Subnautica creators Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill have announced that they’re suing Krafton, the parent company of his now-former studio Unknown Worlds, following his dismissal from the company.
As a reminder, Cleveland, along with fellow co-creators McGuire and Gill, was ousted from Unknown Worlds earlier this month. Krafton initially didn’t provide a reason for their dismissal, but in a subsequent statement, the company alleged that after what it calls the “failure” of Unknown Worlds’ game Moonbreaker, Cleveland “chose to focus on a personal film project” rather than resuming Subnautica 2 development.
However, as you might expect, Cleveland disputes Krafton’s version of events. He says that he “would never willingly abandon [Subnautica] or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it”, reiterating that he and his team believed the recently-delayed Subnautica 2 was ready for release in 2025 and that the situation “needs to be made right”.
As a result, although Cleveland says he and his fellow Subnautica creators would rather not engage in a public battle with Krafton, they feel it’s a necessity to make the situation right.
Cleveland also references the $250 million employee bonus that was reportedly to be paid to employees upon reaching a certain revenue goal in 2025 (which the release of Subnautica 2 would obviously have greatly helped).
He says that he, Gill, and McGuire will “continue with the earnout/bonus” and that Unknown Worlds employees “deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands”.
As with many corporate lawsuits, this one is likely to run and run, so it’s probably going to be quite some time before we hear the result of Cleveland’s efforts. He does, however, say that the details of the lawsuit “should eventually become (at least mostly) public”, so that information will be revealed in time.
As for Subnautica 2 itself, it’s currently slated for an Early Access release on PC and Xbox Series X|S in 2026, although whether this lawsuit changes that or not remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more.