Unknown Worlds has filed a lawsuit against its former leadership team, accusing them of violating their employment agreements and breaching their fiduciary duty of care

Unknown Worlds has initiated legal action against its previous executives, Charlie Cleveland, Adam McGuire, and Ted Gill, accusing them of violating their equity purchase and employment agreements. They are also charged with breaching the fiduciary duty of care as directors of the company.

Krafton, the parent company, shared a link to a redacted complaint with GamesIndustry.biz, alleging that these former leaders threatened legal action against Krafton. They are accused of prioritizing personal goals over company objectives for Subnautica 2 by insisting on certain financial payouts instead of focusing on a successful release strategy.

The prior management of Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds, represented by Fortis Advisors LLC, recently made public their legal arguments against Krafton, Inc. They claim Krafton deployed tactics to defer the 2025 Early Access release of the sequel to withhold a $250 million bonus linked to revenue thresholds. Krafton asserts that any delay request was in the interest of maintaining game quality and consumer trust.

Following these disputes, the lawsuit alleges that the accused threatened to independently publish Subnautica 2 without the support typically provided by Krafton. This led to Krafton terminating their employment.

Krafton further alleges that McGuire, Gill, and Cleveland downloaded a large volume of company files and emails ahead of their dismissals. These actions represented record download volumes, with Krafton stating that the former executives did not disclose or return the information, and even threatened to erase it upon confrontation.

The extensive complaint document also recaps Krafton’s past assertion that Cleveland and McGuire had become disengaged from their responsibilities in Subnautica 2's development, leaving Gill to grapple with the creative and technical leadership void alone.

For more details, see our timeline of the dispute between the former Subnautica 2 developers and Krafton.