A judge ruled yesterday that Krafton improperly fired Gill in 2025, and ordered that he be restored as CEO of Unknown Worlds.
  • HeartyOfGlass@piefed.socialEnglish
    2 days

    Soooooo by purchasing a copy of Subnautica 2 we could make a big, shitty company shell out $250 mil to the developers?

    Not interested in the game, but I do like the sound of that.

    • TRBoom@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2 days

      That’s my read as well. I really liked the first one and if I can make this dick feel like he lost at the same time…

        • guynamedzero@piefed.zeromedia.vipEnglish
          2 days

          It depends, if the game never makes more than $250,000,000 in sales, then I’d say it’s good! Because the parent company had to give UW way more money than they made for them

          • AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2 days

            I mean… surely they have to make more than 250,000,000 in sales to justify the original bonus being 250,000,000 in the first place.

            No?

            • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1 day

              Krafton paid half a billion for Unknown Worlds. The 250 million bonus was in addition to that. Including operational costs and salaries, they need to make back almost a billion to break even.

  • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    If you want to help fuck over Krafton and support the devs, buy the game. The judge extended the deadline for Unknown Worlds to earn the $250 million payout until late September. That payout was the whole reason Krafton put together this scheme in the first place. You will actually hurt Krafton more if they have to pay out that $250 million versus not buying the game at all. Not to mention, UW does good work and absolutely deserves it.

    • Fafa@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      I guess ill also wait for first reviews. Still want to have a good experience even though I want to support the devs.

      • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 days

        That’s fair, keep in mind it’s releasing in early access. So you may want to wait for a bit before diving in. Though they originally planned to release in early access mid last year, so its probably fairly close to the final product.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    They not sacking the Krafton CEO who used ChatGPT to strategise how to cheat the devs out of their money, overruled his legal team and has embarrassed the company?

    • bus_factor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      All PR is good PR I guess. He did successfully promote Subnautica 2, judging by the reactions in this thread. Without this scandal I would have never known a sequel was on the way.

      • Albbi@piefed.caEnglish
        2 days

        One of the top lemmy posts of all time is a warning not to buy Subnautica 2.

      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
        2 days

        Without this scandal I would have never known a sequel was on the way.

        Makes me wonder if this might actually all just be kayfabe to drum up free publicity…

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2 days

          Hanlon’s razor applies here. It could be, but I doubt it. It’s just yet another stupid CEO who thinks he, and his AI chatbot, are smarter than everyone else.

          However, internet users are also stupid. They think buying the game will hurt them. In what world does that make sense? They company made the purchase with this deal, assuming they’d pay it. They expect it to make them money. The CEO just thought he could just squeeze extra profit out of it by getting out of the deal. It doesn’t mean they’ll lose money by paying it. It just means the game is making them a ton of money, but they’ll have to give some of it back to the studio.

  • Jännät@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2 days

    “We look forward to working with Ted Gill”, sure you fucking do. Do those people take us for absolute idiots? Everybody knows they’ll just try to fuck Unknown Worlds over at the first chance they get.

    Love Subnautica but I’m not giving Krafton a single cent.

    • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      You’d hurt Krafton more if Unkown World earns enough revenue to trigger the $250 million payout. Obviously a single word from Krafton can’t be trusted, but that’s all the more reason to hit them with this. I’m all for not giving money to a shitty company. But the payout was the whole reason they tried to pull this hostile takeover shit in the first place. If Krafton doesn’t end up having to pay that money to UW, then it’s a victory for them. If you really want Krafton to be punished, buy the game and make them pay, literally. If UW has all that money at the end of this, it will put them in a stronger position to not get pushed around by Krafton. Ultimately, Krafton put itself in this position because they made a deal they regretted, and tried to weasel out of it. Don’t let them succeed if you hate them and love Subnautica.

        • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 days

          Enough that they were willing to risk doing this to their reputation against the advice of lawyers. So I’d say pretty damn bad. But if you decide it’s not where you wanna put your money, that’s fair too.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
            2 days

            But it also helps the game sell better. I’d bet, if the game does well, Kraft on will make far more than that back. They didn’t purchase the company to lose money. They just thought they could get out of paying that money and make more profit. It’s not that they’d not make a profit by avoiding this, just less.

            • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1 day

              Krafton’s CEO felt that they had severely overpaid for UW if they had to pay out that bonus. They bought it in 2021 during Covid, when more people were staying inside playing video games. It inflated the value of a lot of game companies, which is why they initially agreed. Now the economic situation is different, so they are probably taking a pretty nasty hit if they have to pay that out. However, you’re probably right that they will still profit. But they’d make more by not paying it out. I’m more than happy to help take that away from Krafton and give it to UW who is far more deserving. Krafton deserves punishment, and if they get out of paying that money, they get a win.

        • protist@retrofed.comEnglish
          2 days

          Their 2024 gross revenue was about $1.9 billion, so $250 million would be over 13% of their total annual revenue

      • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2 days

        Ah no, buddy, you misunderstand me. I’m gonna play this game, my experience on the previous ones parallels yours closely. I’m deciding if I’m gonna pay for it or not.

      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
        2 days

        I’d like to play the next one, therefore I will buy it.

        There be other options, matey.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2 days

        Eh, I’ll wait for reviews at least. It wouldn’t be the first sequel to drop the ball. I don’t have any loyalty to a company. Even though I think every game they’ve made, from Natural Selection 2 on, including Moonbreakers (even if it didn’t do well it was the best model painting simulator I’ve seen), has been worth playing, that doesn’t mean it always will.

      • MsPenguinette@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 days

        Sometimes I’m just doing stuff for chaos’s sake. Ill buy the game just to cause trouble. I guess we just find entertainment value in different things, cause I have a great time with this kind of drama

  • tidderuuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    And what happens to the denier of reality? That dude should be in jail.

  • peacefulpixel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    i still remember this game having AI Generated assets. that’s not exactly something i can look past. how ironic that the devs were taking an environmentalists angle for the first game, now we’re here

    • Guitar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      If there are any AI generated assets, and I don’t believe there are, they certainly aren’t anything substantial. The devs have been showing off their work for months. At a minimum, the creatures, vehicles, bases, and writing is all created by humans. I know Krafton claimed a few months ago they were gonna start putting AI assets in their games, but from everything I’ve seen of Subnautica 2, it does not have AI generated assets. If you have a source that says otherwise, I’d be interested to see it.

      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
        2 days

        IMO, ai-generated assets are not a deal-breaker, especially if it’s done in moderation. For example, using AI to generate the texture for a human-made 3D model.

        If major portions of the game are AI-generated, that’s going to be terrible. But if they’re just using it as a shortcut to fill in some of the minor details, that’s probably fine.

    • MBech@feddit.dkEnglish
      2 days

      Success corrupts I suppose. Or is it another of those games with a completely different team doing the sequal?

      • peacefulpixel@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2 days

        from what i recall which may be wrong, the only people of the original subnautica team that were fired were the original 3 founders of the team. the rest of the team is in tact i believe