Subnautica 2's protracted legal battle has come to an end. Publisher Krafton will now pay the developers at studio Unknown Worlds even more than what was previously planned.
As Bloomberg reports after speaking with fired-then-reinstated CEO Ted Gill, Krafton has agreed to a legal settlement with Gill and fellow ousted co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire. The entire development team at Unknown Worlds, riding high on a huge Steam early access launch that has utterly eclipsed the original Subnautica, are also in for a big payday.
Gill says the Subnautica 2 team will be "compensated significantly more" than specified in the terms of Krafton's original acquisition agreement, with "further incentives" to come. Additionally, this bonus will now be paid to everyone at the studio, not just Gill, Cleveland, McGuire, and the devs who were at Unknown Worlds at the time of the acquisition in 2021.
In other words, after all that noise, the devs get their bonus and the founders get a settlement.
This whole mess orbited a $250 million earnout payment which would have seen Krafton award Unknown Worlds large bonuses if it hit certain revenue milestones by a specific deadline. With over four million copies sold in just launch week, Subnautica 2 has been a smashing success and certainly looked poised to hit those milestones.
The ousted executives, accused by Krafton of neglecting their duties, in turn accused Krafton of firing them and sabotaging Subnautica 2's launch to avoid paying the bonus. A judge later said that Krafton CEO Changhan Kim had repeatedly asked ChatGPT how to dodge the bonus.
However, Gill is still leaving Unknown Worlds. "We mutually agreed to part ways," he says. "New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward." A new CEO not tied to the developer or publisher will be appointed. So ends one of the most colorful legal circuits in recent memory.
