Dismissed leaders of Unknown Worlds have filed a lawsuit against KRAFTON
The situation with the resignation of the creators of Subnautica has escalated into a full-blown scandal. KRAFTON is facing a lawsuit from the fired executives of Unknown Worlds studio.
Subnautica 2
In a Reddit post, former creative director and co-founder of the studio, Charlie Cleveland, stated that suing a multi-million dollar company was never part of their plans. Furthermore, he, Ted Gill, and Max McGuire acknowledge that it will be a painful process. Nonetheless, they want to seek justice.
"Subnautica is the work of my life, and I would never voluntarily give it up or the wonderful team that has poured their heart and soul into the game," Cleveland wrote.
Meanwhile, KRAFTON released a statement saying that the dismissed developers were not fulfilling their responsibilities. Specifically, the early access release of Subnautica 2 was supposed to happen in early 2024, but due to the managers' actions, it had to be postponed.
"KRAFTON repeatedly asked Charlie and Max to return to their roles as game director and technical director, respectively, but both declined. After the failure of Moonbreaker, the company asked Charlie to focus on developing Subnautica 2, but he chose to concentrate on his own film project. KRAFTON believes that the absence of key leaders led to constant shifts in direction and significant delays in the project," stated KRAFTON’s message.
The company also confirmed that they planned to pay a $250 million reward to Unknown Worlds upon reaching the required targets by the end of 2025. According to KRAFTON, 90% of the amount was intended to go to the former heads of the studio. However, in his statement, Cleveland mentioned that they did not intend to keep the entire sum for themselves and would have shared it with subordinates.
KRAFTON has not commented on the developers' lawsuit.