The Subnautica 2 controversy has taken another surprising turn: another lawsuit.
A Quick Summary of Subnautica 2 So Far
Krafton acquired a game studio named Unknown Worlds Entertainment, to publish their next game, Subnautica 2. After an ugly falling out, Krafton replaced the three heads of the studio, CEO Ted Gill and co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire.
The three sued Krafton, and the two parties have started going back and forth in their legal court statements. But this is where the twist happens.
Unknown Worlds Is Now Suing Their Former Bosses
Unknown Worlds themselves are now suing Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire. They have also made new allegations in their lawsuit.
To quote Unknown Worlds’ lawsuit:
This lawsuit arises because the Key Employees, despite their roles as Officers and Directors, largely abandoned the Company, the Subnautica game, and the gaming community that has been anticipating new adventures in the sequel Subnautica 2.
Compounding this abandonment, each of the Key Employees downloaded substantial volumes of Company Confidential Information on their way out the door.
Krafton made similar accusations against the three in the first lawsuit. But Unknown Worlds shared new details in their statement.
Illegal Downloads
They accuse Gill of downloading a ‘full and complete copy of his Unknown Worlds email account’ in early June. He did it again in June 30, after Krafton laid him off.
Cleveland allegedly downloaded 72,140 files from the company’s Google Drive. Unknown Worlds actually stopped him from downloading more in flagrante delicto.
Finally, they claim McGuire downloaded 99,902 files on June 27. You can already guess they downloaded a lot of proprietary and confidential information.
The three of course already knew a lot about Unknown World’s games and how they were made. But after they were laid off, there are legal questions to what they had a right to say they own.
Krafton Didn’t Do This
Krafton told PC Gamer that they were not involved in the lawsuit at all:
Unknown Worlds is the legal entity directly harmed by the former executives’ misconduct.
While Krafton is the parent company, the contracts, intellectual property and confidential information at issue belong to Unknown Worlds.
The defendants were executive leadership at Unknown Worlds, and their obligations, including confidentiality and fiduciary duties, were owed to that entity.
We understand that these entities will make allegations vs. each other in these cases. We will find out which claims and allegations are true in the course of these cases going on.
Unfortunately, behind all this controversy are Subnautica fans who thought they would be playing Subnautica 2 soon. Now, it’s unclear when they’ll get to play Subnautica 2, even on Early Access. And it’s even less clear who or what to believe in all of this anymore.
