Factorio did it right, IMO. V2.0 as a free update to the base game, launch a paid expansion at the same time. Wube is pretty much the only developer I have faith in to consistently do things right.

A lot of indie devs are good about that. Squad, KSP's original devs, even mandated to their buyer that all DLCs existing and future had to be free for backers since they'd listed that as a promise on their original Kickstarter.

500m?! What a buch of fucking assholes and idiots. Also, what drama?

Krafton, past named Bluehole Studio, has a terrible track record from the start, stealing Lineage's source code to make Tera Online.

> In a lawsuit filed last month, the cofounders claimed Krafton tried to sabotage Subnautica 2‘s planned Early Access launch this year to avoid paying a $250 million bonus it had agreed to at the time Unknown Worlds was sold if the studio hit certain revenue targets in 2025 and early 2026. The legal complaint alleged that Krafton violated the terms of the deal by overriding the studio’s independence and firing the cofounders without cause. > In its response filed on August 12, Krafton denies most of the allegations in the original complaint and argues that it was the cofounders who were trying to rush Subnautica 2 out into the wild despite being behind on its expected content scope. When the company tried to enlist the cofounders, who were not directly involved in the game’s development, to get it back on track, it says it was rebuffed. Krafton claims it had no choice but to remove them from the studio in order to protect Subnautica 2 and prevent a disastrous launch. _“We made a deal in which they had to successfully launch the game and get a big payment when they hit certain revenue targets, but we had to fire them because they only wanted the money for which they had to make a good game, they didn’t wanted to make a good game, they were in only for the money, for which - again - they had to make a good game, they were clearly sabotaging the game!”_ They are so full of shite. Corporate BS 101.

Rimworld keeps me buying every couple years with absolutely killer DLC that enhances the game *just right*. And yeah you can get most of those features for free with mods, but first party support is always welcome.

So from what I understand. That 250$ million bonus to "employees" was almost all going to like 3 people. The smaller bonus that was going to actual employees, they said they would honor it anyways. I'm happy those three founders gave us the first subnautica, but I'd rather a better game on release then something rushed so they get a payday (they also already got paid when they sold their company in any case). Really hard to say who is in the right without having gameplay footage or reap details, but it wouldn't surprise me if it does need more time and it was going to come out as a mess.

For those who needed some news catching up also: https://www.ign.com/articles/take-two-shutters-kerbal-space-program-2-studio-amid-layoffs The publisher, Take Two, laid off the entire staff of KSP2. This pissed off many fans, who had paid full price for Early Access to an unfinishee game that now didn't have a Dev team. https://www.polygon.com/news/475635/private-division-sold/ Then T2 sold off the studio to this other company. And staffing up for Dev work when none if the original creators are around: 1. Sucks and is miserable work and 2. Almost never works out to produce a quality product. So yeah, instead of **that** debacle, they opted for the Disco Elysium 2 debacle where the publishers steal the IP from the original creators and then fail to ever deliver anything with it. I love this debacle because you get a shitty publisher with a disappointing game AND embittered developers who will probably leave game making or go on to make less involved projects. It's great they can both financially ruin an industry with bad practices while also tearing out the soul of the medium.

RimWorld also releases a huge list of polish and quality of life changes for free with each expansion. The latest patch that released alongside the Odyssey expansion obviated the need for about half of the QoL mods I considered mandatory before then.

And let’s not exclude the MASSIVE performance boost in the latest update. They’re doing great over there.

They've also bought up a ton of quality studios. I'm half expecting Krafton to go bankrupt due to incompetence and end up pulling an Embracer and take everyone else down with them.

Well first, this deal was part of that sale. That'd be like someone's boss pocketing a tip and telling the waitress "you don't deserve this tip you already got paid" or a salesman "you get something hourly, why would you need this commission?" They worked for it, after the sale, because it was in their contract. That said, the company didn't even say it was a mess. They said that they needed something like, one more biome, one more leviathan, a few bits and bobs like that. Requirements that they added on later in development, that those three guys say aren't needed. I really wanna hear from the other devs, the ones under the 3. Theirs is the opinion I'd trust in this mess. But I'm leaning towards corporate fuckery, personally.

The patch was worth it for the load time reduction alone.

I genuinely don't know what about your comment is supposed to be mocking. You're just describing the situation presented in purposefully more confusing language than the article.

Subnautica isn't just a survival game, but a story driven game as well, and given how janky their engine was, it's not a surprise that they'd want to overhaul it from the ground up.

Krafton has claimed they asked for 30% more content for the early access version, which isn't that minimal.

It's a lot of money. There are huge incentives on both sides to do the wrong thing (either delay a finished game or push out something half baked). That being said, the current course of action, regardless of justification, is actually going to get us a better game in the end. So there is a sunny side to it for the consumer, which is kind of really rare when you think about it. I would also love to hear from other workers.

When two parties sign a contract then they have to act in good faith. Preventing the other party from fulfilling their obligations to avoid a payout or invoke a penalty is not good faith. And that's why the sea witch Ursula's contract with the mermaid Ariel would not have held up in court. Maybe the game would make more money during it's life span if released later but that's irrelevant when there's a contract about how much money the game should make before a certain cut off date.

What about this clusterfuck gives you the impression that this will improve the game beyond where it's already at?

The fact that it's getting delayed to add content?