{"id":669208,"date":"2026-07-02T05:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T05:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669208\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T05:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T05:00:11","slug":"krafton-settles-with-subnautica-2-developer-after-drawn-out-dispute-over-250-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669208\/","title":{"rendered":"Krafton settles with Subnautica 2 developer after drawn-out dispute over $250 million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">After a lengthy legal dispute, Krafton has settled with its subsidiary Unknown Worlds Entertainment, which is developing Subnautica 2, and will pay bonuses to the studio\u2019s staff, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-07-01\/krafton-agrees-to-pay-subnautica-2-bonuses-as-developer-s-ceo-resigns?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc4MjkxNTU0NywiZXhwIjoxNzgzNTIwMzQ3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUSEkyRklLR0lGUEUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.WjwpXH3Q1yC4ZNFhKO0dYP4Ud-b1dypbv-REPIWQvaI&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The dispute began last year after Krafton pushed out Unknown Worlds\u2019 cofounders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, and its CEO, Ted Gill, ahead of a potential $250 million bonus for hitting certain financial goals that would have been shared with the studio. After the executives sued, a judge reinstated Gill as CEO in March, and Subnautica 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/920668\/subnautica-2-early-access-release-date-unknown-worlds-krafton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">finally launched in early access in May<\/a>. The game passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gematsu.com\/2026\/05\/subnautica-2-early-access-sales-top-four-million\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">four million copies sold in five days<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Details of the settlement haven\u2019t been disclosed. \u201cKrafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment, and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings,\u201d Krafton said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamedeveloper.com\/business\/krafton-agrees-to-pay-bonuses-to-subnautica-2-studio-as-ceo-resigns?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=bluesky\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a statement to Game Developer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Bonuses will be paid to all Unknown Worlds staffers instead of only those who were there when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.krafton.com\/en\/news\/press\/krafton-inc-to-acquire-unknown-worlds-the-developers-behind-subnautica-and-natural-selection\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Krafton acquired the studio in 2021<\/a>, and they\u2019ll be paid out in three yearly installments, according to Bloomberg. However, Gill will be leaving the studio. \u201cWe mutually agreed to part ways,\u201d Gill tells Bloomberg. \u201cNew leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Krafton didn\u2019t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a lengthy legal dispute, Krafton has settled with its subsidiary Unknown Worlds Entertainment, which is developing Subnautica&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[96,205,59,50,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-669208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-entertainment","tag-gaming","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}