to different domain.
For us, the vision, the plans that we have is that if you look at the game production stages, starting from concept development to developing stories and coming up with 3D models, to programming, we will be bringing that AI and adapting that very quickly to that game production cycle. That is what we are looking to do. Already, if you look at these different elements of the game, for instance, TTS, conversations or chat that happen within the gameplay, animations or AI driven, gameplay characters, all of those elements are already under development. These are domain specific technologies that we will be able to develop and apply to our overall game production.
With regards to whether there is a possibility of commercialization of taking such technologies and taking, there are other cases that we can learn from in the past where such tool was developed and then it then became very universal. A good case in point is Slack. It was initially de-developed for in-house communication purposes, but which at the end of the day became a universal technology that a lot of people used. We believe that if we can very quickly develop these AI aspects or AI-powered elements, we believe that we will be open to the possibility of universal adoption.
유저 관점에서 조금 제가 이제 뭐 부연 설명드려보면 결국 이제 KRAFTON이 생각하고 있는 것은, 이런 이 AI deep learning 기술을 적용해서 결국은 이제 전통적으로 게임하는 게임 플레이의 공식을 깨는 게임성을 발굴한다라는 측면이 하나가 있고요. 그다음에 이제 유저가 혼자 이제 게임을 하더라도 실제 버추얼 친구랑 이제 같이 있게 느낄 수 있는 그런 것들인데, PUBG에서 이거를 당장 뭐 도입한다 이런 뜻은 아니고, 그냥 예시적으로 말씀드려보면 저희가 이제 PUBG 플레이할 때 squad로 해서 이제 4명의 플레이어가 이제 플레이를 하죠.
저희가 지금 연구하고 있는, TTS나 chatbot이나 이런 이제 게임 AI, 이런 부분들이 이제 적용이 되면 사실 이제 혼자 플레이하지만 마치 이제 3명의 친구와 같이 플레이하는 것처럼, 진짜 이렇게 브리핑해 가면서 이제 플레이할 수 있는 환경이 될 수도 있기 때문에 저희가 어쨌든 구현하고자 하는 바는 결국 이제 버추얼 친구로서 작동할 수 있는 그런 기술적인 뭐 버추얼 인물을 구현하는 이런 것까지 생각하고 있습니다.
Just to add a couple more points from the user's perspective. Some of the plans that we are envisioning at KRAFTON is to bring AI and deep learning and try to come up with a breakthrough way to really impact the very conventional and traditional gameplay that we are used to. We are at this point also thinking about and have developed a virtual AI friend. It provides a new type of an entertainment and fun as if you are playing with your own game. It's not that we will be applying this immediately to PUBG, but just for illustrative purposes, if you're playing PUBG, one squad is made up of four players.
Once we are able to apply these technologies like TTS, chatbots, and game AI, which we are currently researching and studying into, even if the player is playing by himself, that person will feel like that he's playing with three other friends. Those would be the type of gameplay that we would eventually want to implement in applying this virtual AI friend.
[Foreign Language]
We will take the next question, please.
[Foreign Language]
The following question will be presented by Dong Hwan Oh from Samsung Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Laguage]
Thank you. I would like to ask three questions. First, can you provide the this year's guidance? Second, based on that guidance, can you also provide as to what the labor cost a new hire picture would look like going forward? Third, The Callisto Protocol, would like to get some color as to what the sales and revenue numbers were. I would presume that the additional sales that you were able to generate from North America in Q4 mostly would have come from The Callisto Protocol. Would like to get a confirmation as to whether that actually is the case, and also what is the revenue trend like for The Callisto Protocol for Q1?
[Foreign Language]
Yeah, you asked about the earnings guidance for 2023, and I take it that you would like to get some color as to the overall guidance. If you look at 2023, our core objective is to grow both our revenue and operating profit underpinned by our core business of PUBG IP. As our CEO mentioned during the presentation, we have a new lineup of new title lineup for the upcoming three years. Basically, for if you look at 2023, first thing looking at PUBG PC and console, we are continuing to see significant rise in the number of user base after the transition to free-to-play, and we've been making a lot of preparations in different aspects regarding monetization.
It was an year for us to make various different preparations, in year 2023, we will be making further efforts and advancing those efforts so that we can further enhance the revenue efficiencies. Looking at the mobile side, due to global recession and also the impact coming from reopening, and overall depressed economic backdrop, as well as the fact that the services were suspended for BGMI, India. Year 2022 was a very difficult operational year for us. Year 2023, we believe that the regional uncertainties will start to mitigate and the uncertainties related to regulation will also start to mitigate. We've been putting in a lot of effort to resume services of BGMI as well.
On the mobile side, for 2023, I do not believe that we need to be all that, I guess, negative. I understand that the market has taken a point with the fact that there are no large scale AAA new titles that are slated to be introduced in 2023, and in terms of any titles that we are truly looking forward to. I understand that there's a question relating to whether the PUBG IP can really bring sustainable growth into the future. The executive team at the company is fully aware of that concern.
I believe that starting 2024, you need not worry about those points, because if you look at, for instance, PUBG PC, as we went through the Lunar New Year holidays, there was a Guardians Progressive Skin launch dated January 18th, and since that release, PUBG PC had recorded a record high daily revenue. PUBG IP-based growth is something that is actually taking place. It is not just a forward loan, you know, just far away, dream or pipe dream, we are putting in a lot of effort to materialize on the strength of PUBG IP. In terms of the question relating to your cost, you specifically asked about labor cost, in 2023, we are going to be very conservative in increasing our headcount in terms of hiring.
Labor cost for 2022, compared to 2022, labor cost is either going to be flat or a very marginal increase. As you would know, in 2019 and 2020, there was a significant increase as we went out to hiring significant headcount, we have taken on a position where we will be more conservative in hiring going forward. In terms of the main element of the fixed cost in doing our business, it's commissions paid, as you would know, that commissions paid is comprised of server cost, engine cost, and esports and game production outsourcing related costs. We expect commissions paid would be more or less flat on a year-over-year basis. In year 2022, there was a significant rise in marketing costs because of TCP and Unknown Worlds Moonbreaker early access.
In 2023, we expect marketing costs to also decline quite significantly. Going forward, once again, we will focus on growing our business as supported by the PUBG core IP and at the same time achieve cost efficiencies, which will help us achieve both a top line and operating profit growth.
TCP 관련해, 그러니까 Callisto Protocol 관련해서 이제 판매량 이렇게 질문을 주셨는데, 지금까지의 판매량은 일단 시장에서 생각하시는 것과 유사, 약간 상회하는 정도의 수준이고요. 저희가 이제 1월 중순에 New Game Plus를 선보이면서 가격 프로모션을 했는데 어쨌든 콘솔량 매출이 그 기간 동안 좀 증가하는 모습을 보였었습니다. 저희가 또 오늘 이제 처음으로, 첫 DLC, Callisto Protocol DLC를 출시를 하고 또 여름까지 다양한 모드와 스토리 DLC 등 새로운 콘텐츠가 출시될 예정이기 때문에 Callisto Protocol이 어쨌든 그 DLC 출시까지 해서 여름까지 저희 이제 매출에 기여할 것으로 생각합니다.
Regarding your question about TCP. As of today, the amount of sales volume that we are reporting is on par with market expectation or maybe slightly marginally higher. In mid-January, we ran a price promotion which had an impact on driving up our console revenue. As of today, there was also a release of DLC, downloadable content. Up to the summertime, we will be continuing on with various different mode and story-based DLCs. There will be slew of new content that will be introduced up until the summertime, and we believe that that will have some impact and contribution to our top line revenue.
그리고 뭐 보직에 따라서는 Callisto Protocol의 Q4 매출에 대한 기여도를 뭐 의미 있게 보실 수도 있고, 또 기대 이하라고 생각할 수도 있는데, 저희는 어쨌든 PUBG 이후에 글로벌 콘솔 시장에서 저희 KRAFTON이 시도한 첫 번째 도전이었고, 뭐 결과적으로 이제 매출에 기여한 부분이 있다는 부분에 대해서는 뭐 긍정적으로 생각은 하고요. Striking Distance Studios 자체가 어쨌든 신생 스튜디오로서 첫 도전을 한 것이고, 또 이제 Callisto Protocol 출시를 통해서 저희가 축적한 경험, 노하우, 기술력, 이런 부분들을 이제 KRAFTON 그리고 이제 KRAFTON 내 여러 스튜디오에 내재화하고 이식화할 계획을 가지고 있습니다. 출시하면서 저희가 이제 배우게 된 레슨들을 통해서 앞으로 이제 게임 퀄리티를 한 단계 더 높이기 위한 체제도 마련할 계획이고, 결국 이제 저희가 준비하고 있는 여러 신작의 성공 가능성을 더 높이는 데 집중할 생각입니다.
I understand that in terms of the contribution that The Callisto Protocol has made to our Q4 revenue, some say that it was below expectations. But please be reminded of the fact that this was after PUBG, this was, we, you know, we view this from a very positive perspective as it was the first attempt at releasing a console, global console game following our original attempt at PUBG. Also, as Striking Distance Studios is a newly set up studio based in North America, and it was their first challenge. In the process of developing and releasing TCP, we've been able to build on our experience, know-how and technical capabilities, all of which will be internalized within KRAFTON and be baked in in our overall system.
There were lessons learned through this process, and we will leverage that fully so that we can upgrade the game quality going forward and also really focus on increasing the likelihood of success for our upcoming titles.
시간이 제한적인 관계로 마지막 질문 1분만 받겠습니다.
Now, due to the time constraint, we will now take the final question before we close.
마지막으로 질문해 주실 분은 JP Morgan의 Stanley Yang님입니다.
The last question will be presented by Stanley Yang from JP Morgan. Please go ahead with your question.
마지막 질문 뒤에 감사합니다. 첫 번째 질문은 그 주주환원 정책 슬라이드에서 그 free cash flow 투자에 대한 설명이 있는데요. 그 투자에 대한 부분을 조금만 더 설명해 주시면 감사하겠습니다. 이 기준에서 2022년도 free cash flow하고 투자가 각각 어느 정도였는지 말씀해 주시면 감사하겠습니다. 두 번째 질문은 저희가 PUBG PC 성과가 굉장히 좋았는데 PUBG MOBILE은 작년에 매출이 감소했습니다. 이게 글로벌이 다른 그 경쟁 게임인 Free Fire도 같이 나타났던, 오히려 더 가파르게 나타났던 매출 감소 현상이었는데요. 전체 그 battle royale 장르가 인기가 좀 내려가는 건지, market share가 좀 내려가는 건지 이렇게 해석해야 되는 건지, 아니면 올해는 좀 어떤 추세의 반전이 있는지 말씀해 주시면 감사하겠고요. PUBG MOBILE에서 중국 화평정영의 올해 전망은 어떠신지 그 management 생각을 공유해 주시면 감사하겠습니다.
Yes. My first question relates to your shareholder return policy. You talked about free cash flow net of investment. Can you elaborate a little more on that investment portion? For 2022, what was the size of free cash flow and investment respectively? Second question is, your PUBG PC performance was quite good, while the revenue from PUBG MOBILE showed a downward trend. Even comparing with other competing game titles, I believe that the decline was more steeper. Is that because we are seeing a reduction in the market share of the battle royale game genre altogether, or are you expecting a turnaround in this trend this year? Also would like to understand your Chinese business Peacekeeper Elite. What, you know, what is the result or how do you foresee that in the future?
[Foreign Language]
To respond to the first part of the question, obviously we would not be including the proceeds that we got from an initial public offering that would not be included in terms of the resources that would be used for a treasury share acquisition. If you do that figure is going to be a minus figure. We begin with FCF. You would all know what FCF is and when we talk about investment, as you know, we are quite active in investing into game IPs and publishing related aspects. Those are proceeds that will be used for future purposes and to those who will be included in terms of determining the amount and also using that as a proceed for acquisition of treasury shares.
[Foreign Language]
For 2022, based on that FCF and investment and net of investment calculation, 2022, we are currently receiving the audit on our financial statement. We expect the overall size of shareholder return to be around KRW 140 billion to KRW 150 billion. After the audit, we will close our accounts and confirm the financial statements and go through the resolution of the BOD before we actually make that payment. Second question. Last year, if you look at the global mobile market and the Battle Royale genre itself, the segments did contract because of the impact from reopening. Also there was more diversified genres that people can actually enjoy. We do not believe that our positioning within the Battle Royale or shooting game genre had actually been downsized compared to the past.
We still believe that we have a very leading position in terms of both revenue and traffic inside this genre. This year, we will focus more on bringing about revenue efficiencies and really hold on to our core user base. Also to bringing about top line efficiencies, we would continue to develop and evolve these content as to one that actually persists for a longer period of time. For BGMI, India, we have put in a lot of efforts to bring about unbanning of the sanctions. Once the ban is removed, we believe there will be also additional and significant growth opportunity.
Traffic 측면에서는 예전보다는 더 많이 빠진 건 사실이지만 실제로 이제 매출 같은 경우에는 저희가 더 잘해냈기 때문에 실제로 net 뭐, 그, 달러 효과로 보면 사실은 traffic 하락에도 불구하고 매출 수준을 이제 유지했던 측면이 있어서 어, 어쨌든 저희가 이제 뭐, 앞으로 뭐, 기대하고 있는 뭐, BGMI도 그렇고 그리고 이제 PUBG Mobile 글로벌의 더 수익성 향상 이런 걸 통해서 성장할 수 있다고 생각합니다.
Looking at the size of this genre, in 2022 across Q2, Q3 and Q4, yes, it did decline. PUBG Mobile because it's a game title that is currently globally being serviced. Depending on which geography you're talking about, there are different holiday seasons and vacation seasons, so there is that variability. PUBG Mobile, however, therefore it seems like there are no longer exist an impact from the so-called high season and low seasonality. Yes, there was decline. However, if you look at the overall traffic, it had been maintained at a quite steady level. Q4, the traffic did dip. There was quite a bit of a dip in the traffic, but we were able to maintain revenue efficiency.
In terms of the dollar impact, on the back of that decline in traffic, despite that, we were able to maintain the revenue at a certain level and hence going forward, we believe that with BGMI and PUBG MOBILE Global, we will be able to secure that profitability and drive further growth in the future.
그 Peacekeeper Elite에 대해서 이제 질문 주셨는데, 그건 이제 저희가 말씀드릴 사항이라기보다는 Tencent가 서비스하고 있으니까 아마 이제 Tencent와 얘기를 하시는 게 더 좋을 것 같고요. 아시겠지만 이 Peacekeeper Elite 자체가 이제 Tencent 내부에서도 가장 중요한 게임 중에 하나인 건 누구나 아는 사실이기 때문에 Tencent도 어쨌든 지속적인 성장을 위해 이제 노력을 하고 있고, 올 이제 저기 설 이때도 이제 그들의 실적이 제가 좋았다고 전해 듣긴 했는데. 저희가 화평정영이 앞으로 어떻게 될 거냐, 이걸 언급드리기보다 저희가 저희 파트너인 이제 Tencent의 저력이 있기 때문에 저희 그들과 같이 협업해서 비즈니스 계속 진행하려고 합니다.
He also asked about Peacekeeper Elite. Since Tencent is the one that is servicing the game, I mean, it would be best for Tencent to provide that answer. Having said that, it is quite clear that Peacekeeper Elite is one of the key games for Tencent, and Tencent is putting in the a lot of effort to grow that business. I did hear that this Lunar New Year, the performance had been quite good. Rather than us providing you with the answer, what I can say for the time being is that Tencent is a resilient company, and through a very close collaboration, we will work towards, you know, growing that business.
네, 이상으로 2022년 Q4 및 연간 실적 발표를 모두 마치겠습니다. 오늘 바쁘신 가운데 시간 내어주신 여러분께 진심으로 감사드립니다.
Thank you. This brings us to the end of our financial year 2022 and Q4 earnings presentation. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you.