Comment on ‘Subnautica 2’ Leaders Say Krafton Sabotaged Game Over Payout [new events in the Subnautica 2 story]
Goodeye8@piefed.social 1 day agoI didn't want to think they're completely incompetent so I decided to do some digging. That $250 million is actually part of their acquisition deal. Krafton technically bought Unknown Worlds for $750 million. $500 million was paid up front and the extra $250 million was due for 2026 if Unknown Worlds met the performance clause. That $250 million has nothing to do with the sales of Subnautica, it's part of the buyout.
This could mean they were always going to try and stiff Unknown Worlds. It also means it's probably less about the people working at Unknown Worlds getting stiffed and more about the leadership expecting a payout that was agreed upon.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Okay, they spent $750 million for a studio that has barely made $250 million in its history. I still don’t think the math mathulates here.
Asetru@feddit.org 18 hours ago
So what? Things are mostly valued by what the projected performance is, not the prior performance.
Also it seems that Krafton assumed they would miss the performance criteria, so they thought they’d bought it for $500 million. That doesn’t sound unreasonable for a studio that made $250 million with a single release and already had more in its pipeline.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
What do you base projected performance on if not prior performance?
I don’t think Unknown Worlds did have a $250 million single release; that’s probably what they netted across three games, Natural Selection 2, Subnautica, Below Zero.
Stupidity is an ingredient in betting against your own teams. Because this is what happens, you put yourself in a position where you don’t want your own victories.
Any way, I see it as our goal as the game playing public to figure out how to make this cost Krafton more than $250 million.