# From CarryMinati Collaboration to AI: How Krafton Is Changing BGMI for the Next Generation > Source: > Published: 2026-08-25 11:54:48+00:00 Battlegrounds Mobile India has spent the past few years building collaborations around everything from celebrities and sports teams to global entertainment franchises. But Krafton’s latest push suggests it wants to go considerably further than simply putting a familiar face or popular IP inside [BGMI](/tech/113066/bgmi-lite-pre-registration-guide-how-to-sign-up-download-size-and-launch-details). With [CarryMinati](/tech/100849/carryminati-hilariously-defines-gen-z-slangs-aurafarming-and-rizz-to-renowned-upsc-mock-interviewer) becoming a playable character and Boss encounter, Wow Maps putting creation tools in players’ hands, and [AI](/tech/112942/will-ai-take-your-job-godfather-of-ai-geoffrey-hinton-warns-of-mass-unemployment) speeding up development behind the scenes, the company increasingly sees BGMI as more than a battle royale game. Srinjoy Das, Director, Marketing and Product Management in an interaction with *Mashable India*, says the larger goal is to build a platform where gaming, creators, entertainment and community-made experiences increasingly overlap. ## CarryMinati isn’t just promoting BGMI — he’s inside it BGMI has worked with Indian names including [CSK](/culture/107774/rr-vs-csk-who-will-replace-ms-dhoni-in-todays-ipl-2026-match-as-former-skipper-ruled-out-for-two-wee), [Deepika Padukone](/entertainment/112650/shah-rukh-khan-becomes-indias-most-valuable-celebrity-brand-leaves-virat-kohli-behind), [Ranveer Singh](/ranveer-singh/107404/dhurandhar-2-ranveer-singhs-underwater-sequence-bts-video-goes-viral-actors-dedication-leaves-fans-i), [KKR](/sports/112813/hardik-pandya-to-kkr-trade-buzz-grows-after-kolkata-knight-riders-cryptic-social-media-post), [Hardik Pandya](/sports/112813/hardik-pandya-to-kkr-trade-buzz-grows-after-kolkata-knight-riders-cryptic-social-media-post), [Mahindra](/automobiles/112896/good-news-for-mahindra-scorpio-classic-fans-facelift-likely-to-launch-soon-with-new-design-sunroof-a) and [Royal Enfield](/automobiles/112941/royal-enfield-himalayan-440-to-launch-next-month-key-details-you-need-to-know), but the CarryMinati collaboration takes a different route. Instead of building a conventional campaign around Ajey Nagar, Krafton has turned him into part of the game itself — a playable character, a Boss encounter and a dedicated Wow experience, alongside a collection designed with Not Your Type. Das describes this as “the shift from creator as celebrity to creator as playable IP.” The choice of CarryMinati was also driven by familiarity rather than simply his reach. “So this wasn’t us picking a creator with big numbers and hoping it landed. It was us finally doing something our players had effectively been asking for.” That philosophy is also changing how BGMI looks at creators more broadly. Maps made by gaming influencers already account for more than 22% of total Wow playtime, meaning creators are increasingly shaping what people actually do inside the game rather than merely promoting it from the outside. ## WOW Maps are turning BGMI players into creators That shift becomes even clearer with Wow Maps. While BGMI’s core modes are designed and controlled by Krafton, Wow effectively hands some of that control to the community. “In the core game, we decide what you play. We design the map, we set the rules, we curate the modes. WOW removes us from that equation - the players design it, and we find out what they built alongside everybody else.” According to Das, BGMI now has more than 50,000 creator-built maps, while 23 million players have already played Wow and close to a million people use it on any given day. Some individual community maps have crossed tens of millions of plays. More importantly, players are branching beyond conventional combat experiences into Parkour, Zombie Survival, story-driven maps, city exploration and even experiences inspired by Indian mythology. Maharashtra alone accounts for more than a third of active Wow creators in India. For Krafton, this is evidence of a bigger behavioural change: “The single biggest one is the move from playing to making. Players don’t only want to consume what we build — a growing number of them want to build it.” ## The tricky part is keeping a live game fresh without losing what players love Running BGMI at this scale also means constantly balancing new content with accessibility, performance and the expectations of long-time players. Das says the game is effectively refreshed every two months, while still needing to work across everything from new flagship phones to devices bought years ago. “So stability can’t be a check we run at the end. It has to be a design input from the first conversation.” The same thinking extends to Boss battles and rewards. With the [Naruto](/entertainment/96199/naruto-land-of-snow-review-2004-anime-film-brings-back-og-nostalgia) update, for example, the challenge was not simply building a two-phase Kurama encounter, but making it satisfying for both veterans and newcomers. Several Naruto rewards, including character skins, can be earned for free, while BGMI also pauses access after six hours of play in a day and caps spending for players flagged as minors. Player feedback, meanwhile, remains unusually direct. “We build features basis the [YouTube](/tech-industry/110211/ai-content-to-be-automatically-labeled-on-youtube-but-not-on-youtube-kids) comment section,” Das says, pointing to the return of Erangel: Ancient Secrets after persistent requests from longtime players. Krafton then combines that feedback with behavioural data to understand what players return to, build themselves and keep talking about. ## AI can make development faster, but Krafton doesn’t want it making the creative calls AI is also finding its way into Krafton’s development process, although Das draws a fairly sharp line around its role. It can help teams prototype more ideas, explore different creative directions, localise content and reduce repetitive work — particularly useful when updates are arriving on two-month cycles. But deciding what actually belongs in BGMI is still treated as a cultural and creative judgement. “So my honest framing is this: AI can help us make more. It can’t tell us what is worth making.” That distinction feeds into Krafton’s broader vision for mobile gaming in India. Das expects games to increasingly become spaces for creation, entertainment and social interaction rather than simply places to play matches. “That the word ‘game’ stops being sufficient,” he says. The longer-term ambition includes better creation tools, an economy built around mechanisms such as Wow Tokens and clearer routes for successful creators to turn their work into careers. Ultimately, Krafton expects the direction of BGMI itself to become increasingly community-led: “For years, the ideas came from us. For the next five, the best ideas should come from the community - and our job is to be the platform that carries them to millions of players. That’s the whole bet.” ## BGMI wants to become more than a game Taken together, these changes point to BGMI gradually moving beyond the traditional idea of a mobile battle royale. Creator collaborations are becoming playable experiences, Wow Maps are giving players more control over what gets built, and AI is helping Krafton move faster without replacing the cultural judgement behind those decisions. The bigger shift, however, is who gets to shape BGMI next. If Krafton’s bet pays off, players will increasingly move from simply consuming new updates to creating the experiences that keep others coming back. As Das puts it, “For years, the ideas came from us. For the next five, the best ideas should come from the community - and our job is to be the platform that carries them to millions of players.” **ALSO SEE:**