Paradachshund
@Paradachshund@lemmy.today
- Comment on ‘Subnautica 2’ Leaders Say Krafton Sabotaged Game Over Payout [new events in the Subnautica 2 story] 16 hours ago:
The ousted leadership of video-game developer Unknown Worlds said parent company Krafton Inc. fired them after the executives presented the company with upbeat revenue projections that would have triggered most, if not all, of a $250 million bonus payment, according to a copy of their lawsuit which was unsealed Wednesday.
Former Unknown Worlds Chief Executive Officer Ted Gill and founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire said Krafton sought to delay the release of their new game, Subnautica 2, after realizing they would have to pay that large a sum, according to their complaint. The South Korean game publisher offered the executives a lower payout before terminating their employment earlier this month, the lawsuit alleges.
Gill, Cleveland and McGuire filed a lawsuit for breach of contract on July 10. A representative for Krafton declined to comment on the suit. In a statement to press last week, Krafton said the three studio leaders had “abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them” and that “the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule.”
Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds in 2021 for $500 million, with as much as $250 million more due to be paid in 2026 if the company hit certain revenue targets. The complaint argues that all was well between the two sides until a series of meetings in early 2025 when Gill was negotiating with Krafton about paying bonuses to employees who weren’t eligible under the original acquisition terms. About 40 people employed by Unknown Worlds at the time of the sale were told they would receive payouts, mostly in the six-or-seven-figures, but the executives also wanted to offer bonuses to those who had joined later.
During those meetings, Gill said that their revenue projections for the coming year had been conservative and that with the upcoming releases of the original Subnautica on mobile and Switch 2, they were expecting significantly higher numbers. Subnautica 2 was also expected to be a big hit, with nearly 2.5 million people adding the game to their wishlists on the PC platform Steam.
“After Krafton’s leaders reviewed Gill’s projections and evaluated the anticipated revenue and earnout numbers, everything changed,” they said in their complaint.
The leadership group said that in subsequent meetings, Krafton began pushing for Unknown Worlds to delay Subnautica 2. In the weeks that followed, Krafton employees told Gill they believed the company was trying to get out of paying the earnout, the complaint alleges.
During one lunch meeting, according to the complaint, Krafton Chief Executive Officer Changhan Kim told Cleveland that releasing the game in 2025 “could be disastrous financially and hugely embarrassing” for the company. Krafton later said that had been a mistranslation.
Throughout May and June, the two sides continued to battle as Krafton halted publishing duties such as marketing and adapting the game for local markets, as well as paying vendors, according to the complaint. The former leadership team said that the publisher refused to support the game’s imminent summer release and that Unknown Worlds missed out on “highly valuable” promotional opportunities because Krafton didn’t respond to emails. Gill said he was told by one of Krafton’s top executives that “pulling these resources was a permissible way for Krafton to avoid supporting the earnout,” according to the complaint.
By the end of June, the relationship had deteriorated. During various meetings, Krafton asked the leadership group to accept a lower earnout, according to the complaint. Around the same time, Kim wrote a letter to the leaders, reviewed by Bloomberg, accusing them of “failing to fulfill the responsibilities with which you were entrusted” and saying that Subnautica 2 had faced “slow and underwhelming progress.”
On July 1, Krafton fired the three studio leaders, who are now seeking damages “in an amount to be determined at trial,” according to their suit. Krafton has said it willextend the bonus period until next year, with Unknown Worlds employees able to share in a $25 million payout if revenue targets are hit.
One main point of contention between the founders and Krafton was whether the game was ready for release this year under the company’s early access model, which allows outsiders to play the game and submit feedback. Presentation slides from Krafton reviewed by Bloomberg, which included quotes from the company’s internal testers, argued that Subnautica 2 lacked content and didn’t feel innovative enough.
The lawsuit alleges otherwise. Pre-release tests involving hundreds of users “drew high marks and confirmed that the game was ready to meet those lofty expectations," it said.
Developers at Unknown Worlds speaking to Bloomberg said they believed the game was in good shape, as did some external parties, who asked to not be identified. One developer at a separate company who played Subnautica 2 and requested anonymity because they signed a non-disclosure agreement told Bloomberg they enjoyed the game and that it “seemed way more robust” than other titles in early access.
The other point of contention was the roles that Cleveland and McGuire played at the studio. In public statements and in documentation reviewed by Bloomberg, Krafton accused the two founders of neglecting their duties because they were minimally involved with the development of Subnautica 2.
In their suit, the founders said that Krafton was aware of their new roles and that Cleveland had spent a large amount of time working on a Subnautica film, which Krafton had asked the studio to develop.
- Comment on The results are in! 98.8% of Lemmy is gay 18 hours ago:
Does that make me part of the ultra-straights?
- Comment on The results are in! 98.8% of Lemmy is gay 23 hours ago:
I’m finally part of the 1%! 🎉
- Comment on Are my Frigidaire door bins installed wrong? (Pics in description) 2 days ago:
So that’s the craziest part. I actually think it would easily slide in, and then lock. See the way the space is weirdly perfect for it?
- Comment on Are my Frigidaire door bins installed wrong? (Pics in description) 2 days ago:
I tried it but I think the back of the part that the tab is in goes too far towards the sides. It seems pretty impossible to remove without breaking it.
I think I’m going to have to glue it in place. I was hoping to get it out because I didn’t want to get glue on the side of fridge where the crack touches. It’s pretty flush to the side right now. It’s also going to be tough to keep the crack compressed while the glue dries without just holding it in place with the fridge wide open. If you have any suggestions for that let me know. I’m pretty new to this kind of stuff.
- Comment on Are my Frigidaire door bins installed wrong? (Pics in description) 2 days ago:
I just tried that and it doesn’t seem like it. It’s hard to see in the picture but there’s plastic on the back of the part going around the tab, and it goes so far towards the side I’m not actually sure if bending it would work. I think it might break before it bent enough. 🫤
- Comment on Are my Frigidaire door bins installed wrong? (Pics in description) 2 days ago:
Oh wow that sounds like it might explain things then. It’s a long story but there’s a lot of partially finished but kinda botched stuff in this house so I guess add this to the list
- Submitted 2 days ago to [deleted] | 10 comments
- Comment on bluey 1 week ago:
Bro needs to work on his kiss game based on that forward lean in the bottom left
- Comment on A video game on 'gold diggers' is fuelling a sexism debate in China 1 week ago:
That last “if” is a big one. Most of the time these relationships aren’t as clear headed and well thought out as you’re hoping they are. Hurt feelings are the norm, and hurt feelings of powerful people lead to revenge.
- Comment on Game Pass will "either kill everyone else, or give up", says Dishonored and Prey dev Arkane founder 1 week ago:
“The service will succeed or fail”. Not much of a hot take, even though I agree with his sentiment.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 prices might climb due to tariff changes — US hikes Vietnam tariffs to 20%, up from 10% when the console launched 1 week ago:
Or better yet, don’t buy one at all
- Comment on Xbox Producer Recommends Laid Off Workers Should Use AI To 'Help Reduce The Emotional And Cognitive Load That Comes With Job Loss' 1 week ago:
I prefer having your cake and fucking it, too.
- Comment on What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today? 2 weeks ago:
I remember people doing that! I never did it myself (way too grindy for me), but it’s pretty crazy the game let you do it
- Comment on What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today? 2 weeks ago:
Because they have ai controlled party members (and have since the beginning), it’s actually completely playable solo to this day.
You might be surprised how many people still play though.
- Comment on What are the games you played in your youth that you still play today? 2 weeks ago:
Guild wars 1. I don’t play it often but every once in a while I get the itch. It’s honestly still really compelling.
- Comment on Sign me up 2 weeks ago:
And not the first time they’ve tried to slam something and actually made it look great instead.
- Comment on Sign me up 2 weeks ago:
I’d say it has to be satire, but these days you just never know, do you?
- Comment on Is this anything? 3 weeks ago:
Gesundheit!
- Comment on The end of humanity will come about through people's apathy. 3 weeks ago:
This is kind of an apathy echo chamber tbh (not just here, other socials too). Out in the real world lots of people are trying very hard to improve things all around the globe. If you’re feeling depressed by perceived apathy I would encourage you to look into organizations working to make a difference. They’re out there and need your help.
- Comment on Stellaris updates are slowing down to stop empires randomly destroying themselves, among other bugs 3 weeks ago:
I was pretty ambivalent about the subscription. I don’t like subs in general, but I joined stellaris a little late and the amount of money to get all the DLC is very daunting. I can see how as a new player it would be a good offer.
That being said rent to own is always going to be how it should be imo.
- Comment on Stellaris updates are slowing down to stop empires randomly destroying themselves, among other bugs 3 weeks ago:
Oof, yeah that performance point is rough.
Stellaris is such an interesting game to follow. I’ve never seen another game so willing to change major stuff regularly. It’s definitely got its upsides and downsides.
- Comment on The founders of Playdead are having a legal war over who made more of Limbo 4 weeks ago:
TLDR: he said she said, they’re going to court
- Comment on Stellaris updates are slowing down to stop empires randomly destroying themselves, among other bugs 4 weeks ago:
I saw the game got a lot of bad reviews lately. Was 4.0 that bad? I haven’t played for a while.
- Comment on Nexus Mods' new owner is a company whose co-founder has already had to reassure folks that NFTs and crypto aren't incoming 4 weeks ago:
Sad to see, but I was feeling it was only a matter of time for a while now. The mods could migrate but hard to replace the mod manager.
- Comment on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's story mode just got a lot easier, so more people can enjoy the year's best J'RPG 4 weeks ago:
This actually kind of irritates me. I’m one of the people who hasn’t enjoyed the timing window stuff, and set it to easy. It felt just right for me, but now with this patch things feel completely effortless. This should have been a new difficulty, not a change to the existing one.
- Comment on YouTube "search results" 4 weeks ago:
I was trying to search for something inside a specific channel the other day. The results were so random that I wasn’t confident I was even seeing all of the videos that had the word I typed in. Doesn’t help that it’s full on chaos sort with no option of any other sorting method. Complete trash.
- Comment on Everytime 1 month ago:
What is this tree originally from?
- Comment on If you are too young you really missed out being able to do this 1 month ago:
If you slam it hard enough you can still do this.
- Comment on Lethal Company's next monster "does things that make absolutely no sense, just because it can" 1 month ago:
I really admire the creature design in this game. I don’t think any of the copy cats have ever nailed that as much even if they’ve done other things better.