The delay of Subnautica 2 has sparked into somewhat of a controversy between developer Unknown Worlds and parent company KRAFTON. Let's take a minute to recap what happened, chronologically:
- The game was originally meant to launch by June 2025, but that clearly didn't happen
- Earlier this month, KRAFTON replaced the Unknown Worlds studio leadership (Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill, and Max McGuire) with industry veteran Steve Papoutsis
- This week, Bloomberg reported that KRAFTON had delayed Subnautica 2 to 2026. They also added that this would cause Unknown Worlds to lose a $250 million bonus linked to reaching a certain amount of revenue by the end of the year.
- The delay was subsequently confirmed. However, KRAFTON claimed that it was not at all influenced by financial or contractual considerations.
- Shortly afterward, the Korean publisher attacked the former leadership directly, stating that they had abandoned their responsibilities and caused the game to slip. For example, they said Charlie Cleveland focused on a personal film project of his instead of working on the game.
- The studio leads would have allegedly received 90% of that $250 million bonus.
Now, some Reddit user has leaked an internal KRAFTON document that shows exactly why the publisher didn't want the game to launch. In the current state, Subnautica 2 lacked the 'level of polish and market impact required to drive IP growth and expansion.' The document also adds that content was removed from the original plan for the early access launch, such as two biomes, one type of Leviathan, certain creatures, several tools, about six hours of narrative content, and even the character customization feature.
Basically, KRAFTON highlighted that the current version of Subnautica 2 wouldn't make users happy, thus the need for the delay to add more content and polish before making the game available to the public.
The former Unknown Worlds executives aren't taking those accusations lying down, though. A few hours ago, Charlie Cleveland told the Reddit community that he and the other execs are filing a lawsuit against KRAFTON:
We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public - you all deserve the full story. Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.
Cleveland also denied that the $250 million bonus would have gone almost entirely to them. He said that they had always shared profits with the team and this would not have been different.
Needless to say, KRAFTON is likely to respond in kind to the lawsuit. We'll keep you apprised of any further updates.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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