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The legal battle over Subnautica 2 continues between Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill and their former parent company KRAFTON. Unknown Worlds, the studio co-founded by Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire, has now filed a lawsuit against them. This comes just over a week after KRAFTON’s own lawsuit against the same individuals.
Since KRAFTON initiated its legal action, Cleveland, Gill, and McGuire have remained silent on the ongoing developments. The new lawsuit from Unknown Worlds includes alleged Slack messages suggesting that Cleveland and McGuire stopped working on Subnautica 2 and moved to personal projects, while the rest of the team continued development.
Unknown Worlds’ suit echoes many of KRAFTON’s allegations, including that Cleveland and McGuire allegedly “abandoned” their roles at Unknown Worlds, impacting development on Subnautica 2. The co-founders are accused of being prepared to release a sub-standard version of the game in pursuit of the $250 million bonus at the center of this dispute.
The lawsuit reads: “Acting out of pure self-interest, the Key Employees pushed to release any game— even one that was underdeveloped and had received a litany of disappointing reviews—into circulation on a timeline that maximized their earnout, even if it meant disappointing Subnautica’s devoted fans and damaging the franchise.”
It remains unclear whether this is KRAFTON reiterating its claims or if Unknown Worlds’ staff genuinely feel aggrieved by their former bosses. KRAFTON did not respond to inquiries about the intentions behind the suit.
The situation suggests that we are in for a prolonged legal dispute, with some questions possibly remaining unanswered.
