If it helps the sentiment I’ll note that it was us that went out looking for a partner here to bring more stability and growth potential to the studio. I know publishers get bad wraps, often times for good reasons, but we vetted many of them and Krafton was most aligned in our mission. Many others were interested but actually did want to change core aspects of our planned future whereas Kraftons main stated want was expanding the franchise and more consistent releases over time.
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Is this a joke? Krafton? The same thing that happened to Subnautica and the Callisto Protocol will happen to them, they will be pressured or fired at the first time and replaced by one of their managers. They will ruin the online store with some pay2win or pay2fast nonsense. And if not that some new thing they will do to ruin LE. I guess the check was big enough.
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You might be able to alleviate players concerns if you tell us what control they have, is it just helping hiring, direction of gameplay, monetization? What do they have besides “aligned in our mission” directly impacts the game and its playerbase?
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I appreciate the response, and I assumed you probably were the ones who initiated things, but I still seriously distrust most publishers. I have seen many, many, many of my favorite games ruined by deals such as these, even if it goes well at first.
I really hope that does not happen here, but public opinion surround Krafton is very poor which doesn’t do a lot to keep me confident. The Subnautica 2 situation in particular has got a lot of us distrustful, not to mention past Krafton games like PUBG being aggressively monetized in problematic ways.
Again, I really do wish you all the best. My initial post was largely frustration with the entire industry and the way money has a habit of ruining all the best games. I hope that doesn’t happen here, but I remain extremely skeptical.
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I wish you the best of luck with Krafton and their present situation and hope you’ll find yourselves only in positive situations. LE is an amazing game that you can feel was created with pure passion and it would be pretty sad to see it fall to publisher greed. I’m writing this while playing it and want to see this game reach new heights.
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As an acquisition they have ultimate authority but they’re trusting us to continue growing like we have been. They don’t want to direct the game, monetization, hiring, or anything if we can handle it as we have been. Now I assume if we ended up falling off a cliff in terms of sales or growth they’d have more interest in correcting failure, but so would we. But they’re not looking to come in and throw wrenches into what’s working, they’re looking to enable growth under our direction which is to their benefit.
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Your passion is clear and you know you want it right and you are possibly the victim of a possible good deal but with the worst timing in history.
It’s disrespectful to ask you further details on the contract. You are adults, you have your own judgement and made your plans.
we will see the results in some time and if we like it we will stay, if it goes bad we will be adults and move on. that’s life. It’s still a business and there are people livelihoods on the line, before your customers enjoyment
So really, good luck and work your magic guys, at least for now you have less worries.
Can I ask what growth you’re looking for as I can’t see any passion from Krafton in the ARPG market. It seems like their focus is entirely on gacha games other than the UW drama. What have they brought to the table, other than money, that you though would be good for the game?
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Big yikes
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I’ve seen this story a lot in the industry.
“The Chronicle of a Death Announces”
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Well, RIP, I guess.
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Good question! Our biggest goal was to find someone that didn’t want to change us in any large way, would be able to financially secure the teams growth, had experience bringing games to larger markets and different platforms, and in general were on the up and up. I don’t know how much I should say about some of the cool things that they’re working on internally that interested me but I believe they’re going to be able to help us take LE to another level and when we need assistance or guidance they’ll be able to provide it.
It’s also worth noting that sometimes you just get along well with people and my leadership team and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with them and where their heads are on games. That did count for something as well.
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It’s wild that you don’t see a problem with that statement in context to who and what Krafton is.
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Yea… I’m now hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
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I find myself immensely concerned. None of us know what actually took place behind closed doors, what assurances were made, or the exact details of the deal struck. That said, we all know how this story goes. Krafton has a reputation, and it isn’t a good one. We’ve all seen what happens when a passionate project gets bought out by a larger publisher. At first, everything looks the same. Promises are made. Control is supposedly retained. But the priorities shift. Monetization ramps up. Development pivots to engagement metrics. Transparency fades. The game starts to feel like a product instead of a passion.
Look at PUBG. Under Krafton, it went from a scrappy, genre-defining title to a hollow shell bloated with microtransactions, bots, and systems built to extract value instead of provide it. The player base was sidelined. The original vision was drowned in monetization noise. That didn’t happen all at once. It happened step by step, always framed as minor or necessary, until what remained was barely recognizable.
I really hope this isn’t another Activision acquires Blizzard moment. But I’ve seen this pattern play out too many times to feel anything but dread. This isn’t just a funding deal. It’s a full acquisition. That means power changes hands. Maybe not right away, and maybe not in name, but it always does eventually.
Last Epoch has been something rare, a game that felt like it was built for players by devs who are also players, and who actually care. If Krafton steers it even slightly toward the same mindset that gutted PUBG, it won’t matter how good the intentions were on day one.
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Well written. Vshojo and Activision showed that you can’t operate on trust and promises in business. You need cold, hard contract with clear terms.
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I’m gonna be honest, I mostly see negative things about Krafton online, have no real knowledge about it, but what I know is that I like what LE currently is.
This entire forum post is a lot of business speak, but doesn’t really explain to me what “guidance” exactly Krafton is supposedly giving to you guys. Is it just money? The knowledge to build a FOMO inducing Microtransaction shop?
I feel like we could use some clarification what exactly you guys are gaining out of this partnership, and what you have to give up in return.
Or maybe I’m the stupid one for having no reading comprehension.
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They say they don’t want to change you but when they have ultimate authority and then 6 months or a year down the road when their ROI isn’t panning out as they had hoped…you have lost the ability to stop them from changing whatever they want.
I get that money is important but not losing your soul is more important IMO. I hope I am wrong but this seems like a bad idea. I know Krafton all too well from PUBG and I used to love PUBG…when it was run by PlayerUnknown before Krafton took it over from him (or was pushed out?). Oh and that’s when the cash shop went nuts with crazy, goofy shit that was outrageously overpriced (gun skins that cost 2,000 dollars???). Uhg.
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That “exciting update” sounds more concerning than exciting, I’m assuming it’s needed to get the investment and corporate grunt to port to consoles, but imo that sounds like something written for investors rather than players.
I hope the offline version stays available so we don’t have to deal with whatever monetization fallout comes in 5-10 years
Hopefully with krafton’s current pr nightmare they’ll want to be precious with you guys.
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You said it well. I have similar fears. I don’t trust Krafton one bit. I used to LOVE PUBG and they systematically ruined it…after taking over from the creator of the game (the actual PlayerUnknown). Like you said…it wasn’t all at once but was systematically dismantled. Including closing down the official forums so they didn’t have to listen to complaints about the cash shop or persistent bugs or cheaters etc…This isn’t going to end well for EHG IMO.
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