The ouster of Unknown Worlds founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire—together with now-former CEO Ted Gill—is quickly escalating in a collection of dramatic twists and turns. Since final week, Cleveland and Krafton have been taking photographs at each other in statements to the general public, with the founder and his friends now submitting a lawsuit in opposition to the corporate that purchased their studio.
The escalation started on July 10, 2025 with a press release from Krafton addressed to the Subnautica participant neighborhood the place the corporate accused Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill of “abandoning the tasks” concerned with growing Subnautica 2. “Krafton made a number of requests to Charlie and Max to renew their roles as sport dame director and technical director…however each declined to take action,” the corporate wrote. It then described the monetary efficiency of Unknown Worlds’ tabletop-inspired multiplayer sport Moonbreaker a “failure,” and accused Cleveland of specializing in a “private movie undertaking” as an alternative (Cleveland did put up 7 months in the past on Reddit about making a movie known as A Christmas Letter).
This assertion adopted a report from Bloomberg on July 9 that Krafton had delayed Subnautica 2 to 2025 to keep away from a $250 million payout to Unknown Worlds. The payout would have been tied to the studio hitting key income objectives by the tip of 2025, objectives it might doubtless miss if Subnautica 2 have been delayed to 2026.
“Krafton believes that the absence of core management has resulted in repeated confusion in course and vital delays within the general undertaking schedule,” it continued. “The present Early Entry model additionally falls brief by way of content material quantity. We’re deeply dissatisfied by the previous management’s conduct, and above all, we really feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the belief positioned in them by our followers.”
Hours later, Cleveland took to Reddit to announce he and his friends are suing Krafton. Bloomberg video games reporter Jason Schreier has said that the lawsuit being filed for breach of contract, however the criticism is presently beneath seal.
“The small print ought to ultimately develop into (at the least largely) public,” wrote the Unknown Worlds co-founder. “You all deserve the complete story. Suing a multi-billion greenback firm in a painful, public and probably protracted method was actually not on my bucket record. However this must be made proper.”
“Subnautica has been my life’s work and I might by no means willingly abandon it or the superb staff that has poured their hearts into it.”
Was Subnautica 2 able to launch in Early Entry?
Beneath Krafton and Cleveland’s cross-fired accusations is a single (apparently $250 million) query: is Subnautica 2 able to launch in Early Entry this 12 months?
Krafton claims it is not, saying that the present Early Entry construct “falls brief by way of content material quantity.” Cleveland said in a Reddit put up final week that he, McGuire, and Gill “know” that the sport is prepared for Early Entry launch. “Whereas we thought this was going to be our resolution to make, at the least for now, that call is in Krafton’s fingers.”
There is no unbiased commonplace to use relating to a sport’s readiness for Early Entry. Nevertheless a former indie writer lead producer (who requested anonymity to talk freely to guard delicate data) defined that at their former employer, video games entered Early Entry “largely feature-complete.” “Each replace in Early Entry was about bringing extra playtime content material,” they defined. “We acquired a number of iterations forward earlier than Early Entry, so that there have been about 1.5 updates prepared and ready to ship in these first 6-8 weeks earlier than launch.”
A kind of updates could be “absolutely deliberate and packaged,” going by means of a full cross by QA, and one other “half-cooked” to accommodate participant suggestions.
In keeping with Steamthe Early Entry program permits builders to promote their sport on Steam “whereas it’s being developed,” and offers context to prospects {that a} sport must be thought-about “unfinished” in its present state. There are no exhausting pointers, simply guidelines on what builders aren’t allowed to do whereas releasing a sport on this trend.
Underneath these phrases, even when Krafton felt the sport wanted extra content material earlier than launch, one may moderately state that as long as the met Steam’s launch pointers, it may very well be “prepared” to launch in Early Entry in 2025.
Krafton has promised to decide to “truthful and equitable” compensation for the builders at Unknown Worlds, and that the corporate will “present the rewards they have been promised.” When reached for remark, a Krafton spokesperson declined to supply additional statements on the state of affairs.
