Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton acquires Last Epoch developer Eleventh Hour Games

PUBG and Subnautica publisher Krafton has fully-acquired indie studio Eleventh Hour Games for an initial consideration of $96 million.

A Krafton spokesperson said the fully-remote studio will continue to operate under its existing leadership and organizational structure while maintaining creative autonomy. Krafton will provide the studio with publishing and live-service resources.

Eleventh Hour has been working on an ARPG called Last Epoch since 2017. The studio previously secured a low-equity investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent Games in 2022, but will now be joining Krafton’s roster of internal studios.

“Eleventh Hour Games is joining Krafton, the powerhouse behind PUBG, who shares our passion for the action ARPG genre and is ready to help fuel our efforts in raising Last Epoch to new heights,” reads a forum post from Eleventh Hour founder Judd Cobler. “With this partnership we will have the opportunity and resources to execute on our goal of creating the very best ARPG in the genre.”

Cobler said Last Epoch is now enjoyed by “millions” but claimed the studio must aggressively expand in order to realize its vision for the title. With that in mind, he said Eleventh Hour had been vetting potential partners over the past year and ultimately chose to join forces with Krafton.

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“Krafton clearly demonstrated that they’re aligned in helping us achieve our goals and can both enable and guide us through some of the largest upcoming challenges we’ll face as a studio. This partnership will allow us to deliver things we’ve only dreamed of previously and I’m excited to share details on those at a later date,” he added.

Eleventh Hour intends to bolster its development team under the Krafton umbrella and said the move has secured the future of the Last Epoch franchise.

Krafton’s latest acquisition comes amid legal battle with Unknown Worlds founders

It’s unclear whether the deal includes significant earnout clauses similar to the ones that landed Krafton in a legal battle with Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds’ former leadership team, who recently took legal action against Krafton after claiming they were ousted by the publisher so it could avoid paying a hefty $250 million bonus tied to the successful early access launch of Subnautica 2.

Krafton, for its part, has refuted those allegations and instead claimed Unknown Worlds’ three co-founders downed tools after it acquired the studio. The company also denied that Subnautica 2 is primed for an early access launch.

The South Korean conglomerate has made a string of notable investments and acquisitions in recent years. The company purchased Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush franchise from Microsoft in 2024 after the Japanese studio was marked for death by its former owner.

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Later that year, Krafton led a $11.3 million investment into Eschatology Entertainment to help the Cypriot studio develop a Souls-like shooter and establish a publishing team.

In its fiscal report for the year ended December 2024, the company outlined plans to discover and secure a “big franchise IP” and said it would be making “aggressive” investments into its production capabilities.