Subnautica 2has swiftly become embroiled in a scandal not many saw coming. Ever since Kraftonousted Unknown Worlds' former leadership team of Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire, the two parties have beenengaging in a battle of he-said-she-said, and the moral side of the argument is now extremely unclear as a result.
Almost none of this has anything to do with the current developers of Subnautica 2, who are most likely suffering due to the game’s recent delay into 2026. One of the big talking points around this delay wasa reported bonus payout of $25 millionif Unknown Worlds managed to hit revenue targets for 2025, and due to the delay, a lot of people assumed that developers were potentially missing out on hundreds of thousands in bonus income.
Subnautica 2 Publisher Has Extended Devs $25 Million Bonus Period
This was a big reason as to why so many people were against Krafton in the first place, even though it reaffirmed in a recent statement that it would “provide the rewards [the developers] were promised”. Thankfully, Krafton is now starting to follow up its word with action, as it has now been reported that the publisher has extended the original bonus period by a full year.
This is according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who originally broke the news of Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire’s departure. On top of the extension, it’s also been reported that Krafton is advancing a portion of the studio’s projected 2026 profit-sharing bonus pool to every Unknown Worlds employee this year. This bonus is apparently separate to the bonus for hitting revenue targets, and is likely an attempt to make up for the loss of income this year.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Krafton is in the right in the whole firing of the former leadership team, but it does at least mean that it has the best interests of the current Subnautica 2 developers at heart for now. We’ll see if that changes over time,as Krafton and Cleveland battle it out in court, but this should earn Krafton a little bit of goodwill from the Subnautica faithful.
