In the midst of an ongoing lawsuit between Krafton and the founders of Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds—Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill and Max McGuire—the trio has accused the company of changing its story in the middle of litigation. As caught by GamesIndustry.biz, new court papers have these statements by the three co-founders.
According to the trio, Krafton’s original allegation revolved around firing the three of them because of their “supposed intention to proceed with a premature release of Subnautica 2.” Due to this, Krafton also allegedly “withdrawn game readiness as a grounds to justify its actions.”
Further in the statement, they note that the company 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.”
“Krafton’s disorganized retreat raises more questions than answers,” noted the three in their filing. “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.”
The statement, which had the three request that the court should deny Krafton’s request for a forensic inspection, ultimately led to the court doing so. Their statement noted that this request came on the grounds of the company’s “shift in theories”. The court denied Krafton’s forensic inspection request without prejudice back in September 12. The fact that it was denied “without prejudice” means that Krafton could try for another forensic inspection request down the line.
While this lawsuit has been going on from back in July, with the three co-founders accusing Krafton of a “months-long” campaign to delay the Early Access release of Subnautica 2. The title, originally slated for release this year, was pushed back to 2026, with Krafton noting that it wasn’t yet ready for release. The decision also led to the ousting of the three co-founders, who insisted that it was, in fact, ready for release.
Later in July, the current CEO of Unknown Worlds, Steve Papoutsis, spoke about the lawsuit, noting that, contrary to the allegations by the co-founders, he didn’t see Krafton as withholding money it owed to the studio and the three co-founders.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” said Papoutsis. “Personally, what was presented to me when I was asked to participate and help the team was nothing but encouragement for making a great game from Krafton.”
“A commitment to players, a commitment to the creative process, a commitment to ensuring that, when we do choose to go to Early Access, it meets players’ expectations. That is all that’s ever been discussed to me, and that is a huge part of why I felt good about stepping in and accepting this opportunity.”
Subnautica 2 recently got a new developer vlog that showcased one of its new additions: the Collector Leviathan.
