Krafton claims former Subnautica 2 devs ‘lost interest’ in developing game

Krafton, the South Korean publisher, has fired back at the former executives of Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds who filed a lawsuit last month. Krafton claims that the three plaintiffs, Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire, had "lost interest in developing Subnautica 2." According to Krafton's lawyers, after selling Unknown Worlds to Krafton for $500 million and promising $250 million more in earnout bonuses, Cleveland and McGuire shifted their focus to personal projects, with Cleveland stating that he was "no longer working on games but […] working on a couple of films," and McGuire starting "working on initiatives that fall outside of [the Company's] main development activities." Gill, who remained, allegedly focused on maximizing the earnout payment rather than developing a successful game. Krafton alleges that without the leadership of Cleveland and McGuire, the development of Subnautica 2 suffered, leading to a delay in the game's early access launch. As the end of the earnout period drew near, the game was still far from its planned scope, with the development lead noting that the first and second early access releases would only be "about 12% of our intended 1.0 scope." When the plaintiffs disagreed with the delay, Krafton fired them, sparking the ongoing legal battle.