A battle between three former Subnautica 2 developers and their publishers at Krafton intensified over the weekend, after an internal document appeared online showing how the scope of the survival game has reduced during development. The source of this document remains unknown. In fact, quite a lot of facts about the document remain unknown. Nevertheless, Krafton have since leapt at the chance to confirm its authenticity.
For those new to the drama, Subnautica 2 is one of the most wishlisted games on Steam. A couple of weeks ago three senior management folks at studio Unknown Worlds were kicked out and replaced by the head of another Krafton-owned studio. The three ousted developers were co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max MacGuire, alongside CEO Ted Gill. No explanation was given, but Cleveland later revealed he disagreed with the publisher over whether the game was ready to be released or not. He said Subnautica 2 was ready for early access. Krafton did not agree.
Then a report by Bloomberg revealed the leviathan in the room: a $250 million payout that Unknown Worlds employees would receive if a released game sold sufficient copies by the end of 2025. Following the leadership coup Krafton announced they would delay the game until 2026, making this “earnout” impossible. The fired managers then filed a lawsuit against Krafton, and Krafton in return released a statement accusing those managers of being negligent. The whole thing is very messy.
This weekend it got messier. On Friday, two slides from a presentation of unknown length were posted to Reddit by an unknown party. The slides seem to show how the scope of the game’s features were reduced over a two year period. It claims that the game was “deemed to lack the level of polish” required for release.
“Compared to the originally planned EA launch specifications,” says one line, “the current target content volume has been reduced or adjusted across various elements such as biomes, creatures, equipment/progression, and features. Due to a gap between the current state and the content volume assumed during the initial launch planning, it is necessary to reassess the release timeline and roadmap.”
It’s not unusual for games to have features stripped away during development, but this is the exact point on which Krafton and the fired developers disagree. Krafton confirmed the authenticity of this presentation in a statement to RPS and many other press outlets.
“The document that has been circulating on social media and reported by various outlets is indeed part of an internal milestone review conducted as part of the Subnautica 2 project,” the statement reads, adding that milestone reviews “are conducted regularly in collaboration with KRAFTON’s creative studios across all projects.
“Given these circumstances, KRAFTON has determined that transparent communication is necessary and has chosen to
confirm the authenticity of the document. KRAFTON believes that minimizing speculation and ensuring accurate
communication with players must take precedence.”
For all Krafton’s talk of transparency, there is an astounding amount of information we do not know about this document. The document is incomplete. There is no date or timestamp to show when it was written. There is no attribution to show who originally authored it. It does not show who the intended recipient of the document is (ie. was this written to be sent to Unknown Worlds, or was it written to be shared between parties within Krafton?). The identity of the person or persons who posted the document is not known: it came from Reddit account “Complete_Bread_4924”, who has made no other posts or comments.
What we can say is that Krafton stand to benefit from its appearance, inasmuch as it supports their side of the narrative about Subnautica 2’s delay. They have confirmed the slides are authentic in their statement to the press – itself a practice that is rare for companies when it comes to leaks. Given this unusual development, and the speculation it might raise, we have asked Krafton, via their PR, several questions about the origin of the document.
We have asked Krafton to confirm or deny that they are the source of this leak. We also asked what date the document was authored, among other questions. They have so far answered by resending us the press release quoted above. We’ll let you know if they get back to us with anything more solid.
The games media has broadly been attempting to keep up with the fast pace of this implosive fracas, and to understand the facts about the story. Krafton hasn’t been particularly helpful. The publishers say that under the circumstances, “transparent communication is necessary”. However, they have chosen only to show a tiny fragment of the internal discussion around the game, inviting onlookers and the media to make more judgements and speculation about what happened. Krafton jumping on this suggests that they believe the slides will help them further their version of events.
As for the ousted developers, they have retreated firmly into lawyer mode and are no doubt weighing up the likelihood of a victory against the corporate giant. “Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list,” said Cleveland last week. “But this needs to be made right.”
So what do we take away from all this? The confirmation of the slides’ authenticity feels distinctly like another angry volley from Krafton, directed at Cleveland, MacGuire, and Gill. Krafton would undoubtedly rather avoid a lengthy legal dispute about the game, especially considering the $250 million payout being disputed. Whether that loud noise is enough to scare the ousted developers remains to be seen.
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