The previous leaders of Unknown Worlds who had been ousted by writer Krafton not too long ago have now taken authorized motion towards the publishing large, after it accused them of getting ‘deserted’ upcoming sequel Subnautica 2.
Krafton introduced final week that it was changing key members of the event group, with Steve Papoutsis of Placing Distance Studios taking up the function of CEO. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire had been among the many individuals who departed the Subnautica 2 developer. In response to Bloomberg, all three people had been “pushed out” of Unknown Worlds.
Following this, Krafton confirmed that Subnautica had been delayed to 2026, which got here only a few months forward of plans to reward the event group with a $250 bonus payout. Nonetheless, Krafton affirmed that the sport’s delay was “not influenced by any contractual or monetary concerns,” and the writer later made the next assertion:
Associated Content material — Upcoming PS5 Video games 2025: The Finest PS5 Video games Coming Quickly
Subnautica 2 was initially deliberate for early entry launch in early 2024, however the timeline has since been considerably delayed. Krafton made a number of requests to Charlie and Max to renew their roles as sport director and technical director respectively, however each declined to take action. Particularly, following the failure of Moonbreaker, Krafton requested Charlie to commit himself to the event of Subnautica 2. Nonetheless, as a substitute of taking part within the sport improvement, he selected to deal with a private movie undertaking.
In wake of this, Cleveland has now revealed that authorized motion is being taken towards Krafton , writing the next in a put up to the Subnautica group:
We’ve now filed a lawsuit towards Krafton. The main points ought to ultimately turn into (no less than principally) public – you all deserve the complete story. Suing a multi-billion greenback firm in a painful, public and presumably protracted approach was definitely not on my bucket record. However this must be made proper. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I’d by no means willingly abandon it or the superb group that has poured their hearts into it.
As for the earnout, the concept Max, Ted, and I needed to maintain all of it for ourselves is completely unfaithful. I’m on this trade as a result of I like it, not for riches. Traditionally we’ve all the time shared our earnings with the group and did the identical after we offered the studio. You will be damned positive we’ll proceed with the earnout/bonus as effectively. They deserve it for all their unbelievable work making an attempt to get this nice sport into your fingers.
Subnautic 2 is now scheduled for launch in some unspecified time in the future in 2026.
[Source – Subnautica Reddit, Eurogamer]