KRAFTON, the publisher that has more recently been in the news due to a messy back-and-forth with the co-founders of Unknown Worlds, who allege that KRAFTON delayed Subnautica 2 to avoid paying a $250 million bonus to the Unknown Worlds team, is back in the news for a different reason today, a studio acquisition. Eleventh Hour Games, the team behind Last Epoch, has just been acquired by KRAFTON.
Eleventh Hour Games (EHG) was founded back in 2017, with chief executive officer Judd Cobler going to Reddit to find people with game development experience to make what would become Last Epoch. A 2018 Kickstarter raised enough funds to get the studio going, and on April 30, 2019, it launched into Early Access on Steam. It didn't hit its 1.0 launch until just last year, February 21, 2024, and according to a press release for its acquisition by KRAFTON, Last Epoch has sold 3 million copies since last February.
"Through this acquisition, KRAFTON aims to secure a competitive franchise IP in the Action RPG genre and further strengthen its position in the global market," writes KRAFTON. "The deal provides EHG with the resources and infrastructure to better serve its community, ensuring that Last Epoch continues to evolve and meet the expectations of its growing player base. The acquisition will also enable EHG to scale development across console platforms and expand seasonal content pipelines, setting the stage for long-term franchise development. KRAFTON will support EHG’s live service roadmap, team expansion, and international publishing, while allowing the studio to retain full leadership and creative autonomy."
KRAFTON's head of corporate development, Maria Park, added that the publisher is "thrilled to welcome Eleventh Hour Games into the KRAFTON family," and that EHG's "rise from a grassroots studio to a globally renowned ARPG developer is nothing short of remarkable." Park also claims that this acquisition "reaffirms our unwavering passion for great games and the teams that build them. We will always stand behind developers who put players first," which is difficult to see as anything but a snide shot towards the Subnautica 2 co-founders.
On the other side of the aisle, for Eleventh Hour Games, Cobler adds that this acquisition is "a dream come true" for the studio, and that KRAFTON's "deep-rooted passion for ARPGs aligns perfectly with our mission."
"With KRAFTON's support, EHG is poised to elevate the Last Epoch franchise to even greater heights. As a studio built from players of the genre, we couldn’t be more excited for its future."
Due to the ongoing legal battle between KRAFTON and Unknown Worlds, it's difficult to take any of these statements at face value when we see how that relationship has eroded in the last four years. Unknown Worlds co-founder Charlie Cleveland also said that Unknown Worlds and KRAFTON were "aligned" in their goals when KRAFTON's acquisition of Unknown Worlds was announced. But, according to Cleveland and the rest of the co-founders, KRAFTON's attitude towards the studio turned on a dime within the last year.
Hopefully, today's statements remain true for Eleventh Hour Games and KRAFTON in the future.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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