Krafton has acquired the creators of the Last Epoch, Eleventh Hour Games, for $96 million.
Founded in 2018 by passionate ARPG fans and players who first connected via Reddit, Eleventh Hour Games emerged from the community with a dream to craft the next great Action RPG.
In 2024, the studio officially launched Last Epoch, which has since sold over three million copies worldwide. The game has gained a dedicated following, praised for its innovative systems, gameplay design, and commitment to refining the core elements that define the genre. We covered Last Epoch from its humble beginnings.
Interestingly, Krafton pulled this deal off while in a dispute with the founders of Unknown Worlds, in the midst of making Subnautica 2. The original Subnautica had more than 12 million players.
Following its recent update, Last Epoch has delivered strong performance in player activation and concurrency metrics and is increasingly recognized as one of the most notable titles in the global Action RPG space.
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. 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.
“Joining Krafton is a dream come true for Eleventh Hour Games,” said Judd Cobler, CEO of Eleventh Hour Games, in a statement. “Their 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.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Eleventh Hour Games into the Krafton family,” said Maria Park, Head of Corporate Development at Krafton, in a statement. “The team’s commitment to the ARPG community and innovative approach to game development resonated strongly with our values.”
Park added, “Their rise from a grassroots studio to a globally renowned ARPG developer is nothing short of remarkable. We believe this acquisition lays the groundwork for diversifying Krafton’s genre portfolio and expanding distinctive franchise IPs. This acquisition also reaffirms our unwavering passion for great games and the teams that build them. We will always stand behind developers who put players first.”
Krafton acquired 100% of Eleventh Hour Games’ shares. The acquisition amount includes an initial consideration of $96 million.
Last Epoch’s statement
In a statement to fans, Cobler posted the following:
Travelers,
Today I have some very exciting news to share about the future of Eleventh Hour Games and Last Epoch.
As many of you know, I started Last Epoch as an after hours passion project in 2017 where I took to Reddit to form a group of ARPG obsessed enthusiasts in the pursuit of making “The Next Great ARPG”. We were excited to come home from our day jobs and discuss, debate, and build the early stages of Last Epoch late into the evenings over Discord, eventually leading to our name “Eleventh Hour”. From there we brought our ideas and passion for what we wanted to develop through a successful Kickstarter, followed by Early Access, and years later launched Last Epoch 1.0 in early 2024. It’s been an adventure of constant learning, struggles, excitement, grit, and undying enthusiasm. Starting a gaming company with no funds or game development experience is quite the adventure.
Although we have created something now enjoyed by millions, we are far from done with our mission. While we’ve done well punching above our weight, we know that to truly execute on creating the absolute best ARPG experience available it will require continuing our aggressive growth of the last 7 years. We are no strangers to growth as EHG has gone from me, with zero funding working out of my kitchen (easy access to late night snacks) to a team of over 100 amazing people working on the game. We’ve been vetting potential partners over the last year, and we’ve finally found the right one to empower our studio and help us complete our mission.
Today I’m excited to announce that Eleventh Hour Games is joining Krafton, the powerhouse behind PUBG, who shares our passion for the action RPG genre and is ready to help fuel our efforts in raising Last Epoch to new heights. With this partnership we will have the opportunity and resources to execute on our goal of creating the very best ARPG in the genre.
After speaking with dozens of potential strategic partners, 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.
I rarely reflect on the journey as we’re still very much in the thick of it, but it’s nearly unbelievable that with only a dream and unyielding pursuit that we’ve reached this new epoch 255 and now know that the future of the franchise is secured for bigger and better things. All while getting to supply great remote jobs for these passionate, amazing people that share in the excitement and vision for what we’re accomplishing.
With this news I’m excited to say that EHG will be hiring many roles in the near future. If you’re still reading this it’s likely that you have an interest in this genre of game which means we have an interest in you. If you think you have the skillset to help build The Next Great ARPG you can check our hiring page 1.9k that we’ll be appending new open roles to over the coming weeks and months.
We know there are going to be questions about what this means for upcoming content/roadmap. We’re not ready to share anything there yet, but just a reminder that Season 3: Beneath Ancient Skies launches August 21st, and our Season 4 release will be roughly 4 months after that.
Thank you to our fans and the ARPG community that we come from. EHG will continue to be what it always has been – the studio of ARPG enthusiasts that rose up from the community with one goal in mind – to make the ARPG we’ve always dreamed of playing. We’ll continue to listen, engage, and craft the best experiencers we can for all of us – now with more wind under our wings.
Cheers,
Judd Cobler, Founder of Eleventh Hour Games.