Krafton Claims Subnautica 2 Was on a Crash Course to Become the Next 'Kerbal Space Program 2'
The public feud between Krafton and the fired founders of Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds just got a hell of a lot nastier. In a formal response to the founders' lawsuit, Krafton has fired back with explosive allegations, claiming the studio heads effectively abandoned the game after their massive payday and were on the verge of causing "irreversible harm to the entire franchise".
Checked Out for a Cool $200 Million
Krafton's legal filing paints a brutal picture. After selling their company for $500 million, the publisher alleges that co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, who "pocketed almost $200 million apiece," quickly lost interest in actually making Subnautica 2.
The response claims the two "abandoned their roles" to focus on personal projects, with Cleveland reportedly pursuing filmmaking while McGuire went off to "try something that feels personally meaningful". By July of 2023, their absence was apparently so noticeable that the development director told the remaining CEO that the team thought their bosses had "checked out".
The Ghost of Kerbal Space Program 2
The most damning part of the filing is the comparison Krafton's own CEO made. By the spring of 2025, Krafton felt Subnautica 2 was in such a sorry state that releasing it, even in early access, would be a catastrophe. The filing states that CEO Changhan Kim worried the game could end up like the notoriously disastrous launch of Kerbal Space Program 2, causing "irreversible harm to the entire IP franchise".
Invoking the name of KSP2 is a low blow, and it's meant to be. Krafton is arguing they didn't just fire the founders to save money; they fired them to save Subnautica from becoming another cautionary tale of a beloved IP being run into the ground.
A Tale of Two Lawsuits
This bombshell filing completely reframes the narrative. Just last month, the story was that Krafton was delaying the game to dodge a massive $250 million payout to the founders. Now, Krafton is painting a picture of a necessary evil, a desperate move to protect their half-a-billion-dollar investment from the very people they bought it from.
As the lawyers sharpen their knives, the future of Subnautica 2 is more uncertain than ever, with a release now not expected until 2026 at the earliest. This is no longer a simple story of a big publisher screwing over some indie devs. It's a messy, high-stakes corporate divorce, and the only guaranteed loser is the game itself, caught right in the middle of the fallout.