The controversy surrounding the delay of Subnautica 2 has ignited tensions between developer Unknown Worlds and its parent company, KRAFTON. What seemed like a routine delay has spiraled into a legal battle and a leak revealing why KRAFTON postponed the game.
Here’s a quick rundown of the events that have unfolded:
Initially, Subnautica 2 was set to launch by June 2025. However, this timeline has been drastically altered. Earlier this month, KRAFTON made a major move by replacing Unknown Worlds’ studio leadership-Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill, and Max McGuire-with seasoned industry veteran Steve Papoutsis.
This week, Bloomberg reported that KRAFTON had delayed the game’s release until 2026. The delay would also result in Unknown Worlds missing out on a significant $250 million bonus tied to revenue targets set for the year. While this was later confirmed, KRAFTON denied that financial pressures played any role in the decision. Instead, the company shifted blame onto the former leadership, claiming they had failed to fulfill their duties and caused the delay. KRAFTON even alleged that Cleveland was distracted by a personal film project instead of focusing on the game.
The leaked internal KRAFTON document provided further insight into the company’s reasoning. According to the document, the version of Subnautica 2 in development lacked the necessary ‘polish and market impact’ to drive the franchise’s growth. Several planned features were removed from the early access launch, including two biomes, a Leviathan type, certain creatures, several tools, and even hours of narrative content. Notably, the character customization feature was also omitted. KRAFTON’s stance was that the current state of the game wouldn’t meet player expectations, justifying the delay to add more content and polish before release.
The former leadership of Unknown Worlds, however, is fighting back. Charlie Cleveland announced on Reddit that he and the other executives are filing a lawsuit against KRAFTON. Cleveland stated, ‘We’ve now filed a lawsuit against Krafton: the details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story.’ He emphasized that suing a multi-billion dollar company was not a decision taken lightly but felt it was necessary to ‘make it right.’ He also denied accusations that the $250 million bonus would have been mostly pocketed by the executives, asserting that the profits would have been shared with the entire team, as they always had in the past.
As expected, KRAFTON is likely to respond to the lawsuit, and the drama surrounding Subnautica 2’s development and delay is far from over. We will continue to monitor the situation for any further developments.