In a lawsuit filed last month, the cofounders claimed Krafton tried to sabotage Subnautica 2‘s planned Early Access launch this year to avoid paying a $250 million bonus it had agreed to at the time Unknown Worlds was sold if the studio hit certain revenue targets in 2025 and early 2026. The legal complaint alleged that Krafton violated the terms of the deal by overriding the studio’s independence and firing the cofounders without cause.
In its response filed on August 12, Krafton denies most of the allegations in the original complaint and argues that it was the cofounders who were trying to rush Subnautica 2 out into the wild despite being behind on its expected content scope. When the company tried to enlist the cofounders, who were not directly involved in the game’s development, to get it back on track, it says it was rebuffed. Krafton claims it had no choice but to remove them from the studio in order to protect Subnautica 2 and prevent a disastrous launch.
“We made a deal in which they had to successfully launch the game and get a big payment when they hit certain revenue targets, but we had to fire them because they only wanted the money for which they had to make a good game, they didn’t wanted to make a good game, they were in only for the money, for which - again - they had to make a good game, they were clearly sabotaging the game!”
If this is true I’m definitely out. I am barely playing anything technically demanding on the hardware. Mostly older or indie games. The Steam Deck has proven that handheld PC couch gaming is more than enough for me.
Come to think of it, I didn’t even had to buy the PS5. It just catches dust and unlike the PS4 I didn’t get anything like Bloodborne aka something I could pump countless hundreds of hours in to justify buying it.
Pretty much this. Back when this went down the good people of Bluesky, who are totally not like Twitter users, called for itch.ios blood. Calling them sellouts, betrayers and whatnot. Big brain move right there.
Ah ok! I remember. Thanks.
I forgot about this for some reason. Shit I’m getting old.