{"id":297339,"date":"2025-11-17T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T16:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297339\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T16:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T16:10:11","slug":"subnautica-2-publisher-asked-chatgpt-for-help-dumping-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/297339\/","title":{"rendered":"Subnautica 2 Publisher Asked ChatGPT For Help Dumping Founders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unknown Worlds\u2019 cofounders were fired out of the blue<\/a> earlier this year and have been suing publisher Krafton ever since claiming it wrongly terminated them to avoid paying a $250 million bonus if Subnautica 2 hit certain sales milestones. The studio\u2019s cofounders now claim in new filings based on discovery during the legal process<\/a> that Krafton engineered a takeover only after it failed re-negotiate lower bonuses. The publisher\u2019s CEO allegedly even consulted ChatGPT to try and get out of the massive payout.<\/p>\n

A copy of a pre-trial briefing recently filed on behalf of Unknown founders Charles Cleveland, Adam \u201cMax\u201d McGuire, and Edward \u201cTed\u201d Gill includes new evidence they say vindicates their side of the dispute. Namely, that Krafton was well aware of their ongoing roles within the company, that they weren\u2019t directly leading Subnautica 2\u2019s development, and that concerns about delaying the top-wishlisted Steam game<\/a> over missing content only arose after Krafton got worried about having to make the $250 million payout it agreed to back when it acquired the studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cKrafton terminated the Founders and seized control of Unknown Worlds in order to avoid the earnout,\u201d reads the group\u2019s latest filing. \u201cSmoking gun documents show that Krafton was looking for ways to \u201ccancel the earn-out\u201d and that its secret \u201cProject X\u201d was designed to either make a \u201cDeal\u201d on the earnout or execute a \u201cTake over.\u201d When the Founders would not agree to Krafton\u2019s demands related to the earnout, Krafton decided a \u201ctake over\u201d would be the \u201ceasier\u201d route.\u201d<\/p>\n

It goes on to cite snippets of internal communications at Krafton, including an apparent conversation between the publisher\u2019s CEO, Kim Chang-han, and its head of global operations, Richard Yoon:<\/p>\n

\"AFortis Advisors \/ Kotaku <\/p>\n

The exchange suggests Krafton was not only seeking to lowball the cofounders on their original bonus but the rest of the development team as well.<\/p>\n

The new filing also claims that Krafton felt it had overpaid for Unknown Worlds and wanted to avoid following through on the originally contractually obligated payouts at all costs, even going so far as to ask an AI chatbot for help. \u201c[Maria Park] told Kim that \u2018it seems to be highly likely that the earn-out will still be paid if the sales goal is achieved regardless of the dismissal with cause,\u2019 the new filing reads. \u201cKim turned to artificial intelligence to help him brainstorm ways to avoid paying the earnout. ChatGPT likewise advised that it would be \u2018difficult to cancel the earn-out.’\u201d The cofounders claim Krafton refused to \u201cproduce the ChatGPT conversations and, when pressed, confirmed
that they no longer exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pre-trial briefing goes on to claim that Krafton is now throwing new justifications for the cofounders firings \u201cin hopes that one might stick.\u201d This includes allegations the cofounders \u201cintentionally\u201d deceived the publisher about job changes and other important studio business, and also stole files before their firings. The cofounders dispute this, arguing that Krafton was well aware of everything going on and that no confidential information was ever disseminated. They further claim that no one in Krafton, prior to the firings, ever expressed the need to delay Subnautica 2 from its upcoming August Early Access launch.<\/p>\n

A culture of \u201csilence and unease\u201d <\/p>\n

Instead, they argue that their firings hurt studio morale and made development harder. \u201cKrafton\u2019s own internal report captured the damage: employees cited \u2018a significant lack of trust in Krafton,\u2019 frustration that support for Subnautica 2 had been pulled in the weeks before launch, and fear that anyone who pushed back could be fired,\u201d the filing reads. \u201cThe open, transparent culture that defined Unknown Worlds\u2014and fueled its open development success\u2014gave way to silence and unease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krafton did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the group\u2019s latest claims.<\/p>\n

Back in August, the company said it had replaced management at in order to protect Subnautica 2\u2018s development and would pay remaining staff launch bonuses anyway. \u201cKrafton was not willing to take the risk of the resulting damage to the\u00a0Subnautica\u00a0franchise and the Company\u2019s long-term reputation\u2013a risk that, if materialized, would be irreversible, as shown with\u00a0Kerbal Space Program 2<\/a>,\u201d its legal response read. \u201cAs Unknown Worlds\u2019 sole stockholder, Krafton had invested $500 million in the success of not only Subnautica 2, but also\u00a0Subnautica 3,\u00a0Subnautica 4, and any other future\u00a0Subnautica\u00a0franchise product.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the facts speak for themselves,\u201d it continued. \u201cThis answer reflects our commitment to protecting both the\u00a0Subnautica\u00a0IP and the global community that has supported it for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subnautica 2 is currently schedule to release some time in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unknown Worlds\u2019 cofounders were fired out of the blue earlier this year and have been suing publisher Krafton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[18593,2932,18594,74],"class_list":["post-297339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-krafton","tag-lawsuit","tag-subnautica-2","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}