Numerous PUBG creators have gone months without owed creator code payments, but Krafton says the situation will be resolved soon
Creators haven't been paid their creator code payouts since November
A large number of PUBG content creators have been left unable to access ‘creator code’ payments owed to them for over four months, we’re told, but Krafton says that the situation will be resolved soon.
Creator codes (or tags), if you were unfamiliar, are part of the official PUBG ‘Creator Appreciation Program,’ which allows players of the battle royale game to choose select creators to receive a 5% cut of any in-game purchases they personally make in the game. We’re told that creators receive their cut of these purchases in payments that are usually made on a monthly basis.
However, for a significant number of creators, these regular payments ceased months ago, even though they can view “locked” balances of money that they can’t actually access. In our source’s case, they’re personally unable to access several thousand dollars of payments that they’re due to, having last being able to receive their full balance in September. They note that they received a small payment - but not the amount they’d expect from a full month - in late November.
Our source believes that this issue may be affecting all EU and North America-based PUBG partners, based on complaints within the creator community. They claim to have received “occasional” communications from PUBG publisher Krafton and its payments partner Xsolla offering explanations for the issue, but payments have still not been made.
Speaking to TechRadar Gaming, Krafton tells us that outstanding payments are planned to be processed before the end of the month, and that steps have been taken to ensure that the problem won’t happen again.
“As soon as we were made aware of the technical issue, we have been working closely with Xsolla to resolve it,” the statement reads. “We can confirm that the error has been fixed and that the outstanding payments are currently scheduled to be processed before the end of February. We apologized to the creators and have throughout the process shared updates when possible. Further, we have taken additional steps to ensure this won't repeat in the future.”
This appears to tie into plans outlined to creators on Tuesday (6 February) in a private Discord server, in which it was stated: "We're currently setting up Xsolla as a vendor under PHQ's Finance system, since they will be taking over processing invoices this year.
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“This unfortunately requires several documents on Xsolla's end, which they are currently gathering. We're still on track to issue payment to Xsolla [on February 15] so payments can be released. We're also working on submitting the January invoice so that [it] can be processed in tandem."
According to our source, this is the first time that any firm date has been mentioned, despite the statement referring to the company’s plans as being “still on track.” It remains to be seen when exactly creators will be able to access the money that they’re due to.
For more games like PUBG, be sure to check out our lists of the best battle royale games, as well as the best free games.
Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
- Jake TuckerEditor in chief, TechRadar Gaming