PSA for anyone still on Spectrum Internet Ultra: check your bill.

I was a Spectrum customer for 9 years. By the time I cancelled, I was paying $110/mo for Internet Ultra at typical download speeds around 600 Mbps. Meanwhile, Spectrum's publicly listed Gig plan was $105/mo in my area — $5 cheaper than Ultra — with typical download speeds of 1159 Mbps. Nearly double the speed for less money. The mid-tier Premier plan was $85/mo for roughly equivalent speeds to Ultra.

The timing is what makes this look intentional. In September 2024, Charter announced a simplified pricing strategy with a 500 Mbps public mid-tier plan (Premier). In the same announcement, Charter said existing Ultra customers would be automatically bumped to 600 Mbps. Without that 100 Mbps bump, Ultra and Premier would have been the same speed tier. Instead, Premier became the public plan and existing customers like me stayed on the legacy Ultra plan at a higher rate.

This is not just a promo-pricing complaint. Spectrum's own Broadband Facts labels show Premier at $85 full price and Gig at $105 full price in my area. My Ultra bill was $110.

What made this hard to catch: my bill showed only "Internet Ultra" with no speed listed. Ultra is not on Spectrum's public shopping page — the only place I could find it on their site was buried in policy disclosures for existing customers. The portal offered me an upgrade to Gig when I tried to switch plans, but never offered the cheaper Premier plan.

This is how Spectrum rewards 9 years of loyalty: hide the cheaper comparable plan, leave loyal customers on a discontinued one, and let them overpay for slower service unless they notice.

If you're on Spectrum Internet Ultra, do not assume you're on the best plan. Check your bill. Check the Broadband Facts labels for your address. Compare Ultra against both Premier and Gig. Then call retention and ask to be switched.

I've been seeing a lot of people wonder whether buying Subnautica 2 still supports Unknown Worlds given everything that happened. Short answer is yes, but the reason why is more interesting than I expected.

Krafton's deal includes an earnout clause that changes who gets what depending on how many copies sell. Here is how it breaks down.

0 to 2.3 million copies

Krafton keeps ~$21 per copy. Unknown Worlds gets standard royalties. Nothing unusual.

2.3 million to 5 million copies

This is where it flips. For every dollar Krafton makes, they owe Unknown Worlds $3.12. Krafton is now losing money on each copy sold. By 3 million copies they have paid back everything they earned in the first phase. By 5 million copies they are $145 million in the red.

5 million to 11.9 million copies

The bonus pool caps out so the losses stop growing, but Krafton spends this entire range just trying to dig back to zero.

Past 11.9 million copies

Krafton finally breaks even. For reference the original Subnautica took 8 years to reach 13.2 million copies. Below Zero peaked at 5.3 million. Total. Ever.

So if Subnautica 2 sells anything like their previous games, Krafton is sitting on a $145 million loss. Not hard to see why they tried to find a way out of paying.

Note: per-copy figures are estimates based on the confirmed $69.8M threshold and $29.99 launch price. Exact revenue definition in the contract is not public. Core earnout ratio and bonus cap are confirmed via court documents

TL;DR:

Every $30 copy sold during the earnout window costs Krafton roughly $72 after distribution fees and the $3.12 per dollar payout to Unknown Worlds. If the game sells anywhere near Below Zero numbers, Krafton loses $145 million on the deal. Your $30 directly funds the developers and comes straight out of Krafton's pocket.