If the messy situation regarding Subnautica 2 and those ousted studio heads has led you to wonder if publishers Krafton might be mismanaging the development of their games, the company's chief financial officer reckons you're diving in the wrong sea. According to Dongkeun Bae, Subnautica 2's delay from 2025 release to 2026 is proof that Krafton are doing a good job with that, actually.
The exec said as much via translator during a recent earnings call that, among many other things, featured the publishers' own version of the events surrounding Striking Distance CEO Steve Papoutsis being parachuted in at Unknown Worlds to replace senior executives Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill last month. Whether Subnautica 2 was genuinely ready to release in early access this year is a key part of the whole fracas. Krafton say no, the three fired leads say yes, and now the latter are suing. The complicating factor is that there was a big bonus for the studio's workers tied to the game releasing this year.
The dramatic dismissal of three senior developers at Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds gets messier by the day. In a publicly filed lawsuit, the three fired heads of the studio have accused publishers Krafton of all sorts of dirty tactics, ploys, and shenanigans to purposefully delay the game until 2026, all in an intentional effort to avoid paying a maximum $250 million earnout bonus to the studio.
In one bizarre episode alleged in the lawsuit, Unknown Worlds co-founder Charlie Cleveland went to lunch with Krafton CEO, Kim Chang-han, who told him via translator that having to pay such an earnout would be "disastrous financially and hugely embarrassing" for the publisher.
After being fired this month, Krafton studio founders have filed a suit alleging Krafton has breached contract in the name of profit to delay Subnautica 2.
For the uninitiated, on July 2nd, the founders of Unknown Worlds were fired by Krafton after the publisher alleged Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire abandoned their responsibilities on Subnautica 2 which led to “repeated confusion in direction and significant delays” as reported by Kotaku. Those fired founders have now banded together to slam Krafton with a lawsuit that claims the publisher is in breach of their initial agreement when Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds back in October 2021.
The lawsuit (posted by Aftermath) explains the founders signed a deal that “involved a $500 million up front payment, plus an earnout that could reach $250 million depending on Unknown Worlds’ performance through 2025” adding that Krafton’s decision to fire the studio’s founders and delay the... Read more