Want to first say I absolutely love Last Epoch and EHG. You guys have been absolutely amazing to me, and have made an amazing game. As someone familiar with PUBG and Tera, this is a MAJOR worry for the players. These games have run rampant with p2w, features that force you to pay money to advance at a normal pace, and poor moderation for hackers/cheaters. I trust you guys completely, I know making a game is expensive, what worries me is that they will be in position to TELL YOU what to do and force changes from who you guys are as a company. It has happened all too much in this business and it hurts not only us players but you guys too. If you trust them, I trust you, just please donât fully give them the power to force things you donât agree with morally.
RIP EHG, I guess. Fucking venture capital and predatory publishers.
No good news at all⌠at least for us players.
I am very worried.
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If it helps the sentiment Iâll 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.
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.
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 âaligned in our missionâ directly impacts the game and its playerbase?
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 doesnât 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 doesnât happen here, but I remain extremely skeptical.
I wish you the best of luck with Krafton and their present situation and hope youâll 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. Iâm writing this while playing it and want to see this game reach new heights.
As an acquisition they have ultimate authority but theyâre trusting us to continue growing like we have been. They donât 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 theyâd have more interest in correcting failure, but so would we. But theyâre not looking to come in and throw wrenches into whatâs working, theyâre looking to enable growth under our direction which is to their benefit.
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.
Itâs 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. thatâs life. Itâs 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 youâre looking for as I canât 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?
Big yikes
Iâve seen this story a lot in the industry.
âThe Chronicle of a Death Announcesâ
Well, RIP, I guess.
Good question! Our biggest goal was to find someone that didnât 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 donât know how much I should say about some of the cool things that theyâre working on internally that interested me but I believe theyâre going to be able to help us take LE to another level and when we need assistance or guidance theyâll be able to provide it.
Itâs 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.
Itâs wild that you donât see a problem with that statement in context to who and what Krafton is.
Yea⌠Iâm now hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
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 isnât a good one. Weâve 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 didnât 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 isnât another Activision acquires Blizzard moment. But Iâve seen this pattern play out too many times to feel anything but dread. This isnât just a funding deal. Itâs 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 wonât matter how good the intentions were on day one.