If I have to describe Aquarius 2 In three words, these are these: messy, messy, messy. This is not to say the game itself is in a bad state – it is actually a key claim in the whole situation, but rather the relationship between Unknown Worlds, a developer of Subnautica series, and its parent company Krafton. This month alone, Caffton fired the founder and CEO of the Unknown World, Aquarius 2 Delayed until 2026, the ousted leader filed a lawsuit against Krafton in hopes of regaining creative control over the game and studio. The center of the conflict is a bonus worth up to $250 million.
Here is a summary of how we got here and what the devil is going on Aquarius 2Crafton and the unknown world.
Charlie Cleveland half life mods Natural selection and Natural Selection 2Technical Director Max McGuire served as co-founder of the official studio in 2006. Minecraft The unknown world begins to burn on the mod and starts working on the Undersea Open World Exploration Game Yanatuka And released it on Steam in 2014. With years of community feedback, the game evolved into a peculiar and affluent survival experience, and it officially landed in version 1.0 in 2018. It was also Ted Gill joining the studio’s executive team, releasing Cleveland to focus on creative direction. Yanatuka and its derivatives Province of Ako: below zeroattracts millions of players and builds an unknown world to become a successful independent team.
So the larger studio sniffed. public Publisher Krafton operates for billions of dollars a year and bought the Unknown World for $500 million in 2021. If the Unknown World meets certain performance targets by the end of 2025, the promise of the acquisition is additional spending, worth up to $250 million. This bonus is a key part of today’s chaos.
We have a lot more understanding of the details of the deal, thanks to recent reports . In addition to leadership positions filled by Cleveland, Gill and McGuire, Unknown World had about 40 employees at the time of Clevelon’s sale, who received a total of $50 million in spending at the end and over the next two years. This larger group is poised to earn up to $25 million in performance-based revenue in 2025, with each expecting a different amount, but most estimate six to seven numbers. The remaining $225 million is reserved for the unknown world leadership, but they say they intend to share a portion of the windfall with employees not included in the bonus, covering all studio owners of about 100 people.
Leaders of the Unknown World repeated the promise in a lawsuit filed against Crafton on July 10, 2025. But we are already ahead.
After the acquisition, the unknown world continues to be updated Yanatuka and below zero. In February 2024, the studio released Moon toolIt’s a turn-based strategy game that never really gets off, partly because of it. Since then, the studio has been focusing on Aquarius 2. The game comes with a potential early access release window for 2025. Currently, it is the second largest wish list on Steam. Hollow Knight: Silk.
On July 2, when Cleveland, Jill and McGuire were fired and replaced by formerly, the first public idea was to rot between the unknown world and Crafton Callisto protocol Studio head Steve Papoutsis. Rather than providing a reason for the conversion, Crafton offers the following almost complete idea: “When Crafton tries to get the co-founder of the Unknown World and the original creator of the Subnautica series to be involved in game development, the company hopes that they will go well with the next effort.”
Krafton has not mentioned the release of delayed early access at this time, but it implements an audit process that is “critical for delivering the right game at the right time”. The publisher advises that the removed leaders are not cooperative in this regard.
“The new leadership of the unknown world fully supports this process and is committed to meeting the expectations of the players,” its press release said.
Cleveland, published July 4, reflects his time in game development and deals with unknown worlds and Aquarius 2. He also mentioned Krafton’s intention to postpone the release.
“You can see why Max, Ted, myself, the unknown world team, and our community, the events this week were shocking,” Cleveland wrote. “We know the game is ready for an early access release, and we know you’re ready to play it. And, while we think it’s going to be our decision, at least for now, that decision is in the hands of Krafton. Over the years, I’ve found that I’m no longer able to work at the company, I’ve started Sting.”
On July 9, Caffton officially Aquarius 2 By 2026. On that day, Bloomberg A report was published outlining performance-based bonus agreements and implicitly questioning how delayed timing makes it difficult for studios to reach their goals, putting payments in danger. This is the first time that the details of the bonus are released.
Krafton and Engadget (and in a pop-up) directly accused the fired leader of the studio on July 10 to support the pursuit of personal creativity, especially calling for Cleveland’s. It’s still there Moon tool And claim that the former bosses want to “own” bonuses.
“Crafton made several requests to Charlie and Max, reinstating the roles of game director and technical director respectively, but both refused to do so,” the statement said. “Especially after the failure,” the statement said. Moon toolCrafton asked Charlie to be committed to development Aquarius 2. However, instead of participating in game development, he chose to focus on his personal film project. Crafton believes that the lack of core leadership can lead to repeated confusion in direction and significant delays throughout the project schedule. The current early access versions are also lacking in content volume. ”
On the same day, Cleveland announced that he and other ousted studio heads were playing against Crafton.
“The suing of a multibillion dollar company in a painful, public, and possibly protracted way is certainly not on my bucket list,” Cleveland wrote. “But that needs to be right. Zinatuka has always been a work of my life and I will never be willing to give up on it, or the amazing team in my heart. As for the idea of making money, the idea that Max, Ted and I want to keep everything for myself is totally untrue.”
The lawsuit was not announced until July 16. But on July 15 Crafton now plans to extend the window to the bonus payment for an additional year, which gives the studio more time to reach its goal, the report said. Publishers will also report that in 2025, a separate profit sharing bonus pool will be pushed to all employees in the unknown world.
The moves appear to be aimed at arguing against the core issues raised by Cleveland and other unknown world leaders in a Delaware court’s core complaint against Krafton. The lawsuit opened on July 16, claiming that Crafton illegally fired the studio’s head and delayed Aquarius 2 To avoid bonuses. It also provides a timeline for tensions between the founder and Crafton this year, accusing publishers of intentional disruption.
The lawsuit claims that Caffton’s relationship with the unknown world was until April 2025, when Jill raised an aggressive revenue forecast to Caffton’s executives for the studio’s Aquarius 2 He will visit in advance in 2025. He also outlined the expected bonus expenditure under the agreement.
“When this happened, everything changed,” the lawsuit said.
At this point, Crafton began to find ways to force leaders of the unknown world, the complaint said. Aquarius 2the purpose is to avoid bonus payments. Cleveland, Gill and McGuire quarreled back and forth with Krafton executives about whether the game was ready for early access, and Krafton eventually pulled all its resources out of the studio. Crafton issued a stop order Aquarius 2 The complaint said the development took over the communications channel of the unknown world and began laying an internal paper trail in June, accusing the founder of giving up his fiduciary obligations.
Cleveland, Gill and McGuire were fired on July 1 and evacuated from the board of directors of Unknown World. This is where the rest of us enter the story.
The main conflict here is whether Aquarius 2 It’s important to be really ready for early access startups, as potential $250 million bonus payments can be harmful to delays. Not only will Krafton lose that money, it’s also a huge amount of money for Cleveland, Gill and McGuire, especially now that they’re losing their studio and Tentpole IP. The ousted leaders reiterated in the lawsuit that they “planned to share more revenue with dedicated teams” rather than taking on contractual obligations. In the complaint, they are looking for Krafton to pay the full bonus as they predicted without delay, fulfilled the publisher’s obligations and restored it to the head of the unknown world.
Every party in this case claims they want the best Aquarius 2 and its players. They are probably all telling the truth, this is a simple division of artistic integrity. They all have the chance to be lying, and everyone is looking to make money (or keep) quick money – but man, it’s really miserable. As usual, the fact may be somewhere between us and we will never know. At least the court system will eventually be able to determine the second best thing, i.e. who is wrong.
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