Update: We’ve summarized the main allegations of the now-unsealed complaint at the end of this post. The original article remains.

Subnautica 2 has become the unlikeliest of headline news over the course of July, as Krafton’s decision to boot the Subnautica 2 founders and delay the game, thereby costing the remaining workers their cut of a $250M bonus for meeting financial targets if the game launched this year. The drama prompted a player-led boycott, flip-floppy corporate statements, and heaps of shade on the fired execs, who’ve now lodged a breach of contract lawsuit against Krafton.

One of the major complaints about the way Krafton handled what it characterized as a necessary delay over content and polish was the loss of those earnout bonuses for workers. Last week, Krafton told workers that it would ensure that the devs will still receive the “rewards they were promised,” though it wasn’t clear exactly what that would entail. (We really need whoever writes the Krafton releases to know that sentence had real “Oh yes, you’ll get what’s coming to you” vibes.)

Anyway, we’re getting more clarity now thanks to fresh reporting from Bloomberg. Krafton now says it’ll move the target date to 2026 for those bonuses (instead of 2025, which Krafton claims is not viable). Apparently, 40 of the 100-odd workers were originally entitled to those additional bonus payouts, an estimated 10% of the $250M. New hires since the buyout were apparently promised additional benefits from the now-fired execs, though not in writing; Krafton is now saying it’ll try to compensate for that, too.

“Krafton also said it would advance a portion of the studio’s projected 2026 profit-sharing bonus pool, which is independent from the bonus, to all Unknown Worlds employees this year,” Bloomberg adds. Krafton, presumably, keeps the other $225M, which isn’t a bad haul… unless the courts say otherwise. Stay tuned.

• Faced with a breach of contract lawsuit from fired execs, Krafton is appeasing remaining Subnautica 2 devs • Krafton authenticates leaked internal slides that claim Subnautica 2 lacked polish and content • ‘This needs to be made right’: The Subnautica 2 leads are now suing Krafton • Krafton delays Subnautica 2 into 2026 and axes its management, avoiding a $250M payout [Updated] • MMO Business Roundup: Olympic esports, Unity layoffs, and Krafton Q4 2024 financials Source: Bloomberg UpdateBloomberg has now published a summary of the unsealed complaint from the fired execs; it suggests that meetings between execs and Krafton in early 2025 saw the train starting to come off the tracks, as the execs were trying to negotiate bonuses for post-buyout staff. “After Krafton’s leaders reviewed [CEO Ted] Gill’s projections and evaluated the anticipated revenue and earnout numbers, everything changed,” the complaint alleges.

According to the suit, workers inside Krafton then told Gill that the company was trying to dodge delivering the earnout. It also accuses Krafton of abandoning publishing and marketing duties, which one Krafton exec reportedly admitted was a “permissible way for Krafton to avoid supporting the earnout.” In June, Krafton allegedly asked the execs to take a smaller earnout (which if true contradicts Krafton’s claims that its decision-making wasn’t about the money).

Krafton’s other contention to date has been that the game was unfinished and not ready for early access, but the lawsuit – and Bloomberg’s own sources inside and outside Unknown Worlds – say that’s BS. In fact, the suit even claims the QA testing “drew high marks.” (A similar situation once allegedly happened inside the WildStar team, MMO players might recall.) Oh and just to punctuate the whole thing, the dev Krafton accused of working on a movie instead of the game? He says it was a cross-media Subnautica film – and that Krafton’s CEO “encouraged” him to develop it. Ooof. UpdateAnother fun note from the related PC Gamer article: PC Gamer confirmed that Krafton did indeed pull a cover spread in the print magazine in the time frame mentioned in the lawsuit.

The whole complaint, now posted publicly to Reddit, claims Krafton “seized” the studio’s websites and posted an apology and accusation there. It calls Krafton’s activity an “intimidation campaign” during which Krafton allegedly threatened to seize the whole studio if the studio heads wouldn’t capitulate to its demands – which it then did.

“In short, Krafton flagrantly breached both the letter and the spirit of the promises at the very core of its agreement to purchase Unknown Worlds. It promised to leave creative and operational control in the hands of the Founders. Promise broken. It promised to consult with the Founders before taking any action that could harm the earnout. Promise broken. It promised not to take any action with the primary business purpose of frustrating the earnout. Promise broken. And it promised not to terminate the Founders without Cause. Promise broken.”