On August 15, Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds filed a lawsuit against the studio’s former leadership, alleging they downloaded and maintained confidential company files prior to their ousting in July. This legal action follows a previous suit where the former leadership team accused Krafton, the game’s publisher, of postponing the project’s release to 2026 to evade bonus payments to the team.

Subnautica 2 Gameplay

The lawsuit from Unknown Worlds was filed just a month after Krafton dismissed the leadership team, which included Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill, without prior notice on July 2. Steve Papoutsis, with a history in leadership roles at Striking Distance Studios and as a producer in the Dead Space series, was appointed as the new CEO.

In the recent lawsuit, Unknown Worlds claims Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill took more than 170,000 confidential files just as their departures were confirmed. This was asserted in a public filing, indicating that sensitive business records and intellectual property were compromised.

According to the claims, McGuire accessed 99,902 files while Cleveland also downloaded 72,140 files, halting just minutes before he was locked out of the system. The alleged downloads are the largest recorded by the former leaders since 2022.

The legal conflicts arose after Cleveland, Gill, and McGuire accused Krafton of delaying Subnautica 2 to avoid paying a substantial $250 million bonus scheduled for the team team’s success in meeting development goals for early access in 2025. As the situation unfolds, the outcome of these legal troubles remains to be seen.