{"id":65441,"date":"2026-07-02T06:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=65441"},"modified":"2026-07-02T06:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T22:47:16","slug":"messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=65441","title":{"rendered":"Messy Subnautica 2 Saga Ends With Unknown Worlds CEO Departing Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"subtitle\">Krafton has reached a settlement with the developer&#8217;s top brass.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap lead-image-holder\" data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2206022\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/\" data-post-title=\"Messy Subnautica 2 saga ends with Unknown Worlds CEO departing again\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-post-id=\"2206022\">\n<picture id=\"p64d7cf26855bf2600b04a83f0c8f3acc\">&#13;<source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/intro-1782922048.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">&#13;<source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/intro-1782922048.sm.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">&#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/intro-1782922048.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2206022\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/\" data-post-id=\"2206022\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"Messy Subnautica 2 saga ends with Unknown Worlds CEO departing again: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Several divers in an underwater environment\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n                    <\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">Unknown Worlds Entertainment<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The messy legal battle between Krafton and the leadership of\u00a0<em>Subnautica 2<\/em> developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment is over. The two sides have reached a settlement that will see Krafton pay bonuses to all staffers at the studio and Ted Gill once again leaving his post as Unknown Worlds CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;We mutually agreed to part ways,&#8221; Gill told <em>Bloomberg<\/em>. &#8220;New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward.&#8221; Whoever takes over as CEO will be an external hire, according to Gill.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Krafton ousted Gill and the co-founders of Unknown Worlds, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, last summer. In a lawsuit, the trio accused the company of firing them and delaying <em>Subnautica 2<\/em> to 2026 to avoid having to pay $250 million in bonuses if it reached certain revenue thresholds last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A judge ordered Krafton to rehire Gill as CEO back in March and\u00a0<em>Subnautica 2<\/em> was released in early access in May. The co-op survival game sold well enough \u2014 more than 4 million copies so far \u2014 to trigger the bonus payout that was stipulated in the acquisition agreement when Krafton bought the developer in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In fact, according to Gill, the development team will be &#8220;compensated significantly more&#8221; than the initial deal stipulated and will earn &#8220;further incentives&#8221; from the future success of <em>Subnautica 2<\/em>. <em>Bloomberg<\/em> notes that all Unknown Worlds staff (not just those who were employed at the time of the acquisition) will receive bonuses, which will be paid in three annual installments.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Krafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings,&#8221; Krafton told Engadget in a statement. &#8220;Unknown Worlds and Krafton are focused on supporting <em>Subnautica 2<\/em>, its Early Access journey to the full 1.0 release and the global community that has made the franchise so special. Unknown Worlds will continue leading development, with Krafton providing support for the success of the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2206022\/messy-subnautica-2-saga-ends-with-unknown-worlds-ceo-departing-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Krafton has reached a settlement with the developer&#8217;s top brass. &#13;&#13;&#13; &#13; Unknown Worlds Entertainment The messy legal battle between Krafton and the leadership of\u00a0Subnautica&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5668,2799,617,2391,8655,9961,410,3117],"class_list":["post-65441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-ceo","tag-departing","tag-ends","tag-messy","tag-saga","tag-subnautica","tag-unknown","tag-worlds","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}