On August 15, Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds filed a lawsuit against the studio's former leadership team, accusing them of downloading and retaining confidential company files before their July ousting. The new lawsuit was filed weeks after the former Subnautica 2 leaders sued Krafton, the game's publisher, accusing them of delaying the project to 2026 to avoid paying out bonuses to the development team.
The lawsuit from Unknown Worlds came over a month after its owners, Krafton, fired Subnautica 2's three-person leadership team, which consisted of Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill at the time. The three were removed on July 2 without warning, and Krafton named industry veteran Steve Papoutsis as the CEO of Unknown Worlds. Papaoutsis' previous work includes serving as senior and executive producer of the Dead Space series, and as CEO of Striking Distance Studios, another Krafton subsidiary.
Days after Krafton issued a formal response to the pending case against them, Unknown Worlds has filed a new lawsuit against its former leaders. In a redacted public filing made in a Delaware courtroom (and corroborated by Game Developer), Unknown Worlds accused Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill of absconding with over 170,000 confidential company files that...
