There's been ongoing legal drama surrounding the upcoming release of Subnautica 2, with former members of development studio Unknown Worlds filing a lawsuit against publisher Krafton. The lawsuit accuses Krafton of postponing Subnautica 2's release to avoid giving recently fired execs a $250 million payout.
Krafton has now issued a response (via GameSpot), claiming that the Unknown Worlds co-founders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, and ex-CEO, Ted Gill, were trying to rush the release and production of Subnautica 2 when it wasn't ready, while taking a hands-off approach that would result in a lower quality game.
Krafton's argument paints a very different picture of Subnautica 2's development process than the co-founders and ex-CEO suggest in their filing, and it could make for a messy legal battle going forward. However, as of this writing, Subnautica 2 is still set to release in Early Access in 2026.
The original Unknown Worlds lawsuit claims that Krafton was trying to avoid paying the founders and CEO what they were owed for delivering Subnautica 2 on time. Krafton's response flips the script, saying that they were forced to delay the release to 2026 because the product wasn't ready...
