I’ve enjoyed the hell out of this game and bought every supporter pack I could (don’t let badges fool you). I thank you for all the entertainment.
I’ve watched this play out way too many times elsewhere to kid myself. I have been fooled once, any other time I stop spending money/sometimes just uninstall.
I’d love for this game to be a magical exception, but no more supporter packs from me at a minimum for now.
Respond to say what? There is nothing to respond to, the thread is just running around in widely speculative and totally unproductive circles. A tempest in a teacup.
They are absolutely right to avoid getting dragged in an endless unfounded “debate” (if we can call it that).
Judd decided to sell EHG. Someone bought it. End of story.
It is slightly surprising (but not a lot, Judd has been chasing outside money from the start, selling was the plan all along). It is also a bit sad, a small indie studio fighting to keep its identity and its dream is always a great narrative. But very, very rare.
At this stage there is absolutely nothing else to discuss / respond to.
Play season 3, without buying cosmetics. If you enjoy it, play season 4. If you don’t enjoy it because something has changed, play something else.
Rinse, repeat for season 5 and beyond.
Well, if you kept reading:
[…] reassurances that it wasn’t just because Krafton offered the most money […]
What if it was, though?
It most likely was. Which is an even worse look for EHG.
This narrative is not helping anybody nor leading anywhere.
Even if EHG would speak up about it and say what other potential parties offered (if they even got this far in discussing), there will be people making a bad narrative out of that as well. (e.g. "surely you wouldn’t Pick Company X because they are even worse than Krafton).
The truth is, this is a battle they will not win anyway, there is waaaaaaay too much negativity out there already and the few things that have been said by Judd doesn’t seem to impress people anyway, so whatever he would say would have no effect anyway.
So sitting it out and not talking about it is the best way they can handle it.
We are very close to Season 3 Hype Week and the best they can do is move on and hype up the season. Even when the season and everything that is coming up will look and be very good people will still find enough negativity because of this subjective here anyway.
There is no winning here anymore for EHG, people for the most part made up their mind already and the only thing EHG can do is hold the course, deliver good updates and stay on their path.
Yeah, nothing good would come of it, plus there’d be likely confidentiality issues.
Alright, EHG. you’re dead to me.
Biggest Rip to this company and game. Krafton is hot ass.
After reading all Judd’s replies and his post,all he ever said was all rainbow and sunshine and how he praises about Krafton after all the shit Krafton did and currently still getting lawsuited and he is still go on promising the “bright” future of the game really can’t convince anyone believing it’s true in anyway. He should know that. It’s feeling like a fake positive post.
It’s more like he already knews the outrage was gonna blown out anyway so just let’s make an all positive post and smiley replies to hide the fact from everyone that he just sold EHG for who knows how many million dollars for himself because Last Epoch is big enough to be sold for big money now, and who wouldn’t grab the chance to change your life with all those money
Same. I am hopeful, but I feel like an idiot for having even that little bit of hope. sigh
Took the words right out of my mouth. I weep for the future of EHG and LE… 
Only just saw this news after looking into stuff about the new season and it just killed my motivation to invest any time into this again. Really sucks.
Are you even aware of who you are getting in bed with? Krafton is a Microsoft/EA-wannabe. Buying IPs by purchasing companies, to then hollow those companies out and milking those IPs for all they’re worth. And then just dumping those IPs.
This will spell the end of Last Epoch in the long run.
Good job, EHG… you killed your own passion product. And, for what… $98 million? You sell your own hides cheap.
The enshitification has already started with the recent expasion announcement!
The timing of which is alarming, to say the least. Given the lawsuit Krafton is facing, a lawsuit they could very easily end up losing. Which would end up costing them up to $250,000,000.
So, I guess Krafton has forced stuff down EHG’s throat. To start preparing for a major financial catastrophe. Hoping that LE can cover at least some of the losses Krafton is about to incur.
Oh… they’re at the perfect route to loosing too!
They were asked to comply and provide the reasoning for taking in documents which led to the firing of the people in question.
Then they said there was basically no reason - which baffled the judge - and instead shifted over to saying because of taking in the documents the realization of them being taken without a legal basis being the case.
Then they demanded the people being fired to turn over their private devices as they have the data on it which it is based about to personally go through… which was obviously blocked by the judge for privacy infringement, especially since they were allowed to take home any data on any device to keep on working outside of the company buildings.
It’s a disaster from a really disgusting, incompetent and greedy publisher which went large by sucking the lifeforce out of several products and leaving them in shambles in their wake, dead and rotten for short-term gains.
This is why the company should provide the employee with the devices to work on unless it’s particularly niche. But in the case of a generic laptop/phone… 
If some of the stuff that Krafton wrote in their defence and counter complaint (yeah, I read the public court filings for this because I was bored) holds true, then they aren’t a completely greedy company, but have a valid case.
Asking the other side to hand over private devices during discovery for forensic evaluation is a reasonable request if thousands of company files were downloaded briefly before the termination of the job. Both parties are obliged to produce anything that can be used as relevant evidence, even against them. This is a civil case, not a criminal.
The judge had to make a ruling and did. Instead of denying the defendant’s request completely, it could have been granted with limits, e.g. by using external forensic experts to protect private data, etc.
But they didn’t ask the court to go through those files but wanted to personally go through them.
And that’s privacy related, very important distinction.
Having the court do it? Absolutely fine!
Also it was mentioned that there was no thing stating they were forbidden to take those files home, their contract obviously has a NDA about sharing stuff - logically - but nothing about taking files home, looking em through, working on em in their off-time.
Also the knowledge of them even taking - legally and contractually - files home has only come out after the firing happened, hence since it goes about ‘was the firing even within reason’ it is not applicable by US law, the thing stated a.) was not against contract and b.) wasn’t even visible at the time of the action, hence it was not connected, so it has no weight in the case.
Sure, it can be used against a follow-up case because of it potentially… but not in the initial one.
Also the existence of those files on private devices without being shared goes counter to the argumentation that the lead devs from Subnautica ‘didn’t do their job’ and instead did work on other things.
If we wanna unpack it completely:
Krafton acquired them for 500 mil and gave them a 250 mil bonus when reaching competitive goals.
A roadmap was created to showcase what the exact goals are. This entails a specific amount of workload, if the workload is hence managed to be accomplished we can state ‘work-goal reached’.
Miniscule changes were made. A model removed… but instead several others especially in the building system included. The done work-load is even for a layman visibly higher then promised already. And especially given that the focus was on base-building aspects, hence mechanical longevity for the EA rather then a one-time experience enforcing extensive waiting times after (story).
Then Krafton comes in and basically doubles the demands for animation and models of mobs as well as story-design and area-design by enforcing a second Chapter to be released for EA rather then only the first.
Remind you… that’s already a break of contract for the bonus-payout. The lines were really really clear there.
This though would’ve been fine if the payout would’ve been granted nonetheless, after all… the goal was already reached, we can say release into EA in a more polished and complete state to let people not wait as long until release? Absolutely good! If it were separated from the monetary aspects. That would’ve actually caused a big plus for Krafton’s image overall, but that wasn’t the case.
Instead, they declared the lead-devs ‘abandoned responsibilities’. This being based upon the EA release being significantly delayed. A EA… which had per contract reached all conditions for the EA release at the time those allegations were made.
This is a proven lie and hence the basis for anything further should already be shut down at the foundation.
The only basis they had would be the ‘multiple requests’ they stated they made, which they had - by Krafton’s saying - denied. And even then it would not be a rock-solid legal basis anyway! Why? Because If they work 1 hour a week and still manage to achieve the contractual goal for their employment then what the fuck is Krafton on about?
As a quote from the information from Krafton directly:
The current Early Access version also falls short in terms of content volume.
This is a outright lie as stated above. A roadmap was given. A roadmap was fulfilled. If they wanted more then they had to tie the bonus to a different roadmap then what was provided.
So the follow-up basis was made that the state - which Krafton personally demanded and agreed to - was inadequate when EA release neared. Acceptable… so no release in EA yet, we wanna have a bit more? No issue! The goals demanded from you were reached? Good… give us our money, we’ll make the game more complete before EA.
All solved under any normal reasonable non-assholery circumstance. But sadly that’s a wish.
One lead-dev joked that it’s only 12% finished and it would take - if the same completion rate was upheld - 30 years to finish.
This is taken as a argument with weight but is extremely misleading.
12% means 12% of the total storyline and progression is done. This also means the foundation supporting to have the content even played is in place. Creating the framework takes the majority of the time in total. Creating the landscape, creating the quest triggers and dialogue and creating the effects is by far faster when you know exactly what you need as the foundation is in place.
These 12% include the foundation, the other 78% are just putting up the walls and the roof.
It’s the same as in construction. Excavating the foundation area, pouring the concrete, waiting for it to dry and settle before moving on is the highest time investment. Putting up walls and a roof is laughably fast. Then again after that the details like cabeling and plumping as well as floors and so on take a decent chunk of time once more.
Slow → quick → slow, fairly common happening for how projects go. Substantial setup time, low execution time, substantial polish time. Absolutely normal.
Next argument for firing: ‘The delay was against the wishes of the lead devs’. No shit Sherlock! If my 250 mil are based upon you telling me to suddenly do double the work or I won’t get it… I would be against it as well! 
It was demanded by Krafton to do it.
Not to speak that the lead-devs weren’t the people which would’ve even kept the money… they told their workers ‘you’ve worked on this as much as we, you get a part of this bonus as well’.
Did they need to do that? No! They could’ve just waltzed away after being applicable for it and that’s it.
Krafton didn’t punish the lead-devs… they’re trying to scam every single worker there out of their money for working their asses off.
Now… we finally reach court-phase actually.
Phase 1, discovery:
Kraftong is baffled that they would need to supply readyness level of the game in documentation form to the court, deeming it ‘irrelevant’ to the termination. Despite citing it as the direct reasoning.
I mean… how much of an idiot would they need to be if there wasn’t something at fault already. ‘Honest mistake’? My 18 year old cousin which works as a roofer even knows that ‘when you sue someone for any reason then you need to provide proof for the reason of what you sue them about’… holy crap… it’s that dumb already and it hasn’t even started!
So lemme get this straight… if I make a fantastic product and get it to completion with a crew to then be hired for my specific way of handling this project to then be fired for my specific way of handling this project rather then doing it your way (which you didn’t hire me for) and using the reasoning that it’s not ready - despite being ready - then I kinda get the feeling something is a bit… ‘off’.
Even if I never went into office or ‘actively worked’ on the product but being as eccentric as I am demanded a mandatory company Dungeons&Dragons play-group every week… where I nudged their character in ways to tell them how they should do their work… everyone would reasonably look at me like I’m insane. But I would’ve still fulfilled my contract if it gets the damn game ready as promised.
Also, now it gets doubly-odd. The representatives of Krafton personally had no clue why the discovery documents about the readyness of the product to be put forth to court were taken off the table in the first place.
They changed the whole premise during discovery phase, saying ‘no, this is not the reason anymore! It actually was ready and now we got something else.’
Clown-court ensues.
So now the lead-devs ‘abandoned their post’ and ‘deceived’ Krafton. Stating that they were fired for reveals coming out after they were fired… and actually not a breach of contract either, they’re the damn lead-devs! Obviously they take their work home with em… show me any person which builds up a company from scratch which becomes a multi-million one, doing something with a passion and if they have the ability then not taking their work home. 9/5 only!
So now… they’re saying they terminated them… and the termination basically only was justified after it already happened. And now they wanted to force the lead-devs to hand over their personal devices to them so Krafton - not the court - could willy-nilly browse through all their data and taking off whatever they deem relevant.
No shit Sherlock that this isn’t been granted… not to speak of the court not having access to it in such a case, solely at the hands of Krafton… depriving the lead-devs of their communication devices and getting access to private information any employer should not ever get access to.
Now… why did they lead-devs potentially not agree to keep the work up they did? Because Krafton basically told them ‘Just keep on working, we’ll pay you your money later then we contractually promised you, you just have to keep on doing what you do!’.
I mean… what the fuck? I would sue those dimwits of Krafton too!
So, from Krafton’s side the premise is by then that the lead-devs denied working and threatening to self-publish the game and hence stealing documents, including e-mails and game files to prepare to self-publish.
Which is also kinda ridiculous as a notion, especially since then the earning of Subnautice would be shut down and relayed over to Krafton anyway as the IP owners, or the game removed in total nonetheless…
Also the E-Mail part is especially baffling when you think about it. Correspondence internally includes not only NDA details but also orders. You as employee have a task to secure yourself against fraudulent actions, which means those E-Mails - unless distributed - are in line to copy for personal safekeeping to ensure any false claims cannot simply be made by ‘magically vanishing e-mails’ on the company servers.
Also Krafton is unwilling to let any employee make testimony… only 2 executives are allowed to.
Something fishy? No shit Sherlock!
It’s just a shit-show left, right and center.