replace: Crafton issued the next assertion concerning this week’s choice, noting that additional litigation over the state of affairs continues to be pending, however the decide mentioned the corporate ought to reinstate the Unknown World boss and prolong the $250 million payout to Subnautica 2’s employees.
“Crafton places gamers on the heart of each choice we make, and that may by no means change,” an organization spokesperson mentioned in an announcement shared with videogameaddicted. “Over the previous few months, Krafton and the Unknown Worlds group have been working tirelessly to boost the sport and put together it for an Early Entry launch, with a continued concentrate on offering the very best expertise for the Subnautica neighborhood. We sit up for releasing the brand new and up to date model to our gamers as quickly as potential.”
“Whereas we respectfully disagree with right now’s ruling, we’re evaluating our choices as we determine on our future course. In the present day’s ruling doesn’t resolve the damages and compensation claims of former executives associated to Subnautica 2, and extra litigation stays pending. Within the meantime, Crafton’s quick focus stays the identical: offering Subnautica followers with the perfect recreation potential.”
Authentic story: Crafton has been ordered to reinstate the previous boss of Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds and prolong a $250 million bonus that workers had been provided, in a shocking authorized ruling strongly favoring the sport’s improvement employees.
Subnautica 2’s improvement has been mired in controversy since Crafton dramatically fired Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and different senior group members final summer season. On the time, Crafton additionally blamed Gil for delaying the sport’s launch, though the group was working towards an early entry launch that might earn them a $250 million bonus.
Gill and his former teammates shortly filed a lawsuit towards Crafton, suggesting that he might need been fired to keep away from paying bonuses, however Crafton countered that his employees “sued to court docket to assert hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in funds they didn’t earn.” Crafton additionally accused the fired worker of stealing paperwork in anticipation of additional authorized motion, additional muddying the waters surrounding his departure.
The ensuing authorized drama surfaced some shocking allegations, together with recommendations that Crafton CEO Chang-Han Kim used ChatGPT to “brainstorm methods to keep away from cost” of Unknown Worlds’ bonuses, and that they even mentioned concepts for a plan to “take over” the Unknown Worlds firm through Slack. In the meantime, Crafton prompt that the ousted staffer “talked about racist views about Korea and Koreans” due to a memo submitted by Owen Mahoney, CEO and president of rival Korean online game firm Nexon.
Nonetheless, the lawsuit in the end resulted in a victory for Unknown Worlds. Crafton himself has not but commented.
“Pissed off that key workers refused to remove operational management rights and confronted a nine-figure legal responsibility, Crafton started searching for excuses,” the decide wrote, criticizing Crafton’s earlier claims that Gill and others had “deserted duty.”
“Crafton’s true focus in June 2025 was to keep away from monetary threat,” the decide mentioned. “The corporate knew Subnautica 2 was poised to hit $250 million in income, however Kim deemed it a catastrophic failure. Crafton launched into Undertaking
What about Subnautica 2 itself? Developer Unknown Worlds lately shared A behind-the-scenes take a look at an all-new deep-sea predatorand “How the group used Unreal Engine 5 AI for genuine participant conduct, real-time reactions, and tense encounters.” This 10-minute video weblog is likely one of the first improvement updates we have made for the reason that authorized dispute started final 12 months.
Tom Phillips is videogameaddicted’s information editor. You possibly can contact Tom at tom_phillips@videogameaddicted.com or discover him on Bluesky. @tomphillipseg.bsky.social