• sorter_plainview@lemmy.today
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      18 hours 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.

    • FanBlade@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      I mean, you made the claim presumptively, seems reasonable to think it would be on you to provide a source.

    • paultimate14@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day 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.

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 day ago

        Does it make sense to nitpick how much they’re getting though? The fact that they’re being denied any bonus is shady as fuck.

        • paultimate14@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 day ago

          That’s how bonuses work. If it was guaranteed regardless of how the company perfroms, it wouldn’t be a bonus.

          It is entirely possible that, even if they had released Subnautica 2 in its current state right now, it may not meet sales expectations and no one would get a bonus anyways. They could make a great game and the marketing team drops the ball- no bonus. They could market like crazy but the game sucks- no bonus. Data breaches or corporate embezzlement or world war- there are tons of factors that could prevent them from meeting those goals.

          The amount is also important because it is being used by the position to try to support an argument that Krafton made this move in order to avoid paying the bonus. When in reality the cost of that bonus payment is probably a tiny fraction of what they are losing by delaying the game.

          Personally I hate bonuses, and I have always advocated at my company for more of the payroll to be structured as salary. But other colleagues of mine really like bonuses. They like the increased reward and risk involved. It comes down to risk aversion, so I’m not going to call those people or employers evil or anything just because it’s not my preference.

          I’m also not defending Krafton’s decision to replace the leadership and delay the game. Personally I suspect that they did so in order to add more monetization to the game, but that’s impossible to know until reviews start to get published. I will say that no one should pre-order the game, but I would also say no one should pre-order any game. Why are people pre-ordering games at all?

          And what if Krafton is right? What if the game is actually in a state right now that would disappoint customers? Seems like for the last decade every videogame community has been complaining about games being released as unfinished and buggy meses. No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk for example. Any time Nintendo delays a game, all their fans applaud and share the Miyamoto meme (“a delaged game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”). So I’m really surprised to see that a publisher has come out and admitted that they think the game needs more time to meet customer expectations and instead of applauding them for taking the loss the Internet is instead promoting these weird conspiracy theories that don’t add up to explain how it’s actually bad.

            • paultimate14@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              11 hours ago

              The public does not have enough information to judge the relative probabilities. Krafton has that information and has every incentive to release the game as soon as possible, and they still chose to delay.

    • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 day 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.