Subnautica 2 has sold so well that publisher Krafton has reportedly agreed to pay a $250 million earnout to the developers — a bonus that was at the heart of its high-profile legal dispute with the fired Unknown Worlds leadership.
The underwater adventure has sold a mammoth 4 million copies since its early access launch on May 14, achieving more than 467,000 peak concurrent players on Steam. But its development was turbulent, with Krafton firing Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and other senior team members in the summer of last year. At the time, Krafton said the game’s launch had also been delayed — something it blamed on Gill — even though its team had been working towards an early access release that would have seen them eligible for that $250 million bonus.
Gill and his former teammates immediately launched a lawsuit against Krafton, suggesting they were ousted to avoid that bonus being paid, while Krafton hit back and said the staff had “resorted to litigation to demand a multimillion-dollar payout they haven’t earned.” Krafton also accused the staff it fired of having stolen documents in anticipation of subsequent legal action, muddying the waters over their exit.
In March, Krafton was ordered to reinstate Gill and extend the proposed $250 million bonus to staff in one of the most dramatic legal rulings the video game industry has ever seen. And today, reports coming out of the South Korean business press indicate that Krafton has now agreed to pay the bonus.
According to estimates from Alinea Analytics, Subnautica 2 generated $100 million in just a week, and is is 2026’s fastest-selling Steam game so far. The Korean Economic Daily said Krafton now faces that $250 million bill after agreeing to pay $3.12 for every $1, or up to $250 million, to Unknown Worlds’ former shareholders every time the studio’s revenue topped $69.8 million a month since the Korean game developer acquired the U.S. firm in 2021. $250 million is equivalent to about 35% of Krafton’s operating profit last year.
IGN has asked Krafton for comment.
The legal battle between Krafton and the Unknown Worlds shareholders revealed a number of shocking revelations around the South Korean company’s internal actions in the run up to Subnautica 2’s release. For example, as internal projections showed Subnautica 2 looked on course to trigger the earnout, Krafton’s chief executive, Changhan Kim, believed it was a “bad deal” and felt “taken advantage of,” according to the ruling.
Kim was warned by his legal department that the earnout would still need to be paid even if there was a “dismissal with cause” of the Unknown Worlds’ leadership: co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire and chief executive Ted Gill. He was also warned it would expose Krafton to “lawsuit and reputation risk.”
Kim then turned to ChatGPT, the AI-powered chatbot built by OpenAI, for help, vice-chancellor Lori Will of the court of chancery in Delaware said in the ruling. ChatGPT initially responded that the earnout would be “difficult to cancel,” but later, at ChatGPT’s suggestion, Kim formed an internal taskforce, dubbed Project X. “The task force’s mandate was to either negotiate a ‘deal’ on the earnout or execute a ‘Take Over’ of Unknown Worlds,” Will stated. “They looked to buy time.”
“Over the next month, Krafton followed most of ChatGPT’s recommendations,” Will wrote.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
