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Last summer, the ousted leadership team at Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds launched a lawsuit against its parent company Krafton alleging wrongful termination and an attempt to bypass a previously negotiated multi-million dollar bonus. Now, a ruling has come down in favor of the plaintiffs that orders Krafton to reinstate CEO Ted Gill to his former position and return control of Subnautica 2’s release plans. The judgment also calls out Krafton’s decision to use a ChatGPT-inspired legal strategy to avoid paying Unknown Worlds co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as Gill.<\/p>\n
The judge’s decision has been released online, and it features a detailed timeline of Krafton’s alleged actions, particularly Krafton CEO Changhan Kim, who consulted with ChatGPT to find a way out of paying the performance bonus that the company had internally calculated would be between $191.8 million and $242.2 million. Krafton’s internal legal team cautioned Kim against following the strategy laid out by ChatGPT, but those words of caution were apparently ignored.<\/p>\n
According to the ruling, Krafton followed some of the steps laid out by ChatGPT, including removing Unknown Worlds’ ability to release Subnautica 2 on Steam. It also notes that Krafton’s actions had the desired effect of bringing Unknown Worlds’ leadership team to negotiations over a potentially lesser amount for their bonus. But when those negotiations stalled, Krafton fired Cleveland, McGuire, and Gill.<\/p>\n