Pre-release still showing gameplay of Subnautica 2

The Subnautica 2 lawsuit and new Unknown Worlds CEO speaks out | interview (full story)

The founders of the Subnautica franchise have filed a lawsuit against Krafton after the parent company fired the top three leaders of Unknown Worlds, the maker of Subnautica, the undersea survival game that has more than 12 million players to date.

Those leaders were in a midst of developing Subnautica 2, but Krafton also announced it was delaying early access due to lack of progress. Then it removed them from control of the company. As shareholders, they’re suing for “Krafton’s desperate efforts to avoid paying the earnout, and its flagrant contractual breaches in pursuit of that goal,” the lawsuit said.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.