And they want to add micro transactions
Pop it in your calendars
Submitted 1 month ago by sirico@feddit.uk to games@lemmy.world
https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/b488c5af-8600-4bfa-bcad-f8f3c18178e0.webp
Comments
Ellvix@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Zorque@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But they said they wouldn’t!
Dioxid3@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s Krafton. Just look at what became of PUBG. I mean it’s an OK game and a lot of QoL came to it after all these years, but there hasn’t been any major meta shift in 5 years or so. Only recently they’ve started looking into how broken certain semiauto snipers are.
Instead you are drowned in lootboxes and emotes
mriswith@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The three people were replaced with a guy who used to work at EA. And one of their first announcements was an unprompted “we wont put loot boxes in the game”…
ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 1 month ago
I’m not going to burn your house down, rest easy knowing that. :)
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Next week: Introducing new “reward containers”
kurcatovium@piefed.social 1 month ago
No, they won't. Because they already are there.
Signtist@bookwyr.me 1 month ago
They did all this because they know that the vast majority of the playerbase will never hear about this, and many of those that do will either forget, or simply not care enough to boycott the game. We're in an age of apathy across the board, with so much bad press that any given scandal just fades into the background noise.
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Who’s the streamer that boosted the Don’t Kill Games petition? Get them on it.
merc@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Pop it in your calendars? Maybe I’m using calendars wrong, but mine aren’t filled with things I should avoid doing. But, I’m willing to learn. What date should I put “Don’t Buy Subnautica 2” on?
Fizz@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
Everyday up until it releases
ripcord@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Shat about after it releases? How will I know to keep not buying it?
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Yes
victorz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Yup, that title was pure brain fuck.
etchinghillside@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Im gonna need a fact check on that bonus number.
sirico@feddit.uk 1 month ago
Yes you are going to need to, but as you asked so presumptively I have a couple of links from pretty good journalistic sources.
wioum@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Bloomberg article: archive.is/njpO8
BakedCatboy@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Archive link for the Bloomberg article in case the gift link stops working archive.is/2mltm
FanBlade@lemmynsfw.com 1 month ago
I mean, you made the claim presumptively, seems reasonable to think it would be on you to provide a source.
paultimate14@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025
The whole key to this is how the bonus is structured, and that is unknown still. They very well may have just been something like “10% of net profit, capped at $250 million”.
If the whole cost of the game was JUST $250 million, that would put it in the [top-15](The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025) most expensive games we have official numbers for. This doesn’t pass the smell test.
etchinghillside@reddthat.com 1 month ago
Apologies - that was not a dig at the validity of the information provided.
That’s a very high number - so I had to either be misunderstanding the number or underestimating the number of employees the bonus was going to.
ipitco@lemmybefree.net 1 month ago
You said it was a fact when it’s just a suspicion
sorter_plainview@lemmy.today 1 month ago
I wonder how much of this is true. Statement from the publisher
On Thursday, Krafton issued another statement addressed to “our 12 million fellow Subnauts.” The company said 90% of the $250 million payout was allocated to Unknown Worlds’ three senior leaders. Krafton accused the executives of abandoning their responsibilities in order to work on other projects, including a film, leading to delays for the game.
atticus88th@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This fact check provided by EA Games.
Wolf@lemmy.today 1 month ago
I am also boycotting Microsoft and every product from companies owned by them.
Sure, that doesn’t leave a lot of games I can buy, but hey, Indie games are often the best games. Also I have a backlog so huge there will probably be peace in the middle east before I’m thorough with it.
Besides if there is a game I really want to play, I hear there arrrrr still ways to do so without supporting genocide.
kingpoiuy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Linux gaming is really hot right now. Out of my 575 games on steam I can play 568 of them.
Wolf@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Ditched Windows permanently 11 months ago for Pop-OS and couldn’t be happier. I’ve been a big Linux fan for years, but would always dual boot for gaming purposes.
I’m so glad that isn’t necessary any longer. Almost feels cheating, being Microsoft free with Zero downsides and plenty of benefits.
You may already know, but a lot of times when a game isn’t listed as ‘playable’ it just means that particular game hasn’t been tested yet and will likely still work just fine, unless it requires kernel level anti cheat ofc
Just so happens I’m boycotting that as well. If I wanted you to do shady shit to my OS, I’d have stayed on Windows.
Typhoonigator@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Do you have a recommended flavor of Linux for gaming?
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is a good policy. They destroy everything they touch, anyway, including their acquired studios.
vivalapivo@lemmy.today 1 month ago
I find it really hard to boycott Microsoft today. Yeah, fuck windows, office, Xbox. But there’s GitHub and Azure which you just ignore walking the internet
Wolf@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Yeah, GitHub really hurts. Hopefully people will start to use SourceForge and similar alternatives once they realize that Microsoft isn’t just trying to monopolize Operating Systems and Gaming Studios, but the whole damn Internet as well.
TheBeege@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Just gonna copy paste my comment on a related post…
Similar shit happened when they were PUBG Corporation. Fuck these lying assholes. Player Unknown was a smart, capable dude, and they exiled him to a remote office because he got pissed at the CEO for over-monetizing things in a way that cost them players.
When they released the battle pass while the game was retail, all of the non-Korean employees nearly revolted. It wasn’t smart, and it was a money grab on the players. When the team lead of market research told the product manager that the feature was a bad idea and would lose them all their Western players, the product manager got him demoted and moved to another team.
When the numbers didn’t look good, the data analysts were freaking out because they couldn’t deliver bad news up the chain of command, even if it was accurate.
When they acquired Mad Glory, they promised that the dev team would still be contracted to other game companies to build APIs and tools for them, keeping the game industry tooling ecosystem healthy (think op.gg). When PUBG Corporation acquired them, the company canceled their contract with Bethesda for the API they were in the middle of building and forbade them from working with other companies.
Fuck Bluehole. Fuck PUBG Corporation. Fuck Krafton. Fuck game studios in Korea. Don’t play Korean games. Kpop and cosmetics and whatever are chill. Don’t play Korean games. Korean game companies are fucking cancer.
Don’t buy Subnautica 2. The Subnautica franchise died when Krafton became the publisher.
vxx@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Kpop is extremely explpoitive to the artists, much worse than game development.
TheBeege@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You’re absolutely right. I was too focused. I crossed that out in my comment. Thanks
wellheh@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Probably would not add kpop to the list of chill. That industry is rife with abuse like slave contracts.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Well, you can’t deny that whatever are still chill, at least. That’s not nothing.
TheBeege@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Very fair point. I was a bit hyper-focused. Will edit my previous comment
L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Friendly reminder that Korea invented and perfected micro-transactions. MapleStory has done more damage to both worldwide gaming and Korean game devs than anything else could ever hope to.
Valorie12@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Which is very sad because MapleStory was such a great game, at one time. I still play it (private servers) often, 20 years later. The game had such creative passion in it before Nexon took over it and monetized the shit out of it.
MITM0@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Dude what did Korean devs ever do to you ? You ARE generalizing a bit. What’s next ?
TheBeege@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The devs themselves are fine. It’s the leadership that’s cancer. Abusive leadership in Korean companies is actually a pretty well known issue. It’s just more self-destructive in game companies, which I have direct experience with. So they did a lot to me and my friends. And said friends shared their stories of other Korean game companies.
You’re absolutely right to question, especially with my level of anger, but I’m confident this one is justified.
Vintor@retrolemmy.com 1 month ago
More importantly in the short run, remove it from your wishlists so that Krafton can see your choice! At the moment, they are super proud of the game being the most wishlisted on Steam.
Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Isnt every other new game “the most wish listed on steam”? Do any of them ever prove this with numbers?
Vintor@retrolemmy.com 1 month ago
You can see the numbers here, for instance: steamdb.info/stats/mostwished/
zqps@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Steam itself shows the rankings, I believe.
swordgeek@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Oooh, there’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
$250M PLUS legal costs PLUS $250M in punitive fees. That should hurt them a bit.
MJKee9@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You can’t typically get punitive damages for contract disputes. Also, there is a very real possibility that the contract hasn’t been breached by the new owners’ actions. It sounds like they used their superior bargaining power to put a lot of questionable yet enforceable provisions in the contract.
thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Ive heard of it once where the defendant litterally wrote a book on how to use overseas buisness to pull off scams like the one he was being accused of
swordgeek@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Punitive damages can be awarded for bad-faith bargaining, which definitely seems to be the case here.
It’s a stretch perhaps, but that’s what I think would be reasonable.
flandish@lemmy.world 1 month ago
i never bought 1. But also the story behind 2 feels like ksp2.
duchess@feddit.org 1 month ago
Subnautica was lightning in a bottle.
Yamanashi@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Seems like there is a plot twist to this story no one is mentioning bsky.app/profile/…/3ltmyjaecpc2w
vane@lemmy.world 1 month ago
abigscaryhobo@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It sucks that this is going around too. Because no matter what the “right” choice is the devs are still gonna have to see what should have just been their fun project get thrown around in gaming politic hell
Ashtear@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Everyone seems to be more interested in the latest techbro feud so I wanted to highlight what he said about Unknown Worlds staff not being given specifics on what their compensation will be. The statement was quite nebulous on that.
No problem going into detail about the previous execs though!
ter_maxima@jlai.lu 1 month ago
Publishers are cancer. Self publish whenever possible !
paultimate14@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m at least willing to wait until it gets reviews to make a sound judgement.
I don’t think the bonus would have been a big enough reason to delay the game. Delaying a game like this relatively last-minute and giving it an extra year of development is waaaay more expensive than the bonuses would have been. That’s a gigantic revenue spike they were expecting to get this year and now have to push out to next year, and they may well end up paying out similar bonuses next year too.
My suspicion, from the history of Steve Papoutsis, is that Kraftom wanted to add in anti-player elements and the original founders refused. Probably micro transactions, or maybe even having a bigger multiplayer focus to make it closer to a live-service game. Some mechanism to get money from customers beyond the original purchase. I suspect crap like that will be reason enough not to buy the game when it comes out.
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You should get a publisher if:
You want to make one game then get fired
You want your work to be bastardized by the publisher in the future
You want countless hours of overtime/crunch and no compensation
You want to be another disposable cog in the machine
If that doesn’t sound like something you want, self-publish.
Gt5@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
I feel like I’m the only person on the planet who thought Subnautica was boring and tedious. It was definitely not for me
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Well this just wrecked my evening.
But this is an ongoing, recurring story. Thief 2014 was a mockery of the original titles.
LifeCoffeeGaming@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Now this has been rather disproved, do we think we could retract the post? It’s probably done harm already but we can at least acknowledge it’s no longer accurate.
Tattorack@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Well… Piracy it is, then.
Derpenheim@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Yar har fiddle dee dee
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I will support this by continuing to be apathetic toward (and in fact ignorant of) a game known as Subnautica 2.
dastanktal@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Companies only answer to profit and unfortunately we get to see the results. Can’t have those proles making 250 million dollars now. That would eat into the profits of our shareholders.
nul9o9@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Pirate all Krafton games.
Chill_Dan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Avast ye matey!
Gameline@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
jokes on them, i already pirate their games ☕
kieron115@startrek.website 1 month ago
Subnautica is one of those games that’s incredible hard to recreate. Once they started trying to explain every little thing about the aliens I completely lost interest. You may be able to bottle lightning, but you certainly can’t do it twice.
DicJacobus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I never cared for Subnautica I also never cared for PUBG
But what little I know about PUBG, What I’ve seen them do to Subnautica 2, and that lazy AI ridden “Sims killer” Inzoi, Im of the opinion Krafton are just hustlers.
roundup5381@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Below Zero was ass anyways
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I remember Flayra from Natural Selection, a half-life mod twenty years ago. I remember him making appeals for investors/donations to keep Unknown Worlds afloat (or maybe just launch it as a company. I recall a video he posted where he showed us his tiny apartment and the milk in his fridge.)
Then Subnautica came out years later and I thought ‘Well I’ll be damned.’
Konraddo@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Honestly, I do not plan to buy it after Below Zero. Now that they did all the evil stuff I guess my decision is well justified.
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
It’s a canon event for any game company that achieves moderate success
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Kerbal Space Program 2 still hurts me.
nuko147@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Although Kerbal space program 2 had major issues from the dev team, only for the publisher to pull the plug because of how bad the progress was, and leave the game in permanent early access.
Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Hopefully Kitten Space Agency ends up being a true spiritual sequel.
kautau@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s a canon event for any
gamecompany thatachieves moderate successgets acquired by investorsTabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
True :3
I just said game to stay on topic tbh
pennomi@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Except ConcernedApe, apparently.
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
Individual devs seem to generally manage better I think :3. It’s once the companies expand is that stuff starts going awry
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Or the Terraria team.
pory@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Didn’t sell out to a company or publisher with shareholder profit motives. Truly independent (not “indie” as slang for low budget) development teams don’t follow this pattern unless they sell their IP and studio outright.
shialac@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Rip ZA/UM
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I think Croteam has been able to have moderate success over the years, but being based in Eastern Europe might make them insulated from issues. Devolver only recently bought them, but they seem to be one of the few good publishers. I at least didn’t see their name on the Video Games Europe member list that’s opposed to SKGs.
burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
It would make sense for it to be canon in the subnautica universe. I think they were pretty much the epitome of authors with an anvil with the references to economics and governing.