Ousted Subnautica Bosses Are Suing Krafton

What initially seemed like nothing more than the unexpected departure of Subnautica's bosses has now escalated into a full-blown controversy, with Charlie Cleveland announcing that he, Ted Gill, and Max McGuire are suing Krafton.

For context – because one is most definitely needed here – earlier this month, PUBG developer Krafton announced that Ted Gill, CEO of Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds (acquired by Krafton in 2021), along with founding members Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, had left the company and would no longer be involved with the upcoming sequel, Subnautica 2, with Steve Papoutsis, director of The Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios, stepping in as Chief Executive Officer.

While in this day and age of mass layoffs the "departure" of three execs wasn't all that unusual – and was even celebrated by some, since it was the execs affected and not regular devs – the situation itself took a new twist when Krafton announced a week later that Subnautica 2's Early Access had been delayed to 2026, justifying the move with their supposed "commitment to quality."

The thing is, shortly before the postponement was made public, Cleveland published a blog post saying that he, Gill, and McGuire "know that the game is ready for early access release," raising eyebrows over the clear-as-day discrepancy between Cleveland's words and Krafton's delaying the sequel.

When the kerfuffle really went supernova was when it was discovered that Krafton had a contractual obligation to pay $250 million to the Unknown Worlds team if they hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025 – something that's now unlikely to happen with the anticipated game pushed to next year – immediately sparking a justifiable theory that Krafton may have chosen to exploit some kind of a loophole in their contract with UW to avoid paying the hefty bonus.

When said theory reached the gaming giant, Krafton was quick to respond, claiming that they had "allocated approximately 90% of the up to $250 million earn-out compensation to the three former executives" and would ensure fair compensation for the remaining Unknown Worlds employees. At the same time, the company threw shade at the trio by stating that "the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them," and confirmed that they were indeed fired and didn't leave of their own free will.

With both sides' accounts contradicting each other on a few key points, it seemed only a matter of time before one of them would take the controversy to the next level by moving it from the internet to the courthouse. The only question was who would take that step – and now we have the answer: it is the ousted directors.

In his latest statement, Cleveland wrote that the trio has filed a lawsuit against Krafton, hoping to make the details surrounding the entire controversy – or most of them, anyway – public, as, in his opinion, we "all deserve the full story."

Additionally, Cleveland responded to Krafton's claim that 90% of the $250 million would go to the three executives, describing the notion that he, Gill, and McGuire want to keep all the money for themselves as "totally untrue." "Historically we've always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio," the developer commented. "You can be damned sure we'll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands."

At the moment, Krafton has yet to respond to the lawsuit. Sadly, it seems that no matter whose side you're on or who is actually on the right here, it's not a good day to be a Subnautica fan, for it seems impossible for a debacle of this magnitude not to negatively affect the regular developers bringing the sequel to life.

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