Recently, the game publisher Krafton had utterly gutted the lead team of Unknown Worlds Entertainment and their current project “Subnautica 2” and delayed the release of the game in order to avoid paying the developers a $250 million bonus as according to Game Developer, “Reviewing the purchase agreement – Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds in 2021 – the $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025.”
One of the developers went on to state in a Reddit post that “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 that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.”
The same developer later on went on to announce that they were filing a lawsuit, saying that “We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story. Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it” and released the official complaint filed against Krafton on another Reddit post.
What Krafton has done to Unknown Worlds Entertainments as well as “Subnautica 2,” is without a doubt scummy, shady and outright malicious and is imperative that Unknown Worlds receives their payout with the original release date. It’s not only important for the “Subnautica,” game franchise, but for indie gaming in its entirety, as indie games quite often get bought out by larger companies who only see games as an asset for monetary gain rather than what games truly are.
