This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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.
I totally want to know more about this
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
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:
They also mention that they:
Might want to read the eula for the game, otherwise you might lose access to it.
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.
Edit: found the part for VPNs listed under the "prohibited uses" (emphasis my own):
use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the location of your use or Device, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on the use of the Game, the Documentation or Services or for any other purpose or in a way that violates these Terms;
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.
Any source on that? As a european i am very interested on reading up on this!
Wouldn't they lose access to their own rights by causing a scandal that tarnishes Kraftons reputation?
why would they include themselves in it? eula binds only users.
They are not end users. So the End User License Agreement wouldn't apply
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.
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.
What do you mean if true? They went to court and produced the ChatGPT logs that Krafton CEO used to plot how to get out of paying the bonus.
And people buy it in record numbers anyway? 😬
Yeah, the judge reversed the layoffs and reinstated the Unknown Worlds team, and now they'll the bonus. But yes very awkward all around.
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?
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.
It's sad the the gaming industry so often turn toxic. 😒
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).
70 Million in revenue (not profit) for a 250 Million bonus ... all else aside, was the executive who signed that high on coke?
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".
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.
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.
Kinda shitty for the site to phrase this as an allegation; it is exactly what the court found occurred, so there's no risk of misstating or libel exposure.
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.
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.
But it's in Early Access.. so I don't wanna see yet. I'll wait for full release
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.
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.
caveat: the game still has to sell at least 3M copies for the devs to get the $250M
They sold 2M copies in the first 12h, I think they'll hit that target.
The CEO got punished for it, dude.
How many years did he get?
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 but, punishment for the blatent breakage of the EPA terms is likely nowhere near over for krafton.
Sells would mean the people owns it. In this xase the EULA is clear, you are renting the game...
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
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.
It's fine. It's just the first game with a shitty UE5 plaster on top and a slightly different story. Wish they'd improved upon the general depth of interaction with the world, but it's exactly the same as the other two.
They fixed a bunch of mechanics and are adding multiplayer so that’s nice.
Co-op with my brothers and dad (who was a scuba trainer) is gonna be a blast.
I have a general unease about the sea and water in general so I'm sure it'll have some lovely tense moments once we get playing.
I have a general unease about the sea and water in general so I'm sure it'll have some lovely tense moments once we get playing.
For me the first one went from relaxing to anxiety-inducing quite quickly once you started to go deep
Yeah the first one is downright terrifying lmao
