Former Subnautica 2 Studio Leader Files Lawsuit Against Krafton
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- Charlie Cleveland, co-founder of Unknown Worlds, declared that he is suing Krafton.
- The details of the lawsuit are still not available to the public.
- Krafton changed the leadership in Unknown Worlds on July 2 and replaced them with Steve Papoutsis.
On July 10, 2025, Unknown Worlds co-founder Charlie Cleveland declared that he is filing a lawsuit against Krafton. Cleveland, together with Ted Gill and Max McGuire, was suddenly removed from his leadership position at Unknown Worlds and replaced by Steve Papoutsis on July 2.
“We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story,” the statement said. Cleveland also added that the idea of Gill, McGuire and him wanting to keep the bonuses for themselves is untrue, saying that they’ve historically always shared their profits with the team and did the same when they sold the studio.
Cleveland’s statement came after Krafton released theirs, which said that it “allocated approximately 90% of the up to $250 million earn-out compensation to the three former executives.” Krafton then promises its commitment to rewarding Unknown Worlds employees the compensation.
The aforementioned $250-million earn-out compensation has been a hot topic regarding Krafton and Unknown Worlds, to the point where the current CEO, Steve Papoutsis, was asked in a recent town hall meeting whether Subnautica 2 was delayed so that Krafton wouldn’t have to pay the compensation.
The former leaders of Unknown Worlds insisted that Subnautica 2 is ready for early access launch. In Cleveland’s statement, he said, “We know in our souls that the game is ready for Early Access – that’s just how we roll.” The details of the lawsuit are still unclear.
