Highlights
- A US court has ordered Krafton to bring back Unknown Worlds Entertainment's leadership after finding it used ChatGPT to avoid paying $250 m.
- Krafton CEO Changhan Kim turned to ChatGPT after being warned the payment would still need to be made even if studio heads were fired.
- Judge Lori Will ordered operational control be returned to Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and extended the earnout period.
Krafton bought Unknown Worlds the makers of popular underwater survival game Subnautica for $500 m in 2021.
The deal said the studio would stay independent and its bosses would keep control. If the studio hit certain targets Krafton would pay up to $250 m extra.
As Unknown Worlds was getting ready to release Subnautica 2 last year the studio's own numbers showed the payment would kick in.
Krafton boss Changhan Kim who thought the deal was bad and felt he had been "taken advantage of" then asked ChatGPT for help even after his own lawyers warned him that firing the studio heads would put the company at risk of a lawsuit.
ChatGPT drives strategy
ChatGPT first told Kim the payment would be "difficult to cancel" but later suggested setting up an internal team to find a way out.
Project X was given the job of either getting the studio to agree to a new deal or taking it over.
The plan included a strategy to keep fans happy, take control of publishing rights for Subnautica 2 and get legal defences ready.
"Over the next month Krafton followed most of ChatGPT's recommendations," the judge wrote.
When the studio bosses refused to renegotiate Krafton fired co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire and CEO Ted Gill claiming they had not been spending enough time at work. The judge did not believe this claim.
The judge ordered Krafton to hand control of the studio back to Ted Gill and gave the studio more time to hit the targets needed to trigger the payment.
Krafton said it disagreed with the ruling and was looking at what to do next while still working hard to get Subnautica 2 ready for players. The company said it was working "tirelessly" to prepare the game for early access release.
