{"id":56186,"date":"2026-05-29T10:16:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56186"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:16:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T02:16:40","slug":"subnautica-2-is-a-massive-hit-so-krafton-has-to-pay-that-250-million-bonus-to-devs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=56186","title":{"rendered":"Subnautica 2 Is A Massive Hit, So Krafton Has To Pay That $250 Million Bonus To Devs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/subnautica-2-is-a-massive-hit-so-krafton-has-to-pay-that-250-million-bonus-to-devs\/l-intro-1779983531.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subtitle\">The company has been trying to weasel out of making this payment for a while now.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Subnautica 2<\/em> is selling like hotcakes, despite being an unfinished early access release. People have been so desperate for good old-fashioned underwater exploration that the game has already sold at least 4 million copies. This means that publisher Krafton has to finally make good on its promise to pay devs a $250 million bonus, according to a report by <em>IGN<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This bonus has been at the heart of a legal battle between Krafton and developer Unknown Worlds. Krafton bought Unknown Worlds back in 2021 and the contract stipulated that executives and staff would get to share in a $250 million bonus if they hit certain revenue targets. According to the South Korean business press, those targets have been hit and the payout is likely forthcoming.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Subnautica 2 Early Access Gameplay Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6t2nDHldoSk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This wasn&#8217;t always assured. The developers missed the original revenue target window of 2025 because Krafton delayed the game to avoid making the payout. According to a pre-trial brief, Krafton CEO Changham Kim allegedly nixed the payout because it would be a &#8220;professional embarrassment&#8221; and make him look like a &#8220;pushover.&#8221; The company also fired the CEO of Unknown Worlds and other co-founders before a judge forced it to reverse course.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s 2026, so of course there&#8217;s also a weird AI component to the story. It&#8217;s been reported that CEO Kim turned to ChatGPT for ideas as to how to avoid paying out that bonus. Even the chatbot said it would be &#8220;difficult to cancel the earnout.&#8221; However, the penny-pinching CEO and his AI bestie eventually came up with something called Project X, which was some kind of convoluted plan to either negotiate a lower bonus amount to take over Unknown Worlds.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;They looked to buy time,&#8221; vice-chancellor Lori Will of the court of chancery in Delaware said in a ruling. &#8220;Over the next month, Krafton followed most of ChatGPT&#8217;s recommendations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That didn&#8217;t work, and here we are. <em>Subnautica 2<\/em> is actually available to play, after years of waiting. Meanwhile, Krafton has announced its transformation into an &#8220;AI first&#8221; company. Good luck with that.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2182939\/subnautica-2-is-a-massive-hit-so-krafton-has-to-pay-that-250-million-bonus-to-devs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company has been trying to weasel out of making this payment for a while now. Subnautica 2 is selling like hotcakes, despite being an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10617,4152,467,18303,5979,787,640,9961],"class_list":["post-56186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-bonus","tag-devs","tag-hit","tag-krafton","tag-massive","tag-million","tag-pay","tag-subnautica","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}