On August 15th, the developers of Subnautica 2, Unknown Worlds, took legal action against their former leadership team. The claim is that this team allegedly downloaded and kept secret company documents before they were dismissed in July. This lawsuit came weeks after the ex-leaders of Subnautica 2 filed a suit against Krafton, the game’s publisher, who they accused of pushing back the project to 2026 intentionally to prevent paying bonuses to the development team.
As a gamer, I’ve noticed some shake-ups in the gaming world recently. About a month ago, Unknown Worlds filed a lawsuit, which turned out to be related to the sudden departure of the leadership team for Subnautica 2. That team consisted of Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill, who were unexpectedly let go on July 2nd without any prior warning. Following their departure, industry veteran Steve Papoutsis stepped into the role as CEO of Unknown Worlds. Papoutsis has an impressive background, having served as senior and executive producer for the Dead Space series, and currently leading Striking Distance Studios, another Krafton subsidiary.
Unknown Worlds Is Suing Subnautica 2’s Ex-Leaders
Following Krafton’s response to the ongoing case, Unknown Worlds has filed a fresh lawsuit against their former executives. In a court filing made in Delaware (which Game Developer also verified), Unknown Worlds accused Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill of taking over 170,000 confidential company files. These files, allegedly downloaded just before their departure from the company, are said to contain intellectual property details, business records, and other sensitive information. The lawsuit was filed in the same Delaware court where Krafton addressed its response to the former leaders of the Subnautica 2 project. Unknown Worlds stated that these files held valuable proprietary information.
As a dedicated fan following the legal proceedings, it’s been reported that prior to my termination, I (McGuire) downloaded an astounding 99,902 files from Unknown Worlds, and Cleveland managed to grab 72,140 files too. Interestingly, Cleveland ceased his downloads a mere eight minutes before Unknown Worlds barred him from the system. Unknown Worlds also disclosed that these downloads were the most extensive among all three former leaders since at least the year 2022. Post our exit from Unknown Worlds, the trio of us, once in charge of Subnautica 2, took legal action against Krafton.
According to Cleveland, Gill, and McGuire, Krafton postponed the release of Subnautica 2 until 2026 in order to sidestep a $250 million bonus payment due to the Unknown Worlds development team if they met certain early access criteria in 2025. Delaying the early access of Subnautica 2 to 2026 means it’s unlikely that Unknown Worlds will meet Krafton’s requirements and consequently miss out on the bonuses. The ongoing legal matters between Subnautica 2 and its original creators are yet to be resolved.
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2025-08-21 23:05