Subnautica 2 publishers Krafton have accused three recently ousted leads of “abandoning” their duties on the game, suggesting that this is to blame for it being delayed. That statement was almost immediately followed by one of the former Unknown Worlds bosses, co-founder Charlie Cleveland, writing in a Reddit post that a lawsuit’s been filed by the trio against the company.
These are the latest twists in an ongoing saga that began with Striking Distance CEO Steve Papoutsis being parachuted in to replace Cleveland, fellow co-founder Max McGuire, and CEO Ted Gill earlier this month. That kicked off a war of words between the two sides, punctuated by a report from Bloomberg which alleged Krafton’s call to delay the game was made just before a $250 million bonus was set to be paid to Unknown Worlds staff.
Krafton claimed in a statement published late yesterday that “approximately 90%” of this bonus, tied to the dev team hitting revenue targets, was set to paid to the three ousted leads “with the expectation that they would demonstrate leadership and active involvement in the development of Subnautica 2”.
“However, regrettably, the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them,” they continued, “Subnautica 2 was originally planned for an Early Access launch in early 2024, but the timeline has since been significantly delayed.” The publishers allege that “multiple requests” for Cleveland and McGuire to resume their responsibilities as game director and technical director were declined by the leads.
“Krafton believes that the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule,” the statement adds, with the publishers writing that they’re “committed to fair and equitable compensation for all remaining Unknown Worlds employees” working on the game. “We reaffirm our commitment to provide the rewards they were promised,” Krafton added, not quite explicitly stating that the remaining devs will definitely get the full $250 million.
So yeah, very much both barrels being pointed at the exiled leads. Enter Charlie Cleveland providing an update via the Subnautica subreddit.
“We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story,” he wrote after reiterating his claim that the game was ready for early access, “Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.
“As for the earnout, the idea that Max, Ted and I wanted to keep it all for ourselves is totally untrue. I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches. Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well.”
As you can tell, this is a saga that looks very much set to rumble on for the foreseeable, as part of what Cleveland summed up as “an explosive and surreal time for the Subnautica team and community”. We’ll keep you updated.
