Yesterday, we covered the unfolding drama over in the Subnautica 2 world, as Krafton, which bought Subnautica dev studio Unknown Worlds in 2021, fired the three studio leads and unilaterally delayed the game into 2026. Studio insiders immediately pointed out that the timing was suspicious as the buyout agreement entitled the original 100-odd devs to $250M for meeting financial targets by the end of 2025. Obviously, the fired devs would receive none of that, nor would workers receive their more modest shares if the game was delayed – and management said it was ready for early access as planned. Krafton insisted that it made its decisions owing to gamer feedback, suggesting that it did not have saving $250M in mind.

After the Subnautica subreddit raged all day, calling for a boycott, Krafton emerged with another statement, this one oddly not mentioning gamer feedback but instead blaming the pivot on Unknown Worlds’ management. The company characterized the fired developers as absentee leadership who had abandoned the game and betrayed Krafton, which as we noted requires the reader to believe those three dudes didn’t want their $75M apiece come December. Then Krafton suggests it will ensure that the remaining devs will still receive the “rewards they were promised,” though it’s not clear what that is or how that will happen as the game has been delayed. You’ll note that at worst it cut Krafton’s bill from $250M to $25M and may even stop leakers from coming forward, without any legal guarantees in place at all.

Well, you had to know the story wasn’t done: Now that Krafton has disparaged the three studio leads, they’re suing Krafton.

“We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story,” tweeted Charlie Cleveland, one of the co-founders and indeed the co-founder Krafton accused of filming a movie instead of working on the game. “Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.”

Cleveland also addresses profit-sharing, implying that the leads always intended to share their 90% cut around in addition to the 10% cut and indeed had done so in the past (Krafton’s presser implied their greed):

“As for the earnout, the idea that Max, Ted and I wanted to keep it all for ourselves is totally untrue. I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches. Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands.”

Interestingly, while the boycott thread spent part yesterday deleted, it’s now back and just locked, with 54,000 upvotes. Likewise, the Reddit has been salivating over some juicy bits dug up: First, the investor report from 2023 – the first time a release window was publicly announced – shows Krafton was already targeting launch for 2025. Second, the film Cleveland was reportedly working on is hilariously bad AI junk – as in, bad enough that it’s unlikely this thing was consuming all his time. Third, there’s a unconfirmed doc of the May review of the game that suggested the current build had been scaled back and that early access was actually going to be, well, an early access, with a minimum-viable-product build. We’re obviously missing all kinds of information here, such as whether Krafton was hampering the team’s development or funding along the way. Guess the truth will out in the lawsuit.