HYBE Announces New Artist Webtoons, A New BTS Game, NFTs, A Global Girl Group, And New Japanese Boy Group

HYBE shared their 2021 Briefing With The Community, announcing new webtoons, a BTS Game, their NFT business, a new girl group, and a new boy group.

First, Shawn Hwangbo announced HYBE’s new ventures with Original Stories, which will allow their artists and music to be involved in stories that will help further expand HYBE’s artists’ reach. The content will be available in multiple formats, including music, webtoons, web novels, animations, and games. There will be no limits to the genres that can be experienced, and in 2022, they will premiere four different stories in the form of webtoons and web novels through Naver Webtoons.

One such story will be The Star Seekers with TXT, which will tell a story of growth in a fantasy genre. It is a story about a group of boys who live as an idol group in a world where magic and reality coexist. They wake up one day to realized their magical abilities exist, and face the realities that surround that fact. It will be released on January 17, 2022.

Another story that will be released will be Dark Moon: The Blood Altar with ENHYPEN. It will be released as a series and show the chemistry between vampire boys and a girl with a secret, as well as the confrontation and friendship with a group of werewolf boys. Its genre is urban fantasy and high teen, and features a heroine with strong abilities. It will be released starting January 16, 2022.

Another story will feature the coming-of-age story of a group of girls inside a controlled city cut off from the outside world of Unknown, a magical land. The girls were previously part of a perfect system in Refugia, their city, but find a mysterious old book and red necklace in their library. With this, they go out on a journey to find the mysterious land. No group was announced to feature in the story, and no release date was announced. It is suspected that this story will feature HYBE’s new girl group.

The last story is 7Fates: CHAKHO, which will be released on January 15, 2022. It is an urban fantasy story set in a city in the near future and inspired by the tiger hunters of the Joseon Dynasty. It will combine old stories of tradition with HYBE’s own imagination. CHAKHO will feature BTS, and tell the story of seven boys who are bound by fate, their trials and tribulations, and why they must be together as seven.

7 FATES CHAKHO with BTS#BTS #방탄소년단 @BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/GWILjRUemW

— andrea ♡s bts⁷ (new acc) (@ZER0XBLACK) November 4, 2021

HYBE CEO Park Jiwon and HYBE general manager Chung Wooyong about how HYBE plans to expand the fan experience through games, Weverse, and other ventures. Chung Wooyoung announced the company is working on a new game featuring BTS, and BTS are not simply characters in the game, but have been actively involved in the process of the creation of the game for months. It is planned to launch in the first half of 2022.

2021 HYBE BRIEFING | GAME PROJECT#BTS #방탄소년단 @BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/UjMZW4rPln

— andrea ♡s bts⁷ (new acc) (@ZER0XBLACK) November 4, 2021

Scott Manson, President of Business Solutions at HYBE America, talked about building the company’s global business strategy, which includes building up the HYBE groups’ brands and promoting them in America through collaborations with companies.

Joon Choi, President of Weverse Company, talked about how HYBE moves in accordance with the artists and music lovers need. He talked about the evolution of Weverse, and how they were trying to discover what else fans need from the platform, and one of those was live-updates through video, which will now be possible. Starting in 2022, Weverse will include V-Live’s Spot Live feature, which will allow their artists to live stream updates through Weverse.

Bang Si Hyuk introduced HYBE’s partnership with Dunamu to develop an NFT (non-fungible token) business to allow artists’ IP-based content to become digital assets for fans. This means it will allow fans to purchase snapshots of certain events or content, and essentially, own a copy of it. Through blockchain technology, these assets are then also given a monetary value, and there are no chances for counterfeits. One example given by Bang Si Hyuk was photocards, which could be translated into NFT content by making sure the photocards are legitimate, unique, and permanent. They could also be upgraded, not only just a picture, but also gifs, videos, and audio.

Lenzo Yoon, CEO of HYBE America, announced that the top officials from both HYBE and HYBE America have been working together in Los Angeles on a project that will surprise the whole world — a global girl group that will be active not only in the United States, but the whole world. They have been setting up a localized training system that will harness the full capabilities of both UMG and HYBE, including vocal trainers, choreographers, and music production. They will also involve health and psychologists to ensure the best for the group.

Lenzo Yoon also talked about how there will be a story with their global girl group, and their debut project story will include the group’s growth process and milestones as they look to cross national, cultural, and artistic boundaries. The story will be presented to the world in a new, innovative way. The final plan for the girl group is the global audition for the girl group.

Han Hyunrock, CEO of HYBE Japan, announced the global debut project through HYBE Japan. Through the project, HYBE Japan will be holding auditions to see who will join I-LAND trainees K, Nicholas, EJ, and Taki in their new global boy group. HYBE Japan has been working on their own audition, training, and management system for four years, and will spare no effort in making sure their new boy group will also succeed.