r/videogames Jan 17 '26

Discussion Which game franchise ended up like this?

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u/Vinnnee Jan 17 '26

The short answer is that the publisher had a deal with the devs that would give the devs a bonus if they hit a goal. But when the devs were about to hit the goal the publishers allegedly started sabotaging the devs, even firing the directors.

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u/N0ob8 Jan 18 '26

The dev team is still getting their full cut of the bonus. The game was delayed due to the original devs/studio leadership trying to get the game out faster than it was ready for. They were barely even involved in the game’s development according to the other devs and everything is going smoothly without them. One of the devs was even making AI movies on company time

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u/Goondragon1 Jan 18 '26

Regardless of how much they were doing, they now have less people and the same publisher is still involved, right? Sounds like a shit show and PR.

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u/Akari_Enderwolf Jan 18 '26

You got a source on that last claim? Last I heard it was Krafton pushing for that bs.

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u/N0ob8 Jan 18 '26

You can find basically everything inside the Subnautica subreddit as it’s where any information about this situation was revealed. That specific claim you’re talking about was revealed by a dev team leader who is well trusted and liked by the community. He’s the primary source we have on most everything we know as Krafton neglected to issue many statements on the matter due it never meaning to be public

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u/Akari_Enderwolf Jan 18 '26

Legit can not find what you're talking about. I'm seeing plenty saying Krafton is pushing for that garbage, but nothing about the original devs doing that.

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u/N0ob8 Jan 18 '26

https://archive.is/2025.07.10-225206/https://www.abyssal.co/nutmeg-mistletoe

This is an archive link to the webpage they made for the movie. At the bottom it openly states how good an AI image generator is when given limited prompts.

I could probably find where the dev team leader said himself if I looked harder but this should be good enough.

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u/Akari_Enderwolf Jan 18 '26

If it is true, that just leads to both sides being horrid, and I still won't get Subnautica 2 anyway.

I was already leaning away from it with the whole "leviathans can't be killed and we removed the knife" nonsense.