paultimate14

I'm not convinced they're done with Steam, or even videogames.

They could very well have a say in the content of GTA 6 for example. They could take down games like Cyberpunk and Baldur's Gate 3. The Witcher 3 has sex scenes and nudity.

And if US Republicans lean on these US based payment processors, they could take down more. Games created by or positively depicting LGBT people, people of color, or any references to DEI. They are already leaning on other private companies- T-Mobile is the most recent one in the headlines.

They are burning books, taking down websites, anything they can to censor the things they don't like.

Innocent?

If they are innocent, how would releasing the document destroy them?

For my credentials: I'm not diagnosed myself. Growing up I always felt like a watered-down version of my older sister: a genius who suffered mental breakdowns. She helped to raise me and was eventually diagnosed with autism in been mid-30's. I've always been high-functioning and never had a reason to seek a diagnosis or treatment, but I've had a lot of non-professional opinions that I'm probably on the spectrum too. It's also possible that I'm neurotypical and was just heavily influenced by her growing up.

Also I feel obligated so say that the technically correct answer is to seek professional help, but I'm assuming that either that's not an option or hasn't worked if you're posting here.

For the intimacy part, it might help to plan and talk about it in advance. Discuss in the morning what the plans for the day are and bring that up as an option. Or perhaps a recurring weekly schedule.

I have also found with adhd partners that they seem to be able to turn things on FAST. Like, one minute there's no sign of anything sexual. We might be watching some nostalgic stuff from our childhood like pokemon, or some gross out horror movie, or a video essay on marine biology, or it's late at night and I'm about to pass out to get up early the next day. Then all of a sudden "hey you wanna fuck" out of nowhere really catches me by surprise, and I struggle to switch gears that fast. Whereas if we planned in advance I might suggest we watch something a bit sexier to prepare: an action movie or HBO drama perhaps.

I don't know you so this isn't a personal attack: it's possible that you might be displaying a lot of emotion that is intimidating to her. Facial expressions, voice tones, word choice, gestures, tears. She could be afraid of upsetting you, or just afraid of being in such an... Energetic conversation.

It's worth noting that the trope of autistic people missing social cues is an oversimplification, and I suspect that only applies to people deep in the spectrum that do not function well. For myself it's the opposite: I spent my childhood careful observing and noting social rules to try to follow them as best as I could, but the frustrating part is that no one else does. Everyone thinks they do, but people are just different from each other and most individuals are themselves inconsistent. So it might help you to keep an eye on your own mannerisms and behaviors too.

I understand my last 2 paragraphs were suggesting you change yourself. It's totally valid for you to not want to, I'm just laying out options.

In my mind, emotions are the end result. They are a reflection of the past. Decisions, including communications, should be made rationally with the goal of producing good emotions in the future. In my experience, most people make decisions irrationally based on the emotions they are feeling in the present. Negative emotions can lead to bad decisions, which creates a downward cycle. Positive emotions can also cloud rational thought. To avoid the cycle, you need to make calm and rational decisions. When something goes wrong I set the emotions aside to become cold and calculating and make the best decisions I can. An important part (and one it sounds like she needs to work on) is to go back later and reflect on that emotion. Feel it fully, understand where it comes from, and understand if there needs to be any communication about it.

Also a great point.

I'm not ruling anything out at this point. It could be a classic case of a greedy corporation pushing out the real artists in order to exploit the art. It could be that the devs (specifically the 3 guys involved in the lawsuit) got lazy after they got paid. It could be both, neither, something else entirely. Honestly with how things go these days I'm just grateful there hasn't been anything distasteful enough tl give me qualms about playing Subnautica.

I don't believe for one second they are actually letting this guy do anything. He's a fall guy. He's going to get fired when something bad happens and they need someone to fire.

So either someone else is running it behind-the-scenes (like how Musk wasn't technically the head of DOGE) or the department ceased functioning (they could be inviting a terrorist attack as an excuse- go to war, declare emergency powers, cancel elections, etc).

Or they just actually gave this guy this job. But that just seems so incredibly unlikely.

After the last decade or more of people complaining about greedy publishers forcing devs to release half-baked messes too early (Cyberpunk, No Man's Sky, etc), it feels like I'm living in a bizarro world to see so much criticism for a publisher delaying a game to (allegedly) make it better.

The public does not have enough information to judge the relative probabilities. Krafton has that information and has every incentive to release the game as soon as possible, and they still chose to delay.

That's how bonuses work. If it was guaranteed regardless of how the company perfroms, it wouldn't be a bonus.

It is entirely possible that, even if they had released Subnautica 2 in its current state right now, it may not meet sales expectations and no one would get a bonus anyways. They could make a great game and the marketing team drops the ball- no bonus. They could market like crazy but the game sucks- no bonus. Data breaches or corporate embezzlement or world war- there are tons of factors that could prevent them from meeting those goals.

The amount is also important because it is being used by the position to try to support an argument that Krafton made this move in order to avoid paying the bonus. When in reality the cost of that bonus payment is probably a tiny fraction of what they are losing by delaying the game.

Personally I hate bonuses, and I have always advocated at my company for more of the payroll to be structured as salary. But other colleagues of mine really like bonuses. They like the increased reward and risk involved. It comes down to risk aversion, so I'm not going to call those people or employers evil or anything just because it's not my preference.

I'm also not defending Krafton's decision to replace the leadership and delay the game. Personally I suspect that they did so in order to add more monetization to the game, but that's impossible to know until reviews start to get published. I will say that no one should pre-order the game, but I would also say no one should pre-order any game. Why are people pre-ordering games at all?

And what if Krafton is right? What if the game is actually in a state right now that would disappoint customers? Seems like for the last decade every videogame community has been complaining about games being released as unfinished and buggy meses. No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk for example. Any time Nintendo delays a game, all their fans applaud and share the Miyamoto meme ("a delaged game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad"). So I'm really surprised to see that a publisher has come out and admitted that they think the game needs more time to meet customer expectations and instead of applauding them for taking the loss the Internet is instead promoting these weird conspiracy theories that don't add up to explain how it's actually bad.

The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025

The whole key to this is how the bonus is structured, and that is unknown still. They very well may have just been something like "10% of net profit, capped at $250 million".

If the whole cost of the game was JUST $250 million, that would put it in the [top-15](The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025) most expensive games we have official numbers for. This doesn't pass the smell test.

Bloomberg reported that the bonus was tied to revenue targets. So the $250,000 estimate must be estimating significantly higher revenues for them in 2025.

What you posted is just the sales on 1 platform for 1 game, whixh came out in 2018 when games were cheaper.

Is it still more expensive if they just shelve it

Yes. Like, it's not even a question it's more expensive to delay it. First of all, they are choosing to pay for 6-12 months of extra development, which alone is probably several times more money than the bonus that they would have paid out. I don't know what their payroll is, but we don't need to know because math.

If the bonus was for 1/2 annual salary per person (which would be insanely high), then the cost of the bonus would be the same as 6 months of additional payroll. Meaning that with any longer delay than 6 months or smaller bonus structure than 1/2 of annual salary, it becomes more expensive to delay the game. Both of which are incredibly likely in my opinion.

And that's just salary. It's possible the studio was planning on laying people off after release, but more likely that they would have moved to a other project that is currently wrapping up pre-production. So this is causing a cascading effect unless they hire additional staff to catch up.

Then you have marketing costs. The rule of thumb in the industry is that half the overall budget is marketing. There are all sorts of contracts they probably had- digital stuff like banner ads on websites, on the console digital storefronts, partnerships with twitch streamers and YouTubers and review websites, physical stuff like cardboard cutouts and fliers. They may have started printing for boxes for physical releases (though I'm not sure whether this game would have had one or not). They may have started acquiring merch inventory: shirts and stickers and backpacks and flashlights and more perhaps. Some of these contracts they may be able to postpone or cancel, but they certainly aren't getting back 100% of what they paid.

And in all of this time they aren't getting the huge revenue spike they were expecting. The vast, vast majority of a game's revenue comes at launch (excluding live services, which this hopefully will not have). They need to survive another year on the trickle of revenue coming in from the sales of their other games, or Krafton may need to pump more of their own money into Unknown Worlds. Or debt.