Korean Fantasy The Bird That Drinks Tears Game Coming Soon
Earlier this week, Krafton announced Project Windless, a project that will see the company attempt to develop a game and media franchise based on the Korean fantasy novel, The Bird That Drinks Tears. Krafton is a South Korean game holding company responsible for titles such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), TERA, and ELYON - Ascent: Infinite Realm. The success of PUBG led to investment from Tencent Holdings, the creation of Krafton Inc, and the acquisition of several studios making the holding company a powerful entity in the gaming industry.
Krafton has an expected value of $17.92 billion according to the analysis in South Korea before the company makes its initial public offering (IPO) later in the year within the country. Krafton can trace its success to PUBG being one of the highest-grossing video games of all time, with up to 55 million daily users, excluding gamers in China on weekends. The title has sold over 70 million copies, according to Krafton on PC and game consoles.
In a press release, Krafton announced it will develop the Korean fantasy novel, The Bird That Drinks Tears into a game, and hopefully, a larger media franchise. To help visualize the universe, Krafton has brought on Hollywood concept artist Iain McCraig to help bring the novel to visual life. McCraig worked on character visualizations for Star Wars and other mega tentpole franchises like The Avengers and Terminator. His work will create the foundation of what Project Windless looks to achieve in gaming and other media outlets.
The Bird That Drinks Tears is a novel series created and written by Yeong-do Lee, who is a pioneer in the Korean fantasy genre. Lee is one of the best-selling fantasy authors in South Korea, with his work selling millions of copies. Along with The Bird That Drinks Tears, Lee is also known for the popular Dragon Raja series.
While nothing is known about Project Windless, the reputation of Krafton, along with the popularity of The Bird Who Drinks Tears author Yeong-do Lee, it's like a potential game and media franchise will find initial success due to the name recognition of the entities behind the title. However, without knowing the kind of game Krafton will attempt to make it is difficult to have a stern opinion on where the project will go. Due to the success, Krafton has with multiplayer games, it is a strong possibility that an open world MMORPG could be in the wors for The Bird Who Drinks Tears.