To Our 12 Million Fellow Subnauts,
— Inevitable Leadership Change Driven by Project Abandonment–Despite Holding 90% of Earnout for Themselves
First and foremost, we sincerely thank you for your continued support, passion, and unwavering dedication to Subnautica. We wish to provide clarity on the recent leadership changes at Unknown Worlds, a creative studio under KRAFTON.
Background of Leadership Change
KRAFTON deeply values Subnautica’s unique creativity and immersive world-building. To provide fans with even better gaming experiences, we acquired Unknown Worlds, fully committed to supporting Subnautica’s future success. We collaborated closely with the studio’s leadership, who were central to the creation of the original Subnautica, to foster the optimal environment for a successful Subnautica 2.
Specifically, in addition to the initial $500 million purchase price, we allocated approximately 90% of the up to $250 million earn-out compensation to the three former executives, with the expectation that they would demonstrate leadership and active involvement in the development of Subnautica 2.
However, regrettably, the former leadership abandoned the responsibilities entrusted to them. Subnautica 2 was originally planned for an Early Access launch in early 2024, but the timeline has since been significantly delayed. 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.
KRAFTON believes that the absence of core leadership has resulted in repeated confusion in direction and significant delays in the overall project schedule.
The current Early Access version also falls short in terms of content volume.
We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership’s conduct, and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans.
KRAFTON’s Full Support for the Dedicated Development Team
To uphold our commitment to provide you with the best possible gaming experience, we made the difficult yet necessary decision to change the executive leadership. Subnautica 2 has been and continues to be actively developed by a dedicated core team who share genuine passion, accountability, and commitment to the game. We deeply respect their expertise and creativity and will continue to provide full and unwavering support, enabling them to focus solely on delivering the exceptional game you deserve.
KRAFTON’s Commitment to its Promises in Rewarding Employees
Additionally, KRAFTON has committed to fair and equitable compensation for all remaining Unknown Worlds employees who have continuously and tirelessly contributed to Subnautica 2’s development. 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.
Fans will always remain at the center of every decision we make at KRAFTON. Moving forward, we promise transparent communication and continued efforts to sustainably develop and expand the beloved Subnautica universe.
Honoring your trust and expectations is a core tenet at KRAFTON. We are committed to repaying your patience with an even more refined and exceptional gaming experience.
Source: a popup on their official website
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I’m actually inclined to believe this somewhat, for the simple fact that Krafton could be legally liable for slander if the statements are untrue.
Also, did we know previously that 90% of that $250M was allocated to the three executives? That’s a bit shocking to me. If Krafton really wanted to create goodwill, they could say that money remains on the table but would be 100% allocated to the rest of the development team now instead.
Always good to let this kind of drama develop for a couple weeks before passing any judgement. Not to say I fully believe the publisher’s narrative either. But maybe it’s not the time for grandiose proclamations of a boycott yet.
However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project.
My assumption is that Krafton expected the leads to put in 12 hour days 7 days a week to meet ridiculous expectations and the leads took some vacation time or something along those lines. That would match up with common publisher behavior, especially the ones that trash people publicly.
My assumption is that Krafton expected the leads to put in 12 hour days 7 days a week to meet ridiculous expectations and the leads took some vacation time or something along those lines.
This is from the lead himself, on his movie production website:
I’m Charlie Cleveland and I’ve been designing video games for over 25 years. I founded Unknown Worlds and built games like Natural Selection, Natural Selection 2, Subnautica and Moonbreaker. I absolutely love making games but wanted to try something new.
At the end of 2023, I left San Francisco after almost 20 years and moved to Los Angeles to reset my life. Instead of taking it easy, I now find myself working on multiple film projects. It’s amazing how fast it’s all happening - being right in the thick of things makes it so much easier to meet like-minded people!
Also, according to this link, he’s taking a break from making video games, for at least a couple of months now, before all this stuff was out.
It might not be as one-sided as you think. But right now it’s he said, she said, so nobody really knows.
Early release was supposed to be in 2024. We have halfway through 2025.
Lead devs have said the game is ready for early release, so they are likely taking a break from a game they feel is being delayed by the publisher. The publisher is whining about expectations, not obligations or anything along those lines.
I’m with the devs on this one, project burnout is real.
The leads allegedly also were looking to gain $225 Million dollars (supposedly 90% of a $250 Million bonus), so of course they are saying the game is ready.
Charlie Cleveland did say they were going to split the bonus with the team, but imma be honest, why not put that into writing? Why take that huge cut in the first place, and then trust that the leads are going to do the right thing.
I don’t think at this point you can really be sure of anything. Since the former leads have said they’ve filed a lawsuit (but not for what they’re suing), it’ll most likely come out at one point.
The publisher delaying the game would allow them to keep the $225 million so of course they are going to say it isn’t ready.
See how this works?
The devs rushing the game out half added results in them getting $225M. So they have incentive to be shitty too. I don’t know enough about any of them to say which is more likely but that logic goes both ways.
Yes. That’s why I said nobody really knows at this point, except the people involved.
To be fair, they didn’t trash anyone publicly until they basically had to.
They did not have any reason to personally attack the leads except out of spite, and odds are high that doing so will only anger the player base towards the publisher.
Trashing the devs was a terrible idea, and what they wrote was clearly petty and spiteful.
They did not have any reason to personally attack the leads except out of spite,
Lol what the honest fuck are you talking about?
They were facing a boycott because it seemed like they fired the original creators to avoid paying the employees.
They could have issued a statement saying that they would still pay the remaining employees and everyone would assume that they still fired the creators out of greed reasons. If the creators actually didn’t do their jobs, then they would want to make it clear that they are the ones actually committed to making a good game and this has nothing to do with greed.
That may not be the case, but at present we simply do not know what the reality of the situation was.
A publisher trashing devs of a beloved game with personal attacks certainly was a bold move.
However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project.
We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership’s conduct, and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans.
So professional!
Your second example is a perfectly worded admonishment, if the claims are true. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and all that.
If that description is accurate then there’s nothing unprofessional about that.
What would be unprofessional in that situation is the original devs not doing their jobs and then allowing a fan backlash to grow.
Again, we don’t know the reality of the situation. I think everyone would be curious to hear from other devs at the studio that aren’t part of management or the three who were fired but we haven’t yet.
Hey, might not have a rat in this race, but I’m gonna wait for a bit, ever since DOOM.
Things are getting spicy. According to Krafton, the executive devs that they fired had abandoned the project after receiving the payout for selling the company and were focusing on other things.
See also: Subnautica 2 devs are now suing Krafton
This is shockingly “public” considering there’s legal proceedings now.
Thats right, but on the other hand they were pushed into making a statement because everybody is attacking them online.
Lmao as usual gamers rush in with outrage and turns out the issue is not that simple.
After the last decade or more of people complaining about greedy publishers forcing devs to release half-baked messes too early (Cyberpunk, No Man’s Sky, etc), it feels like I’m living in a bizarro world to see so much criticism for a publisher delaying a game to (allegedly) make it better.
Subnautica 2 must be in a pretty dire spot for this to happen. I guess we’ll see as the story unrolls and early access comes eventually but I’ve met many successful people who stopped caring after they made it big (which is fine but then just quit) so I really wouldn’t be surprised if the publisher is right here.
Without outrage, they won’t even consider putting out a statement.
That’s not why people get outraged, they get outraged because it’s addictive and they spend too much time on social media.
You must not trust anyone you know.
I do, I don’t trust the outraged opinions of people using the outrage machine.
