Krafton Is Betting on Budget Phones and Indian Studios: BGMI Lite and KIGI Cohort 4

Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind BGMI, is spending this autumn on two India moves that matter to very different audiences: a lighter version of the game for cheaper phones, and a bigger startup programme for Indian game studios. Both are aimed at the same thing, a country where the next wave of players and developers is coming from budget hardware and small teams.

The first is BGMI Lite. Krafton India announced in August that a lightweight version of the battle royale will launch in India by the end of 2026. Details are still thin: the company hasn't confirmed minimum RAM, download size or supported phones, and says features and gameplay differences will come closer to launch. What it has said is that the game is meant for players whose devices can't run standard BGMI smoothly. Krafton says BGMI has passed 260 million downloads in India since its 2021 launch, which shows how many of those players there are.

The second is the Krafton India Gaming Incubator, known as KIGI. On September 22 in Bengaluru, Krafton opened applications for Cohort 4 and widened who can apply: alongside early-stage teams and first-time concepts, it now accepts games that are already in beta, in soft launch, or live on Steam with a demo. According to Krafton's announcement, support runs from $50,000 to $150,000, plus mentorship from industry veterans in India, South Korea and other gaming hubs, and access to Krafton's resources and publishing opportunities. Cohort 3, in April, took four studios from roughly 1,000 applications, and Singular Scheme's Frontier Paladin, from Cohort 2, became KIGI's first PC game when it launched on Steam on April 24.

Both moves sit inside a larger commitment. TechCrunch reported on September 4 that Krafton is putting another $250 million into India over three to four years, taking its total to more than $500 million since 2021, after chairman Chang Byung-gyu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. That money covers AI, robotics and deep tech as well as games, and the article doesn't give a split between the two.

For Indian studios, three things follow. First, low-end Android performance is becoming a selling point, not just a constraint, so a game that runs well on 3 GB of RAM has a real advantage. Second, incubator money is arriving for games that already exist, so a live soft launch or a Steam demo counts as an application asset. Third, the odds are steep at about 1,000 applications for four places, so a studio needs a sharp pitch and clear player data. The terms of KIGI's support, such as any equity stake and the application deadline, weren't in the coverage we could find, so read Krafton's own programme page before applying.

At Anahata Interactive we build mobile games for India first, and we design for the phones most of our players actually own. Krafton's focus on lighter games and homegrown studios is good news for anyone doing the same.