According to The Korean Economic Daily, citing insider sources, Krafton has now been forced to pay out that bonus, which equates to $3.12 for every $1 every month that Unknown Worlds surpasses $69.8 million in revenue, with an upper limit of $250 million. This amounts to around 35% of Krafton’s operating profit in 2025, which may explain why Krafton fought tooth and nail to avoid paying the sum.
Subnautica devs have maxed out their bonuses already 😂
Oh no, the Krafton CEO cannot afford to purchase a new yacht this year. Poor guy. Should we start a GoFundMe for him?
To be fair, 90% of that 250 is going to three guys so someone was getting a yatch either way.
I’m worried he’ll recoup the shortfall by screwing over Krafton’s other owned studios, Embracer-style.
Looks like Krafton negotiated insanely bad bonus conditions and terms for themselves here. Are they adrenaline junkies or am I bad at math because it looks like they have to pay much larger bonuses than they made revenue so far.
That entire situation was ridiculous. The major points:
- Yes, that contract was stupidly favorable to Unknown Worlds. It was negotiated by none other than Chang-ham Kim, CEO of Krafton.
- Kim later realized that and wanted to back out of the contract because it would’ve made him look like a pushover. He employed the help of ChatGPT, which told him that it was a stupid fucking idea.
- He went ahead with the plan anyway. He fired Unknown Worlds’ three co-founders for made-up reasons and appointed Steve Papoutsis as the CEO
- He tried to sabotage the game’s development by disrupting communication between Unknown Worlds and other departments, to push the early access launch beyond the window where the 250M could be earned.
- Obviously it went to court. Krafton tried to change the story about the reason the co-founders were fired based on information that they discovered afterwards (they kept backups of documents, which Krafton argued was industrial espionage), but the judge was having none of that chicanery.
- During discovery, the ChatGPT logs and some conversations were revealed that personally implicated Kim.
- The court ruled in Unknown Worlds’ favour. The judge ordered Ted Gill to be reinstated as CEO (the other two co-founders chose not to return) and the bonus window to be extended by several months to account for the time that they didn’t have conrol of the company.
- As a last fuck-you, Papoutsis prematurely announced Subnautica 2’s early access launch. Gill had no idea about the state of development.
- Subnautica 2 then went on to be a massive success, Krafton has joined EA and Activision in the doghouse, and Chang-ham Kim is now known to be both a pushover and a fucking idiot.
Wild ride. That Kim bloke has been underwater and panicking for a while now
…pay out that bonus, which equates to $3.12 for every $1 every month that Unknown Worlds surpasses $69.8 million in revenue
Im a little lost here. Can someone explain this sentence please?
Krafton is paying out $3 for every $1 earned. They made a shit deal.
Yeah thats the part I understood, but on what conditions? If they earn 69m$ for 6 months in a row, the bonus is 0$ but if they earn 70m$ one month and 0$ for 5 more months the bonus is 210m$? That kind of doesnt make any sense.
