In a letter sent to Vice Chancellor Lori Will of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, a lawyer noted that this announcement wasn’t made properly, and that it could end up “damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community.” The letter also refers to Krafton’s decision as being “self-serving”.

The decision to launch Subnautica 2 into Early Access in May was made by Krafton after Unknown Worlds had hit key development milestones. This was uncovered in a memo from earlier this week, and ended up catching the attention of the lawyers representing co-founder trio Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire. They sent a letter about having “serious concerns” with how studio head Steve Papoutsis announced the milestone to developers, noting that he didn’t have the authority to do so.

“Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community—let alone this Court’s Opinion,” continued the lawyer’s letter. “Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game. That entire process was supposed to be driven by Mr. Gill. However, in defiance of the Court’s Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community.”

The letter went on to speculate that the memo sent out by Papoutsis had been “internationally leaked” by Krafton. In response, lawyers for the company would offer a new statement, defending Krafton and noting that the memo sent by Papoutsis was simply meant to celebrate the development of Subnautica 2.

“Papoutsis’s message was simply celebrating the UW employees’ efforts toward a past event: Krafton’s pre-Opinion determination that Subnautica 2 was ready for Early Access release. There was nothing improper about conveying the results of the milestone review or thanking the development team for their dedication and talent.”

They went on to note that Gill, having been re-appointed as CEO of Unknown Worlds, will be “able to assess independently his views on the state of Subnautica 2 and the appropriate release schedule; nothing in Papoutsis’s message alters Gill’s authority or discretion.”

For her part, the vice chancellor hasn’t issued any response to either of the letters, at least for now. Gill’s re-appointment was confirmed earlier this week as part of Will’s judgment. The vice chancellor noted that “Krafton breached the EPA by terminating the Key Employees without valid Cause and by improperly seizing operational control of Unknown Worlds.”

In the meantime, what this means for Subnautica 2’s May launch window remains to be seen. If the title is indeed ready to hit Early Access, these plans aren’t likely to be changed, and we’ll simply start seeing more marketing about the underwater survival crafting game in the coming weeks and months.

Studio head Steve Papoutsis recently thanked the team and its partners in a new statement. “Over the past nine months, you have worked incredibly hard to bring Subnautica 2 close to the finish line. That effort has resulted in a game we are truly proud of, one that each of us and our partners at Krafton unanimously determined is ready for Early Access release in May.”

The additional time following its delay last year has allowed for more story chapters, new biomes, creatures, and “many other features.” “With this significant progress, we have passed Krafton’s milestone review last week and are now ready to start our open development journey alongside our community. We have full confidence that we have reached a point where we can deliver an experience our players will love.”

Regarding Ted Gill, who was recently reinstated as CEO following a court order, Papoutsis said, “We look forward to working with Ted Gill to support a smooth transition and work toward a successful launch. Our priority is getting this game into the hands of the community that has been eagerly waiting for it—and that means honoring the work you have already done to make that possible.”

The decision comes shortly after Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will ruled that Krafton fired Gill and co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire without valid cause. Alongside reinstatement, he also has authority over the game’s early access release. The trio is also entitled to the previous $250 million payout that Krafton agreed on with its acquisition of the studio, provided it hits certain goals.

That seems a given, especially with reports that Subnautica 2 is the most wishlisted game on Steam, beating out the likes of Forza Horizon 6 and Resident Evil Requiem. For more details on what Unknown Worlds has been working on, check out the new Leviathan here. You can also learn about multiplayer and base-building, with the latter receiving numerous improvements.

Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will stated, “Judgment is entered in favor of Fortis [which represents the Unknown Worlds founders] on its Phase One claims. Krafton breached the EPA by terminating the Key Employees without valid Cause and by improperly seizing operational control of Unknown Worlds.”

The “resolution” from Krafton’s board on July 1st, 2025, has been “declared ineffective to the extent it infringes on Gill’s operational control right.” Not only will Gill be reinstated, but he’ll once again have “authority over the early access launch of Subnautica 2” with the publisher enjoined from firing him. If that wasn’t enough, all of the cofounders are again liable to collect the bonuses from the $250 million payout promised by Krafton as part of its agreement to acquire Unknown Worlds.

The payout collection period has been extended through to September 15th (with room for further extension, if necessary). Why did the court rule in favor of the co-founders? Originally, Krafton fired them for wanting to release Subnautica 2 into early access when it was deemed not ready. However, it later blamed them for “abandoning” Unknown Worlds for other projects and even accused them of stealing confidential data.

According to court documents (as outlined by Kotaku), “Krafton’s newly manufactured justifications for the terminations are pretextual. Cleveland and McGuire had taken on limited roles, but that was long known to and accepted by Krafton. As for the data downloads, the former employees were acting to protect the studio’s work product amid Krafton’s takeover attempt. They kept the data confidential and promptly returned it.

“The earnout formula is highly leveraged. If Unknown Worlds surpasses a revenue threshold of $69.8 million, Krafton must pay $3.12 for each additional dollar of revenue generated, up to the $250 million cap.”

If released by Q4 2025 and selling more than 1.67 million (by its models), the studio would have earned a total payout of $191.8 million (though $242.2 million would have been the “best-case scenario”). “These figures immediately captured the attention of [Krafton] CEO [Changhan] Kim,” wrote the judge. “Kim, who had personally led the acquisition of Unknown Worlds, felt that Krafton had overpaid. He feared that making an earnout payment would earn him a reputation as a ‘pushover.'”

Thus began its campaign, dubbed “Project X,” to fire the trio, including consulting with ChatGPT. Hilariously, even the latter advised it would be “difficult to cancel the earnout.”

Of course, this is only Phase One, and the court has yet to rule on any monetary damages. In a statement to Kotaku, Krafton said it “respectfully” disagreed with the recent ruling and is focused on “pushing out the newly updated version” of Subnautica 2 to players “as soon as possible.”

“Krafton puts players at the heart of every decision, and that will never change. Over the past several months, Krafton and the Unknown Worlds team have worked tirelessly to strengthen the game and prepare it for an Early Access release, with a continued focus on delivering the best possible experience for the Subnautica community. We look forward to pushing out the newly updated version as soon as possible for players.

“While we respectfully disagree with today’s ruling, we are evaluating our options as we determine our path forward. Today’s ruling does not resolve the former executives’ claim for damages or an earnout related to Subnautica 2, with further litigation still pending. In the meantime, Krafton’s immediate focus remains unchanged: delivering the best possible game to Subnautica’s fans.”

Amid all this, Subnautica 2 is currently planned to launch in 2026 for Xbox Series X/S (via Game Preview) and PC. It will also be available on day one for Game Pass.

“We knew that the hero would create a shock, but I was surprised by the amount of people who were like ‘what the f—huh?’ but then were like ‘I’m in,’ before three quarters of the trailer had even played,” he said. “Cool, that’s what we wanted.”

Project Windless is slated to be an adaptation of popular South Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears by author Lee Youngdo. Since the series has plenty of different races and species, Krafton Montreal was presented with quite a few options when it was time to decide on the game’s protagonist. Ultimately, the decision was made to go with the Hero King because, while he is noted to be an important figure in the fantasy setting’s history, few were alive who truly knew him. This gave the studio more freedom with the narrative.

“One of the reasons we felt the Hero King was the right choice is because he’s a mythical character,” Méthé explained. “He’s remembered, but no one is still alive who was there. It gives us a level of flexibility, because the worst thing for us would have been to try to emulate too closely what’s in the novel at the expense of the game.”

The fact that the Hero King—a rekon—also happens to offer a visually striking design is also a bonus. The fact that rekons have special skills and attributes that set them apart from humans provides gameplay benefits as well.

“This character visually stands out from the typical action adventure RPG, but it needs to be more than an eight-foot, 600-pound guy,” he said. “It’s not a guy in a suit. It’s a race, and the race has specific skills and attributes you don’t find in a human.”

These attributes can be further refined by players throughout their time with Project Windless. The Hero King can be shaped into any kind of protagonist that a player might want, be it a charismatic leader, or a character more inclined to get things done on his own. “It’s really up to each player to adapt their play based on what they’re more interested in,” said the creative director.

Méthé went on to tease other features of Project Windless, noting that it was “too soon to say” whether players will be able to grow their character’s facial hair. He also “wouldn’t confirm or deny; that being said, it’s the story of the rise of the Hero King in the context of war,” when asked about whether there will be any romantic entanglements for the protagonist. As for whether the Hero King is the eponymous bird that drinks tears, he noted that “It’s more of a metaphor for the responsibility of being a leader. The answer in that regard will be yes. You will drink tears.”

Project Windless doesn’t yet have a release date. However, Krafton has confirmed that generative AI is not being used in its development.

Noting that studios under the Krafton banner tend to have a high level of independence when it comes to how they want to apply their creativity, the company believes in allowing them the freedom to decide on their own tools. To that end, for Project Windless, the use of AI has revolved around “exploratory phases”, and that none of the player-facing features were involved.

“Krafton’s studios operate with a high degree of creative independence, enabling each team to select the tools and methods that best suit their projects,” said the spokesperson. “For Project Windless, the Montreal team is taking a traditional, craftsmanship-driven approach to single-player development. The team primarily uses AI internally during exploratory phases to support iteration and efficiency rather than as a central, player-facing feature of the game.

The AI that is being used for the game isn’t really what is commonly considered generative AI in this day and age. Rather, it describes machine learning systems that have been used in game development for decades at this point. Project Windless uses it for NPC behaviour systems, and for fine-tuning animations depending on their environments.

“Project Windless uses traditional game AI systems to drive NPC behaviour and bring the world and its characters to life beyond combat. These systems govern how characters react, move, and behave in the environment. We are not using generative AI for content creation or narrative elements,” they said.

Project Windless is going to be an adaptation of the Korean fantasy book series The Bird That Drinks Tears. The trailer gave us a simple story setup, giving us our first glimpse at a Nhaga holding a heart, before eventually cutting to gameplay. The hack-and-slash action game seems to take quite a few cues from Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series, since players, taking on the role of a Rekon, will have to deal with hundreds of enemies in epic battlefields.

While most regular enemies will seemingly be dealt with quite quickly, it looks like bosses will require more thought on the players’ part. Not only do they have hard-hitting, heavy attacks, the boss fights also seem to make good use of the masses of regular soldiers they have at their disposal to ensure that the player is constantly facing pressure and has to figure out their next moves under duress.

Not many details about Project Windless have been revealed so far. However, the book series that it is based on has been praised quite a bit for its worldbuilding aspects, with author Lee Youngdo having gone to great lengths to establish the cultures, languages, and belief systems of the various races that inhabit the world of The Bird That Drinks Tears. This can only mean great news for players, since strong worldbuilding also tends to serve as strong foundations for any given story.

The central conflict of the game seems to revolve around the Nhaga and the other races which largely stems from an envoy that was brutally murdered. Much like the book series, the game also places quite a bit of emphasis on the Nhaga and their relationship with hearts.

The trailer starts off by giving us some story setup before quickly throwing us into the midst of its fast-paced high-intensity gameplay. The number of enemies that are on screen at any given moment might draw comparisons with Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series. However, the trailer has also indicated that there will be boss fights requiring more in terms of tactics than simple button mashing.

The protagonist is of a race based on roosters, dubbed Rekon, and will be capable of wielding different kinds of weapons, from one-handed swords to dual-wielding smaller blades, or two-handing a giant spear. The core story will seemingly revolve around winning battles to “unite a fractured land and give birth to a new kingdom.”

The original series of books was known for its emphasis on worldbuilding, with author Lee Youngdo being praised for his work on establishing various cultures, languages, belief systems, and socio-political structures for every one of its races.

When asked about the decision to make a first-person RPG after having worked on twin-stick shooter The Ascent, Frick noted that No Law felt like he and Berg were “going back to our roots”. He went on to note that the first-person perspective allows for more immersion and other storytelling opportunities when compared to the top-down perspective of The Ascent.

“I think also with the first-person perspective, a big reason for that as well is that, in The Ascent we focused a lot on the world-building and the lore and the mood, and we really like building games where you can immerse yourself in the world,” explained Frick. “That was something we really wanted to go a lot deeper with this game. Because in first-person you can actually appreciate all the little storytelling, and there’s just a lot more stories to tell. And that’s something that we missed with The Ascent a little bit, to be a little bit more intimate with everything. So that’s a big reason as well.”

When it comes to the inevitable comparisons No Law would draw with Cyberpunk 2077, Frick noted that Neon Giant’s RPG is quite different from CD Projekt RED’s outing, from the mood and tone, right down to the gameplay and more intimate story. The mechanics are also slated to be quite different, with a focus on the world reacting to the player’s actions and choices.

“A lot of it is, it’s just the mood and the tone. Cyberpunk [2077] is a big, sprawling experience. It’s a mega city,” he said. “And our game is a lot more intimate both when it comes to the gameplay mechanics but also the world. I think as people see more of the game that will be more apparent. It’s hard to do in a short trailer like that. I think you need to see and feel the game more. It is more of an intimate experience, like the world is deep but not so grand. And the same thing with mechanics and the same thing with the story. It is very, very personal and very, very reactive around you as a player, rather than being set in this grand backdrop.”

Berg noted that the studio also had to be conscious about what kinds of references it was drawing from during the development of No Law. Since cyberpunk is an expansive genre in itself, the studio kept an eye on the market, and No Law will draw quite heavily from Hong Kong action movie scenes. He also noted that No Law will be quite a bit more tongue-in-cheek than what players might expect from the genre.

“Of course we’re aware of what’s out in the market, we keep an eye on it,” said Berg. “But creatively we are looking a lot at eighties, nineties action movies, or a certain mood there. We’re looking at Hong Kong action scenes. We’re looking at inspiring comic books, it could be American, it could be manga. Of course we have anime in there. But we’re just looking at a lot of different pieces of fiction as far as inspiration goes and we’re just trying to put all of that in here.”

“Something you saw in The Ascent as well, there is a slight tongue in cheek, right? We as creatives, we can’t write grim dark angsty. That’s not what we want. We want violence as a spectacle. We want you to have fun when you’re playing a game. That’s a very important feeling for us, to just have fun. There’s a mood, there’s a vibe, there’s a certain feeling that hopefully fans of The Ascent will recognize even though the gameplay is completely different.”

No Law is being developed for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release in 2026. In the meantime, check out our review of Neon Giant’s previous title, The Ascent.

Enter Grey Harker, a military veteran who’s out to get the people who messed up his retirement plans, unleashing his extensive skills and weapons expertise in a brutal and bloody gameplay loop. Port Desire is also quite easy on the eyes; its Unreal-powered visuals bring the city and its boroughs to life with aplomb. It’s a cyber-noire title that promises more than just shooting, with a bit of detective work thrown into the gameplay loop to keep things interesting.

All in all, this is a title to watch out for when it hits the shelves sometime in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC., which could mean that we can expect the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive triggers to be put to good use, making for an experience that could stand out from the crowd if it handles its material well.

The testimonies, according to Krafton, show that the publisher had no plan to remove the co-founders from their leadership position at the studio to avoid giving them their earnout. The company said that it became “unequivocally clear there was no preconceived plan by Krafton to remove Unknown Worlds’ leadership to avoid the earnout obligation,” from their testimonies.

Along with this, the publisher has further alleged that the testimonies by McGuire, Cleveland and Gill serve as evidence that they “lied and tried to hide their abandonment [of Subnautica 2 and their duties] because they wanted Krafton to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars for nothing.”

As part of its legal strategy, Krafton has been establishing a timeline of events where Cleveland and McGuire hid the fact that they weren’t as hands-on with ongoing work at Unknown Worlds during the studio’s acquisition negotiations with Krafton. The publisher itself reportedly only discovered this on May 20 this year.

According to excerpts of the testimonies, Cleveland said, “I stopped working four months ago and have entered semi-retirement,” on January 8, 2024, in a private message. Another statement attributed to McGuire was also shown, where he said in an email to the core team members at the Subnautica developer that “I’ve continued to do bits and pieces of the job as needed, but I stopped using that title years ago when I felt it no longer reflected my primary contribution to the company.” In this statement, McGuire was referring to his title of technical director and had reportedly sent this email back on January 10, 2024.

McGuire made another statement on April 29, 2024, noting that he spoke to Cleveland and Gill about leaving the company. To this, Cleveland responded by saying that he was “pretty sure [he’ll] be doing the same thing.”

Another key piece of evidence provided by Krafton is a statement by Subnautica 2 lead designer Anthony Gallegos, who noted that he found it difficult to get any feedback on the title’s progress from McGuire. He said that he “can’t even get [McGuire] to look at some code for [Subnautica 2] water to help us, but he’ll make money off a sale from four years ago and get paid to do nothing.”

As part of the trial, Cleveland even admitted that he had not informed Krafton CEO Changham Kim about his lack of involvement at Unknown Worlds. Krafton’s side of the legal battle asked him: “You stood to gain potentially tens of millions of dollars more in earnout, and you couldn’t send him [Changham Kim] an email because your arms were hurting? Is that your testimony?” To this, Cleveland responded, “That’s not a great reason, I admit.”

Gill has also been further implicated by a statement from the transcription of an audio call made on June 10, 2025. In this statement, Gill told Krafton that the publisher should pay the promised earnout if it plans to delay the release of Subnautica 2.

“If you [Krafton] want to delay the game, just pay it. Just pay the earnout…agree to pay it now. We can sign something tomorrow…it’ll be paid, and we’ll give you flexibility on paying it. You can pay it over two years, instead of all at once. But just pay it,” said Gill as per the statement.

These statements by Krafton have been part of the company’s legal strategy of providing evidence that the three co-founders “were always concerned first and foremost about the earnout,” rather than the health of the studio and its future game releases.

Just last month, the trio had accused Kim of using ChatGPT to try to figure out a way how Krafton could avoid paying the promised earnout to Gill, Cleveland and McGuire.

The hint of leaves on the right side and lower left indicates a greener location than The Ascent’s arcology. It’s worth noting that this will be Neon Giant’s first full-fledged title since the twin-stick cyberpunk shooter launched in July 2021.

Developed by a team of 12, it went on to sell one million copies and even received a paid DLC called Cyber Heist, which added new locations, missions, and weapons. After its acquisition by Krafton, the publisher confirmed that the developer’s next project would be an open-world first-person shooter. Whether this is the same title remains to be seen.

Other titles appearing at The Game Awards include Exodus and a new trailer for what could be Diablo 4’s next expansion. It’s also likely that Ubisoft could announce Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Remake.