The lawsuit filed by former Unknown Worlds executives against Krafton is scheduled to be heard today, November 17, and will focus on former Unknown Worlds executives' demands for reinstatement.
In a preliminary report compiled by Fortis Advisors and reviewed GamesIndustry.biz And uploaded publicly To Game developerThe plaintiffs allege that Crafton fired the founders and delayed the launch of Subnautica 2 to avoid paying multimillion-dollar royalties.
The founders' lawyers claim that Crafton initially tried to persuade them to delay the launch of Subnautica 2 “based on already unheeded statements that the game was not ready for release.”
“When this failed, Crafton created a secret task force called Project X, whose mandate was simple: either make a ‘deal’ with the Founders to ‘make money’ or carry out a ‘takeover’ of the Unknown Worlds,” the suit states. “When the Founders refused to meet Crafton’s demands, Crafton pulled the trigger.”
Details of the legal complaint of the former management of the developer of Subnautica 2 Unknown Worlds against Krafton, Inc. have become known. in July. The complaint concerns a US$250 million bonus payment tied to target revenue from the 2025 Early Access release of Subnautica 2. Former shareholders of Unknown Worlds Entertainment, represented by Fortis Advisors LLC, allegedly tried to avoid payout by delaying the game's release using “pressure tactics,” according to the owners of Krafton, Inc.
In his defense, Crafton accused the three former leaders of then threatening to self-publish Subnautica 2, “releasing it without support, marketing, promotion or distribution from Crafton.” This, Crafton claims, left them with “no choice but to terminate their employment” and the charges that Max McGuire, Ted Gill and Charlie Cleveland downloaded tens of thousands of “company files” and emails before they were fired. The founders strenuously deny this and claim that the publishing house “Chang[ed] his story in the middle of the trial about why she fired the founders and seized control of Unknown Worlds.”
Crafton then filed two more legal documents after the founders and former management of the Subnautica 2 Unknown Worlds developer. successfully blocked Crafton's request for a protective order from the court force the founders to submit their devices for forensic examination.
In this new document, the founders' lawyers include Slack messages allegedly between Krafton CEO Ch. Kim and newly appointed Unknown Worlds CFO Richard Yun discussing a potential takeover.
“In the lead-up to this decision, Krafton CEO CH Kim was disappointed with the contract Krafton signed to acquire Unknown Worlds. [Krafton] you can only carry it,” the document says.
Additionally, the newspapers claim that “Kim expressed his disappointment to Charlie Cleveland at a May 20 meeting in Los Angeles. He told Cleveland that paying “earnings” could cause “the value of the studio” to “fall significantly” and that “he, as the person responsible for the investment, would have to take responsibility.”
“Kim later told his colleague that if Cleveland had 'looked sorry' when Kim told him this, he 'wouldn't have it.'[e] I thought I’d take my earnings.”
The document also added that testing data for Unknown Worlds presented by Krafton in May “showed that the game met player expectations,” “Krafton's own internal expert stated that the planned 2025 release would be the best (and that the firing of Ted Gill would lead to a multi-year development delay),” and Maria Park, Krafton's global head of corporate development, wrote that “the game is ready for launch in August.”
It also suggests that “to the contrary, the Krafton company representative was unable to name a single Krafton employee who actually believed the game was not ready for release.”
The lawsuit adds that the court “should not uphold Crafton's ever-changing theories.”
