Krafton Blasts Former Unknown Worlds Leadership Claiming They "Abandoned The Responsibilities Entrusted To Them"

South Korean conglomerate Krafton claims that the former Unknown Worlds leadership, which was terminated earlier this month, “abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them.”

On July 2nd, Krafton announced it had terminated the Unknown Worlds leadership team of Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire and replaced them with new CEO Steve Papoutsis.

In the original announcement, the company did not provide any details as to why the original team was canned although it hinted that it might have been due to their resistance against a new review process it was instituting. It wrote, “As part of its oversight, KRAFTON is committed to achieving regular milestones to assess progress across its creative studios. These reviews, based on clearly defined metrics and targets, will help ensure that games meet both creative and quality standards. This process is essential to delivering the right game at the right time. Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process and is committed to meeting player expectations.”

Two days after being fired, Cleveland shared in a post to X that he and the rest of the leadership team were shocked by the firing. He wrote in part, “So you can see why for Max, Ted, myself, the Unknown Worlds team, and for our community, the events of this week have been quite a shock. We know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you’re ready to play it. And while we thought this was going to be our decision to make, at least for now, that decision is in Krafton’s hands. And after all these years, to find that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.”

On July 9th, Krafton would then announce that Subnautica would not be arriving to Steam Early Access this year, but has been delayed until 2026. It revealed that after a series of playtests it discovered there were “a few areas where we needed to improve before launching the first version Subnautica 2 to the world. Our community is at the heart of how we develop, so we want to give ourselves a little extra time to respond to more of that feedback before releasing the game into Early Access. With that in mind, we’ve made the decision to delay Subnautica 2’s Early Access release to 2026.”

Additionally, Unknown Worlds added, “Now that Subnautica 2 is coming out in 2026, we’ll be able to add more biomes, more vehicle upgrades, additional tools, expand on our story, and include more creatures to discover.”

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Then came a Bloomberg report from Jason Schreier that claimed the delay was so Krafton would avoid paying a $250 million bonus to the development team. “The sequel’s delay was against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership, according to the people. The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025, according to the purchase agreement, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. By delaying Subnautica 2 into next year, the company is unlikely to hit those targets and therefore the employees may not be eligible for the payout, the people said.”

Players have since launched a boycott of the game and expressed their displeasure on Steam as well as on social media.

Krafton has now responded with a statement to Insider Gaming telling the outlet that Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill “abandoned he responsibilities entrusted to them, leading to their dismissal.”

The company stated, “KRAFTON made multiple requests to Charlie and Max to resume their roles as Game Director and Technical Director, respectively, but both declined to do so. In particular, following the failure of Moonbreaker, KRAFTON asked Charlie to devote himself to the development of Subnautica 2. However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project.”

The company then charged that “the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule.”

As for the alleged $250 million bonus, Krafton confirmed it is real but according to Insider Gaming 90% of it was dedicated to the three fired executives and it was set “with the expectation that they would demonstrate leadership and active involvement in the development of Subnautica 2.”

Additionally, the company stated, “We believe that the dedication and effort of this team are at the very heart of Subnautica’s ongoing evolution, and we reaffirm our commitment to provide the rewards they were promised.”

What do you make of Krafton’s response?

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