Subnautica 2 devs sue publisher after getting fired over game delay

Subnautica 2’s delay has been met with substantial kickback from its developers, Unknown Worlds, who are now suing the game’s publishers, Krafton.

This comes after a considerable amount of controversy involving lost payments, fired owners, and now a lawsuit.

Known for their work on inZOI and PUBG, Krafton has been working on Subnautica 2, the sequel to the incredibly popular 2014 underwater adventure. However, instead of it coming out in 2025 as many thought, the publishers pushed the release to 2026, supposedly costing the team developing it, Unknown Worlds, hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

What’s more is that this came shortly after Unknown Worlds’ co-founders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, and CEO Ted Gill were fired from their positions. Shortly after, Charlie confirmed the delay came from the publisher, insisting it was “ready for early access release” but the “decision is in Krafton’s hands.”

Unknown Worlds co-founder sues Subnautica 2 publisher

Now, the situation has escalated even further, after Charlie Cleveland shared that they’ve now “filed a lawsuit against Krafton.”

Unknown Worlds

Posting the statement to the Subnautica Reddit, Clevelent writes: “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.”

Krafton’s also produced their own statement on the matter, which explains that the timeline was “significantly delayed” for Subnautica 2 and that “the former leadership abandoned responsibilities entrusted to them.” They added: “Krafton believes that the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule.”

The full details of the lawsuit are yet to be made public.