Subnautica 2 bought so properly that writer Krafton reportedly agreed to pay the developer $250 million, a bonus that was on the heart of a high-profile authorized dispute with the ousted chief of Unknown World.
The underwater journey has bought a whopping 4 million copies since getting into early entry on Could 14th, with peak concurrent participant counts of over 467,000 on Steam. However its improvement has been rocky, and Crafton fired Unknown World CEO Ted Gill and different senior crew members final summer time. On the time, Crafton mentioned the sport’s launch was additionally delayed, regardless of the crew working in direction of an early entry launch, which he blamed on Gill. They might have thought they had been entitled to that $250 million bonus..
Gill and his former teammates instantly filed a lawsuit in opposition to Crafton, suggesting he was fired to keep away from paying bonuses. Mr. Crafton hit again, saying his workers had “filed a lawsuit searching for thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funds they haven’t earned.” Crafton additionally accused the fired worker of stealing paperwork in anticipation of additional authorized motion, additional muddying the waters surrounding his departure.
In March, Crafton was ordered to reinstate Gill and prolong $250 million in bonuses to his workers, in one of the dramatic authorized rulings the online game trade has ever seen. And at the moment, a report from a Korean enterprise newspaper signifies that Crafton has agreed to pay the bonus.
Alinea Analytics estimates that Subnautica 2 generated $100 million in only one week, making it the best-selling Steam sport of 2026 thus far. Krafton agreed to pay former Unknown World shareholders $3.12 per 30 days in income, or as much as $250 million, for each greenback the studio’s income has exceeded $69.8 million a month for the reason that South Korean sport developer acquired the U.S. firm in 2021, and is now going through a $250 million invoice, in keeping with the Korean Financial Newspaper. The $250 million represents about 35% of Crafton’s working revenue final yr.
videogameaddicted has reached out to Crafton for remark.
A authorized battle between Krafton and Unknown World shareholders has revealed quite a lot of stunning revelations concerning the South Korean firm’s inside actions within the run-up to the discharge of Subnautica 2. For instance, whereas inside forecasts confirmed Subnautica 2 was on observe to set off an earnout, Krafton CEO Chang-Han Kim mentioned he determined it was a “unhealthy deal” and felt “taken benefit of.”
Mr Kim was warned by his authorized division that he would nonetheless need to be paid even when Unknown World’s leaders, co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, and chief government Ted Gill had been “eliminated for trigger”. It additionally warned that it will expose Mr Crafton to “litigation and reputational danger”.
Kim then sought assist from ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot constructed by OpenAI, Delaware Chancery Courtroom Affiliate Chief Decide Lori Will mentioned in her ruling. ChatGPT initially responded that the earnout was “troublesome to cancel,” however Kim later fashioned an inside job power known as Mission X, following ChatGPT’s suggestion. “The duty power’s mission was to barter an earn-out ‘deal’ or execute an unknown world ‘takeover,'” Will mentioned. “It appeared like they had been making an attempt to purchase time.”
“For the subsequent month, Crafton adopted most of ChatGPT’s suggestions,” Will wrote.
Wesley is videogameaddicted’s Director of Information. Discover me on Twitter @wyp100. Wesley may be reached at wesley_yinpoole@videogameaddicted.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.