Bosses withholding employees' bonuses is nothing new. However, Kim Chang-han, CEO of Korean gaming giant Krafton (formerly the developer of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" Blue Hole), has done so ridiculously that he has even become a global laughing stock. In 2021, Krafton spent US$500 million to acquire UWE, the development studio of the hit game "Deep Sea".The two parties agreed that if the sequel "Deep Sea 2" reaches the sales target, an additional bonus of up to US$242 million will be paid..
In 2025, the game was about to be launched, and the internal sales forecast easily reached the target, which meant that the bonus was almost mandatory. However, Jin Changhan regretted it on the spot, feeling that the acquisition had "suffered a loss" and he was obsessed with giving up the bonus.
The company's legal department clearly reminded that the contract has legal effect, and if you refuse to pay without reason, you will lose the case and fall into litigation.But he didn't listen at all. Instead, he bypassed the professional legal team and turned to ChatGPT for a "default method.".
At first, ChatGPT admitted that it would be difficult to cancel the bonus, but Jin Changhan continued to press and question, and AI finally came up with a "Plan
Jin Changhan copied this plan completely.UWE's game publishing rights were directly revoked, the studio's core founding team was forcibly fired, and an open letter written by AI was released., the result was counterproductive, Krafton's already poor reputation completely collapsed, and players collectively boycotted it.
The UWE team had already taken precautions, backed up evidence in advance and sued Krafton for malicious breach of contract.
In March this year, the U.S. court ruled that Krafton had lost all the lawsuit:UWE's former CEO was reinstated, and all game distribution rights were restored. The judge also extended the bonus assessment period by 258 days to make up for the delayed sales time. All reasons for dismissal made up by Jin Changhan were rejected..
After struggling for more than half a year, Jin Changhan did not save a cent of his bonus, and may have to pay additional liquidated damages. Krafton's official website was even temporarily offline to avoid the limelight.
This high-quality IP acquisition, which was originally a sure profit, ended up losing money and reputation because of his superstitious belief in AI and being clever, making it a typical negative example.
