LogInThe company responded to the lawsuit, saying the former leads were not interested in the project anymore.
South Korean publisher Krafton has finally responded to a lawsuit filed by former leads of the Subnautica 2 development team at Unknown Worlds. Krafton claims that the three former leaders, Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire, lost interest in developing Subnautica 2, which significantly impacted the game's progress.
Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Subnautica 2
Krafton had acquired Unknown Worlds for $500 million, with an additional $250 million in performance-based bonuses promised. However, according to the publisher, Cleveland and McGuire ceased active development on Subnautica 2 after the acquisition and instead began focusing on personal projects.
Between 2024 and 2025, Krafton claims that Cleveland stepped away from game development entirely to work on two films, while McGuire took on unrelated initiatives. Gill remained at the studio but, according to Krafton, focused more on maximizing bonus payouts than on delivering a successful game.
The company insists that the absence of Cleveland and McGuire from leadership roles led to such setbacks that the early access release of Subnautica 2 had to be postponed. By the end of the bonus evaluation period, the game was far behind schedule.
"Having sold the company, Cleveland and McGuire, who pocketed almost $200 million apiece from the sale, and Gill, who received $60 million, quickly lost interest in development Subnautica 2," the legal document says. "Cleveland and McGuire abandoned their roles as studio-wide game director and technical director to focus on their personal projects and quit making games for Unknown Worlds entirely. And Gill, who remained, focused on leveraging his operational control to maximum the earnout payment, rather than develop a successful game."
"By July of 2023, Cleveland and McGuire's absence at Unknown Worlds had begun to impact the Subnautica 2 development team. The development director at Unknown Worlds told Gill that 'folks think ... Max and Charlie are checked out as studio heads and are confused as to why.' In reality, Cleveland had abandoned videogames to pursue filmmaking, a process he documented publicly on his website and on social media.
"For his part, McGuire started 'working on initiatives that fall outside of [the company's] main development activities,' stating that his priority was to 'try something that feels personally meaningful to me.' Gill remained as Unknown Worlds' president and CEO. But without the original creators, Subnautica 2 suffered serial developmental delays under his watch."
Defendant's answer to verified complaint
In March 2025, just two months before the planned early access launch, the lead developer reportedly admitted that the first and second early access builds would contain only about 12% of the planned full-game content. He joked that at the current pace, development would take "30 years" to complete.
On July 2, 2025, Krafton announced it had terminated all three executives from Unknown Worlds. In response, they filed a lawsuit accusing the company of sabotaging Subnautica 2 and intentionally delaying the release to avoid paying out millions in bonuses.
To respond to that, Krafton said that the delay of the early access version is actually proof of how closely the publisher monitors the quality of its projects.
You can find the full legal document with Krafton's response here. Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.