Nothing about PUBG and Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton's recent decision to become an "AI-first company" look good. The company plans to drop over 130 billion won ($88 million) into the project, recently stopped hiring new employees, and started a voluntary resignation program for its employees in South Korea this week.
Far down the ladder from these decisions is Eleventh Hour Games, the developer behind Last Epoch, which Krafton acquired in July. The timing couldn't have been worse as it happened right after the founders of Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds were unceremoniously fired for what they claim was a move to avoid paying a $250 million earnout.
At the time, EHG founder Judd Cobler told fans of the budding action RPG that having a corporate owner would only benefit the game in the long run by giving them access to more resources and employees.
Fans of the game were understandably skeptical about how the buyout would impact the game. That skepticism turned into outright worry when Last Epoch's first expansion, Orobyss, was announced during a Sony State of Play in September. Ever since the Last Epoch Kickstarter in 2018, EHG promised that once you buy the game, everything except premium cosmetics would be totally free. Those plans might've changed under the new owners, however, as Cobler wrote in a post last month that the answer to whether or not the expansion will have a price is "maybe."
In light of today's news about Krafton, Cobler broke his silence to remind fans on the game's subreddit that the studio is still actively hiring new employees. And in a reply to a Reddit user lamenting the acquisition, he explained the situation EHG was in when the deal was struck.
"Our options were limited," Cobler says. "We needed funding and our options were looking like A: pivot to working on someone else’s IP, B: taking funding elsewhere where we liked the company less and would stifle our vision for the product, or C: join Krafton, D: go bankrupt and actually cease to exist. I know everyone will call doom and gloom but I still strongly believe long term this will allow us to compete in the space in a much bigger way."
Not everyone shares his confidence, especially as Krafton continues to dump money into AI and is still dealing with an ongoing lawsuit with the former Subnautica 2 developers.
While there's no clear evidence that Last Epoch is headed downhill, it's hard to believe that Krafton's recent decisions won't impact its developers. The game just had its third season and plans to have several more before the expansion's release.
