Publisher Krafton Delays ‘Subnautica 2’ Game Ahead of $250 Million Payout

SJRB

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South Korean video-game publisher Krafton Inc. is delaying the release of the highly anticipated survival game Subnautica 2, according to people familiar with the company's plans, just months before it was due to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team.

Subnautica 2, the second-most-wished-for upcoming game on the PC platform Steam, was originally set to offer early access to players later this year. The schedule changed last week after Krafton pushed out the leadership of its Unknown Worlds Entertainment studio, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren't authorized to talk to press. A representative for Krafton didn't respond to a request for comment.

Unknown Worlds' leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio's employees, which number around 100. Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.



Crazy story.
 
Why are they waiting though?
"Krafton, the parent company of Subnautica and Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds, has reportedly delayed the highly anticipated Subnautica 2 from its original 2025 release window into 2026, seemingly in an attempt to avoid paying Unknown Worlds a significant $250 million bonus.

A report from Bloomberg claims that the development team at Unknown Worlds was due to get a $250 million bonus if the studio hit certain revenue targets before the end of 2025, a goal that would be accomplished more easily with Subnautica 2's release by the end of the year. Now that the game has allegedly been delayed, developers at Unknown Worlds believe they will miss those revenue targets, and miss out on the bonus."


If true, it's next level scummy behavior.
 
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Here is the whole article:

South Korean video-game publisher Krafton Inc. is delaying the release of the highly anticipated survival game Subnautica 2, according to people familiar with the company's plans, just months before it was due to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team.

Subnautica 2, the second-most-wished-for upcoming game on the PC platform Steam, was originally set to offer early access to players later this year. The schedule changed last week after Krafton pushed out the leadership of its Unknown Worlds Entertainment studio, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren't authorized to talk to press. A representative for Krafton didn't respond to a request for comment.

The first Subnautica, released in 2018, was a smash indie hit, selling more than 6 million copies. Three years later, Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds at an enterprise value of $500 million and said afterwards that a sequel was in the works.

The sequel's delay to 2026 was against the wishes of the studio's former leadership, according to the people. The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025, according to the purchase agreement, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. By delaying Subnautica 2 into next year, the company is unlikely to hit those targets and therefore the employees may not be eligible for the payout, the people said.

Unknown Worlds' leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio's employees, which number around 100. Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.

Last week, Krafton announced that it had fired Unknown Worlds founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as Chief Executive Officer Ted Gill. It said Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis would take that role, overseeing the studio's overall management and creative direction. Krafton didn't say why it made a leadership change, but said in a press release that "we owe our players nothing less than the best possible game, as soon as possible."

In a statement on social media several days later, Cleveland wrote that "the events of this week have been quite a shock" and that Subnautica 2 was "ready for early access release."

During a company town hall this week, Papoutsis told employees that Krafton didn't believe Subnautica 2 was ready to be released this year and that the delay was to add more content to the game. When asked whether Subnautica 2 was delayed so Krafton could avoid paying the $250 million bonus, Papoutsis said he was not familiar with the specifics of the contract.

"It's a good question, and I would appreciate patience on this particular topic," Papoutsis said, according to audio of the town hall reviewed by Bloomberg. He added that the specifics of the acquisition were "beyond my current understanding at the moment."

"The desire of Krafton is to have the very best version of Subnautica 2 available for its early access," he said. "While yes, the software that everybody worked on is in a great spot and it felt like, 'Hey we should launch this,' that wasn't where both parties aligned around."

He added that "it's never been told to me that we're making this change specifically to impact any earnout or anything like that."

Seems like Krafton is doing some shenanigans to avoid paying what was agreed.
 
Wow these assholes have some balls. Pardon my French. How dare they.

edit: I changed
cocksuckers to assholes
until we are sure this is true. If it is true I'm skipping this game and changing it back.

Edit2: They may be waiting if there is a contractual obligation to pay which may expire or the game isn't finished and they have a mutiny on their hands over the leadership dump. Promise a bonus and then don't pay. That's angering.
 
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Anyone getting Kerbal 2 pangs?

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The opposite could be true though, that the developers are rushing to release the product before it's ready in order to get the payout.
"Cleveland (one of the founders) even took to the Subnautica Reddit page to publish a farewell, saying that, "the events of this week have been quite a shock. We know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you're ready to play it. And while we thought this was going to be our decision to make, at least for now, that decision is in Krafton's hands. And after all these years, to find I'm no longer able to work at the company I started stings."

Since we don't know the specifics of the bonus payouts, it's difficult to say if the old leadership wanted it out this year because of personal interest...or to make sure their employees got what they feel they deserve.
 
"Krafton, the parent company of Subnautica and Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds, has reportedly delayed the highly anticipated Subnautica 2 from its original 2025 release window into 2026, seemingly in an attempt to avoid paying Unknown Worlds a significant $250 million bonus.

A report from Bloomberg claims that the development team at Unknown Worlds was due to get a $250 million bonus if the studio hit certain revenue targets before the end of 2025, a goal that would be accomplished more easily with Subnautica 2's release by the end of the year. Now that the game has allegedly been delayed, developers at Unknown Worlds believe they will miss those revenue targets, and miss out on the bonus."


If true, it's next level scummy behavior.

Holy smokes! This might be the worse gaming news so far this month. This is HORRIBLE!
 
I heard that the OG devs "left" the team a few days ago and was replaced by Steve Papoutsis. Now it looks like Krafton pushed them out to avoid payment, which seems a tad illegal, no?
 
Ok so I don't think it was due to the development team per se, I think it was that the price they agreed to pay to acquire the studio was $500m, with a condition that it would rise to $750m if revenue targets were met following acquisition. Maybe the dev team was in line for a taste of that, or some of them had some stake previously.

If Krafton is now delaying to ensure those targets are not met, that seems like an eventuality the sellers probably should have anticipated with a deal structured like that.
 
Ok so I don't think it was due to the development team per se, I think it was that the price they agreed to pay to acquire the studio was $500m, with a condition that it would rise to $750m if revenue targets were met following acquisition. Maybe the dev team was in line for a taste of that, or some of them had some stake previously.

If Krafton is now delaying to ensure those targets are not met, that seems like an eventuality the sellers probably should have anticipated with a deal structured like that.
Their lawyers really fucked up if such a clause got passed by them. I guess this will escalate to courts, this is too much of a scummy move with a very clear motive.
 
Im confused now. Is the old team who made Subnautica 2 up to this point gone or not? If they're not gone and are not getting payed their promised bonuses and hard work whats to stop them from turning this game into an absolute mess to screw the assholes?
 
"Krafton, the parent company of Subnautica and Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds, has reportedly delayed the highly anticipated Subnautica 2 from its original 2025 release window into 2026, seemingly in an attempt to avoid paying Unknown Worlds a significant $250 million bonus.

A report from Bloomberg claims that the development team at Unknown Worlds was due to get a $250 million bonus if the studio hit certain revenue targets before the end of 2025, a goal that would be accomplished more easily with Subnautica 2's release by the end of the year. Now that the game has allegedly been delayed, developers at Unknown Worlds believe they will miss those revenue targets, and miss out on the bonus."


If true, it's next level scummy behavior.
this reminds me of this somewhat https://www.pcgamer.com/the-sinking...rogwares-new-version-of-the-game-coming-soon/
 
$250 million for *checks notes* 3,100 developers in different positions brings it to around 86k average per person
Unknown Worlds' leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio's employees, which number around 100. Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.

The article says 100 employees. Why the fuck would the publisher agree to such an enormous bonus lol? That's the budget of a huge AAA game.
 
Unknown Worlds' leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio's employees, which number around 100. Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.

The article says 100 employees. Why the fuck would the publisher agree to such an enormous bonus lol? That's the budget of a huge AAA game.
For a game like Subnautica, quality or not is insane yeah
 
Shocking they'd even assign that much to bonuses and not lock it in prior to selling. Sounds like they got robbed by some ninja lawyers. Brutal.
 
$250 million for *checks notes* 3,100 developers in different positions brings it to around 86k average per person

Where you got those 3,100 developers? Certainly not for Subnautica 2, surely?

250M is probably not USD either

I mean think about it, even >$1.5T GTA 6 won't ever give its employees $250M bonus, that's insane.
 
The delay may cause the development team to miss revenue targets and potentially forfeit a $250 million bonus, according to people who asked to not be identified.

The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025, according to the purchase agreement, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. By delaying Subnautica 2 into next year, the company is unlikely to hit those targets and therefore the employees may not be eligible for the payout, the people said.


That is a motherfucking ice cold move on Krafton's part.
 
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The article is confusing.

> Unknown Worlds ( Subnuatica dev ) founders sold to Krafton for 500M with 250M bonus if they get Subnautica 2 out in 2025.
> The team kinda did but it was early access, Krafton got worried and fired the top leaders - why? Not public.
> Pushed release to 2026 so that they don't have to give that 250M acquisition bonus as stocks/cash/bonus etc.

Did I get this right? Much of it is still speculative so tread carefully.

Such a shame though, Subnautica was peak.
 
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The article is confusing.

> Unknown Worlds ( Subnuatica dev ) founders sold to Krafton for 500M with 250M bonus if they get Subnautica 2 out in 2025.
> The team kinda did but it was early access, Krafton got worried and fired the top leaders - why? Not public.
> Pushed release to 2026 so that they don't have to give that 250M acquisition bonus as stocks/cash/bonus etc.

Did I get this right? Much of it is still speculative so tread carefully.

Such a shame though, Subnautica was peak.


The game's early access has been delayed to 2026. That is what was planned to come out this year and per the devs, it's ready to come out.

The publisher is the one delaying it to next year (Krafton). Even though they're not outright admitting to it, it's kinda obvious to speculate the $250M bonus they agreed to for 2025, if a certain revenue is met, is the reason for delaying it.
 
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I don't understand the $250 million figure at all. Or the $500 million figure...

How many copies did Subnautica sell? Some people say 6 million?

What was the average price of the game? Maybe $20? So the total Subnautica revenue might be $120 million?

And the profit would be much less than $120 million? The profit after salaries and platform fees and taxes might only be $20-$40 million?

What am I missing? Does Subnautica make a fortune on microtransactions or subscriptions or loot boxes something. I don't think so?
 
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