It seems like PUBG and Subnautica writer Krafton desires buyers to see the Subnautica 2 authorized brawl as a web constructive for the studio.
Throughout a Q&A within the monetary presentation for the second quarter of 2025, buyers questioned the state of Krafton’s publishing group and its “myriad of investments.” Utilizing Subnautica 2 for example, the corporate maintains its inside processes are applicable for dealing with a number of video games, initiatives, and particular person milestones.
Krafton chief monetary officer Dongkeun Bae acknowledged that “discuss authorized proceedings” for Subnautica 2, in addition to its delay, could lead on folks on the skin to suppose the corporate’s inside milestone course of is being mismanaged. However he’d choose if buyers on the decision seen Krafton’s dealing with of the sport in a constructive mild. In keeping with the CFO, the actions that Krafton has taken on the sport (which included dismissing the event leads) “really symbolize that issues are successfully being managed inside Krafton in relation to the milestone administration.”
The reasoning behind this, as Bae defined, is that the Subnautica franchise has a big present participant base, and the corporate is assured {that a} “sure degree of gross sales” could be assured. But, Krafton is in search of to meet “the very best degree of satisfaction that the players have,” and thus selected the delay.
“As a result of we have managed the entire milestone course of very rigorously inside the firm, we had been in a position to make the choice we made concerning Subnautica 2, as a result of we felt that the sport was lower than par, lower than the extent that we had wished it to be. So I feel that case goes to point out that our milestone course of is being rigorously managed,” he stated.
Amidst Subnautica 2 drama, Krafton continues its acquisitions
As Bae talked about in passing, the delay of Subnautica 2 (from 2025 to early 2026, in response to the monetary presentation) is much from the most important information surrounding developer Unknown Worlds’ sequel. July kicked off with key management departing the studio. Every week later, stories alleged that the information of the delay would impression a possible $250 million bonus for the crew tied to income targets. The subsequent day, Unknown Worlds founders Charlie Cleveland and Max Macguire, alongside former CEO Ted Gill, filed a lawsuit towards Krafton.
A couple of days later, a redacted public model of the lawsuit turned publicly accessible. In it, the three former leaders defined at size how the promise of Subnautica 2’s “fast and large success,” taking the two.5 million wishlists on Steam as prime reference, would “probably set off the $250 million earnout to the studio’s former homeowners and workers.” This predicament, because the devs claimed, made Krafton “go nuclear” in a bid to delay that success.
Krafton’s Changhan Kim advised Unknown World leaders that an early entry launch could be “disastrous financially and massively embarrassing” for the writer. Krafton management despatched a press release to that tune alongside to Recreation Developer, and Bae strengthened this on the decision, saying that releasing Subnautica 2 prematurely with inadequate content material would have dissatisfied the gamers and broken the reputations of each the Sunbautica and Unknown Worlds manufacturers.
“Whereas we’re dissatisfied that Charlie, Max, and Ted have filed a lawsuit in search of an enormous payout, we sit up for defending ourselves in court docket. Within the meantime, Krafton stays targeted on what issues: delivering the very best sport as shortly as attainable to Subnautica’s followers,” the assertion reads.
Regardless of being in the midst of a authorized battle, Krafton went forward with its newest acquisition on July 25. The writer now owns indie studio Eleventh Hour Video games for an preliminary consideration of $96 million, which is thought for the ARPG Final Epoch.
Regarding the monetary outcomes of the final quarter, Krafton reported a income of ₩1.54 trillion (round $1.1 billion), a rise of over 11 % on the identical interval in 2024, whereas earnings totaled ₩703 billion (round $505 million), signifying a 9.5 % improve.
PUBG: Battlegrounds and Inzoi are on the forefront of those figures, the latter being the “fastest-selling Korean premium title to surpass 1 million items,” in response to Krafton. Now, the writer intends to develop Inzoi into a world franchise, whereas it is also putting religion on PUBG’s person generated content material venture launching on August.
The writer presently has 13 new sport tasks within the works, and plans to ramp up efforts to “uncover and develop new franchise IPs,” increasing its inside studios and making much more investments throughout totally different genres and areas.
