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[-] kiterios@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago

Imo, the part of this whole controversy that's really been danced around is how much of the disputed $250m bonus is developer bonus and how much is executive bonus. I would be very interested in more details around this breakdown and eligibility if anyone has seen it.

As far as I've seen, the only indicator that this was anything other than an executive bonus dispute was one executive claiming they were totally going to share it with the rest of the team after the shit went down and the story was in the press. Sorry if I find that claim less than reputable. What Krafton did was undeniably greedy and illegal, but how worked up am I supposed to get about executive payouts? It seems like the other employees weren't in the sale language at all, and there's a very real possibility they may end up getting larger bonuses now that the executives have resorted to using their development team as a tool to garner additional public sympathy.

[-] Pika@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

how worked up am I supposed to get about executive payouts

I think this is the wrong mentality looking at it. Regardless of payout (which I do agree should be going to employees as well which according to most sources do seem to agree that at least some will be going to the employees as well), imagine the precedent this would imply:

Larger companies being allowed to "agree" to terms as part of an acquisition, and then once they have control over it just decide "yea you know what I don't need to pay this" and then not doing so. That was my main issue regarding this. The concept of a company agreeing to terms in order to acquire a company. Then deciding after the fact that since they regretted their decision that they just shouldn't need to uphold their end of the legally binding deal put a massive sour taste in my mouth.

Honestly I would have been just as satisfied with a ruling stating that unknown world's acquisition was invalid due to the EPA breakage and therefore is now its own independent studio again, but has to refund the 500m (minus whatever amount the court decides to use as compensation/retribution that Krafton had paid for the acquisition, and completely throw the 250m bonus out the window.

[-] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 97 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And to think this game almost got cancelled because the CEO made a promise, got cold feet, and asked ChatGPT to weasel his ass out of it, and FOLLOWED THE PLAN, and LEFT RECEIPTS.

Rich people aren't smart for getting rich. They're incredibly fucking stupid as a baseline.

[-] Horsey@lemmy.world 8 points 19 hours ago

I totally want to know more about this

[-] QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social 8 points 17 hours ago

If you want to dive into the court documents, you can here: https://courts.delaware.gov/Opinions/Download.aspx?id=392880

But I would just recommend listening to some lawyers comment on the situation, like Opening Arguments: https://www.patreon.com/posts/idiot-ceo-used-153623405?collection=867807

[-] reksas@sopuli.xyz 80 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Steam review excerpt from Ulrich

--" Their EULA specifically calls out the following behavior and actions as not allowed and will result in the termination of your license:

  • Using a VPN.
  • Streaming the game.
  • Making fan art.
  • "Taking actions that go against social norms"
  • Playing the game on more than one device without buying more than one license.
  • Any action that "Tarnishes the reputation of Krafton"

They also mention that they:

  • Reserve the right to "remote access the game" at any time, meaning they have backdoor access to your computer.
  • Reserve the right to harvest your personal data, such as full legal name, email, physical address, phone number, gender, etc.
  • Will pass that data on to third party providers, such as marketing agencies and cloud services
  • Provide no guarantee that the data is protected or anonymized in any way (it includes your name and address so how could it be, anyway?) "--

Might want to read the eula for the game, otherwise you might lose access to it.

[-] demonsword@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Shitty draconinan and unforceable EULA, that's a hard pass for me. Any company that does shit like that don't deserve to see my money.

[-] QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social 6 points 20 hours ago

Link to the terms of service here: https://subnautica.com/en/policy/tos

I didn't see anything about VPNs.

Besides that, it's definitely an overreaching document. I expect it to get a failing grade at ToS;DR.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 11 points 17 hours ago

What's funny is that the EU has already ruled the EULAs are not legally enforceable. So that custom EU version is irrelevant and they may as well have not bothered.

[-] Epzillon@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Any source on that? As a european i am very interested on reading up on this!

[-] Airfried@piefed.social 5 points 22 hours ago

Shouldn't there be a Steam EULA or something that overwrites BS like this? I don't know. I'm genuinely curious if that holds up. If developers really can terminate your license willy-nilly and damage Valve's reputation by doing so. Because it would sound like a PR nightmare for the store front too.

[-] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Wouldn't they lose access to their own rights by causing a scandal that tarnishes Kraftons reputation?

[-] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

They are not end users. So the End User License Agreement wouldn't apply

[-] reksas@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

why would they include themselves in it when they can make onesided demands?

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago

The three claimed, however, that Krafton had betrayed them by firing them right before delaying Subnautica 2, a move they allege was designed to deliberately prevent its Early Access release, and avoid it selling well enough to trigger a $250 million bonus for the development team.

Disgusting if true.

[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 141 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

What do you mean if true? They went to court and produced the ChatGPT logs that Krafton CEO used to strategize how to get out of paying the bonus.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

And people buy it in record numbers anyway? ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 100 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, the judge reversed the layoffs and reinstated the Unknown Worlds team, and now they'll get the bonus. But yes very awkward all around.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

OK I didn't see the article mention that. Only that they leaders were fired, and everybody lost the bonus.
I guess it ended OK then?

[-] QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social 8 points 20 hours ago

The judge extended the deadline on the bonus by 9 months (to September).

If Subnautica earns $69.8million in revenue by then, Krafton will need to pay up the full $250million to the team.

https://gamerant.com/subnautica-2-250-million-bonus/

Considering it sold 2 million copies in 12 hours, at $30 each, I'm assuming they're very close to reaching that (if they haven't already).

[-] Don_alForno@feddit.org 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

70 Million in revenue (not profit) for a 250 Million bonus ... all else aside, was the executive who signed that high on coke?

[-] QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social 4 points 18 hours ago

That's correct, revenue, not profit.

The CEO of Krafton was the one who signed the deal. He definitely had buyers remorse which is why he ended up ignoring his lawyers and turning to ChatGPT for advice on how to delay the release of Subnautica 2 and avoid the payout.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 17 hours ago

No wonder the idiot tried to get out of it what a stupid thing to agree to. Perhaps a change in management might be a good idea, the current CEO appears to be throwing good money after bad.

[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 day ago

Personally - I'm not buying the game. Krafton still owns the studio, and they've done nothing to make the situation better. Court mandated remediations aside, krafton tried to abuse these devs and steal what they were owed. They're still working under a hostile parent company and likely will become a skeleton crew in no time.

Best case scenario unknown worlds can use the money to split themselves into a new studio.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

It's sad the the gaming industry so often turn toxic. ๐Ÿ˜’

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[-] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago

It does mention:

Earlier this year, publisher Krafton was accused of ignoring a court order by announcing to staff that the game was releasing in May, despite such a decision seemingly being the responsibility of the newly reinstated CEO Ted Gill.

Gill is the first person named as part of "the three".

[-] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 1 day ago

I suppose that if you're another development studio working with Krafton, like InZOI, you're probably looking with a lot of suspicion at every move from your publisher now.

[-] Airfried@piefed.social 5 points 22 hours ago

Krafton isn't just publishing Inzoi, it founded the entire studio. If you work there you work for Krafton. And honestly it shows in the sloppy product.

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[-] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 day ago

I sure haven't, and won't. If that's what their leadership wants, I won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. There are many other games, I don't need to play this particular one that badly.

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[-] AcesFullOfKings@feddit.uk 17 points 1 day ago

But it's in Early Access.. so I don't wanna see yet. I'll wait for full release

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[-] 13igTyme@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago

Fuck this game. The CEO ties to fuck over employees and last year they announced shifting to "AI first" for gaming. Fuck Krafton and every game they make or buy.

[-] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The CEO got punished for it, dude. Let go. The game is only alive because the employees fought the dipshit tooth and nail at every turn and he got shafted. Now he owes all the employees 250 million.

[-] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

The CEO got punished for it, dude.

How many years did he get?

[-] Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Lost full rights of any managerial ability with subnautica 2 & reinstated the old CEO & required to pay the bonus out if sale targets are hit and the deadline was extended to September/w the ability to delay the deadline further to march 2027 at the choice of Unknown World.

That's also ignoring monetary damages and punishment for it which is phase two of the lawsuit and currently in the courts still.

I doubt jail time will be done(nor should it really as this is all monetary issues) but, punishment for the blatent breakage of the EPA terms is likely nowhere near over for krafton.

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[-] 13igTyme@piefed.social 6 points 1 day ago

The CEO is a billionaire that will pay his employees only if it sells a certain amount. It's a slap on the wrist. Doesn't change the fact he tried it and has shifted the entire company to AI first.

Stop sucking CEO dick.

[-] SalamenceFury@piefed.social 7 points 1 day ago

How am I glazing him with this post? The game sold 2 million copies in the first 12 hours, their goal is 3 million. I think they're close to hitting it. This is literally the only time a CEO suffered consequences for being an evil piece of shit.

[-] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

caveat: the game still has to sell at least 3M copies for the devs to get the $250M

[-] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 6 points 1 day ago

I have a soft spot for the first two, but that's mainly because I can play them on my phone and the controls actually aren't awful like most mobile games.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 day ago

So only a year wait, until it's stable and affordable.

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

It's already stable and $30 for the amount of content already is worth it. I've got almost 20 hours with 2 other friends playing coop on it and having an absolute blast so far.

[-] johntash@eviltoast.org 7 points 1 day ago

It's less than $30 for a game worth more than that imo. I also haven't had any stability issues with it on Linux.

[-] bananapinball@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sells would mean the people owns it. In this case the EULA is clear, you are renting the game...

[-] Carrot@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

You aren't wrong, that's why I use Goldberg/steamless to keep my library of steam games safe, even if steam shits the bed

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[-] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 3 points 1 day ago

I am glad to see, too bad my PC is too old for it, I would gladly play it otherwise.

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this post was submitted on 17 May 2026
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