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The legal drama surrounding Subnautica 2, former Unknown Worlds leadership, and parent company Krafton continues, as the trio of ex-developers now apparently allege that Krafton has "chang[ed] its story mid-litigation about why it fired the founders and seized control" of the studio.
Back in early July, Krafton announced that Steve Papoutsis – chief creative officer of The Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios – would be taking over as the CEO of Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds, replacing former CEO Ted Gill and co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire.
Since then, the game has been delayed to 2026, the former Unknown Worlds leadership trio filed a lawsuit against Krafton, and Krafton fired back, alleging that Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire have "resorted to litigation to demand a multimillion-dollar payday they haven't earned," and that they previously wanted to self-publish the game without Krafton's help, ultimately leaving the parent company with "no choice but to terminate their employment." In addition, the publisher alleged that the trio "secretly downloaded massive amounts of confidential information from Unknown Worlds in further violations of the [purchase agreement]."
Now, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, in new court papers from earlier this month, the former Unknown Worlds leadership claims that Krafton has "chang[ed] its story mid-litigation about why it fired the founders and seized control over Unknown Worlds," specifically in relation to those aforementioned alleged downloads.
Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire allege that although Krafton first claimed to have terminated their positions due to their "supposed intention to proceed with a premature release of Subnautica 2," the publisher has "pivoted to a new theory that it admittedly came up with only after the fact: that it terminated the Founders and seized control because the Founders backed up files they were entitled to access in their work for Unknown Worlds."
The new court filing calls this a "disorganized retreat" from Krafton, adding: "To say Krafton's new theory is a Hail Mary would be an understatement – both because the downloads were not wrongful and because Krafton claims not to have learned of them until after it had fired the Founders. The downloads cannot have been the actual motivation for termination."
In the same document, it's confirmed that the court has dismissed Krafton's request for a forensic inspection and also denied an order asking for preservation. This isn't the end of the case, however, with the two sides now apparently expected to meet.
