The battle between Subnautica 2 The publisher Krafton and the three former leaders of its unknown Worlds developer continue. Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire – The three leaders that Krafton dismissed earlier this year – have deposited a legal action detailing the alleged attempts of Krafton to torpedo the release of early access to Subnautica 2 In order expressly avoiding paying a promised gain bonus of $ 250 million.
“Krafton’s actions have already seriously damaged the anticipation of fans and undermined the potential release of Subnautica 2,” said the trial.
This gain was promised by Krafton to former leaders and around 100 developers and were to be paid if unknown worlds have reached income targets by the end of 2025. Subnautica 2Scheduled for the early access release at the end of 2025, would have practically assured that these objectives were achieved.
According to the trial posted today before a Chancellery court in Delaware, Krafton also knew Subnautica 2 was on the right track to meet if not exceed the income goal to trigger payment and started taking measures to prevent it essentially. The original SubnauticaAn underwater survival adventure game was a critical and commercial success, and its suite has become the second game most wishes for all time on Steam.
The trial details a meeting between American and Koreans of Krafton employees concerning the marketing strategy for Subnautica 2. After this meeting, US Krafton employees, who worked closely with the Subnautica 2 Team, reported that Kafton’s attitude about the game had changed.
“Upon their return, the El Segundo team – Krafton employees – said it was handled that Krafton’s leadership was not focused on a successful launch, but rather on the way he could convince the unknown worlds to delay the game.”
The trial also indicates that Krafton’s US employees explicitly revealed to the founders of the unknown worlds that “Krafton’s legal team painted agreements in search of an opening to put an end to the founders if they proceeded to the planned release.”
The trial provided the details of the agreement in which Krafton bought unknown worlds in 2021. The trial indicates that part of this agreement was an agreement that the founders would take control of the company and the publication calendar of Subnautica 2While Krafton could not hinder the development of the game or shoot the founders of the unknown worlds without reason.
According to the trial, Krafton launched a campaign to do both. Krafton would not have followed several of his development responsibilities for Subnautica 2 Including marketing and location support. “Indeed, one of the employees of the El Segundo edition of Krafton reported to Gill that the head office of Krafton told all the Krafton teams to stop all the creative tasks linked
The trial claims that Krafton has taken these obstruction actions to delay the game to explicitly avoid the payment of $ 250 million. During a meeting between the CEO of Krafton, Changhan Kim and Charlie Cleveland, Kim would have said: “If Unknown Worlds published the game on his scheduled calendar (…), he could be disastrous financially and extremely embarrassing for Krafton.” Krafton refused to comment.
After the initial history has broken concerning the alleged reason for Subnauticathe delay, Bloomberg said Krafton has agreed to extend the calendar to count Subnautica 2 ‘s later version. Previously, the company denied having delayed Subnautica 2 For any other reason but to polish the game. Earlier this week, an internal document concerning Subnautica 2development have been disclosed on Reddit. The document, composed of two photos taken from a computer screen, described the content originally provided for the launch of early access to the game and how certain materials had to be modified or deleted to comply with the release date.
Krafton recognized the veracity of these documents saying: “Given these circumstances, Krafton determined that transparent communication is necessary and has chosen to confirm the authenticity of the document”, possibly to strengthen his argument according to which Subnautica 2 was not ready for its early access.
