Krafton has lost to the former Subnautica 2 heads in Delaware court in the first round of litigation.
The founders of Unknown Worlds, Max McGuire and Charlie Cleveland, and CEO Ted Gill sued Krafton for violating the terms of their employee agreement when they fired them.
To summarize, the courts found that Max and Charlie did stop leading development of Subnautica 2, and even transitioned to other interests like making movies. But this did not violate the terms of their employee agreement.
In fact, Krafton was aware of their transition to these new roles. Subsequently, while Krafton was right to be alarmed about the three downloading data from Unknown Worlds, they could not prove there was an intent to deceive.
The court also accepted the story that Krafton CEO Kim Chang-Han used AI to decide to fire the three. But the court’s final decision is a Pyrrhic victory for them.
Since Max and Charlie were no longer leading development of Subnautica 2, they are not returning to Unknown Worlds. Only Ted Gill, who was active as CEO, is contractually mandated to return.
The court will still litigate two charges vs. Krafton, for money damages & breach of contract.