Krafton CEO allegedly asked AI to "brainstorm ways to avoid paying" earnout bonus to Subnautica 2 devs

UPDATE 4.07pm: Krafton has provided the following comment to Eurogamer regarding the claims about the recent pre-brief made by Unknown Worlds' former leadership:

"This claim is simply a distraction from their own efforts to destroy evidence, such as Charlie's reminder to the other Key Employees (Max and Ted) to delete anything 'incriminating' from their own ChatGPT accounts. To the contrary to Fortis's claims, Krafton offered to extend the earnout period if the Key Employees returned to their contractually required roles."

In a further broader statement, Krafton's spokesperson said: "The trial is currently ongoing where we are making the case that the decisions we have made were all about ensuring the best possible experience for our players. As we have made clear – we were forced to make a change when the former leaders showed little interest in the development of Subnautica 2, which has always been our top priority.

"Now, this trial comes down to plaintiffs asking to be restored to jobs they were not doing, said they had no interest in doing, and had previously declined requests that they come back and do those jobs. We look forward to continuing to present our evidence before the judge and are confident we will prevail and be allowed to continue our incredible progress."

The original story continues below.

ORIGINAL 10.28am: The saga around Subnautica 2's Unknown Worlds and publisher Krafton continues, with a pre-trial brief filed by former studio bosses claiming Krafton's CEO was looking for any way to avoid paying a bonus to the developers.

To recap, Krafton initially delayed the release of Subnautica 2 from this year into 2026. Just prior to this, Krafton ousted key members of the development and leadership team at Unknown Worlds, including Charlie Cleveland, who was game director on the original Subnautica. Krafton told Eurogamer the decision to delay Subnautica 2's early access release into 2026 was "under discussion" prior to any leadership changes at Unknown Worlds, adding feedback from playtests had "highlighted a few areas that could benefit from further refinement before release". At this time, Krafton claimed the delay wasn't to do with a reported bonus for the Subnautica 2 team should they have reached previously determined revenue targets.

However, following his dismissal, Cleveland shared a statement on reddit, where he called recent events "quite a shock". Cleveland added Subnautica 2 was in fact ready for its early access debut, despite Krafton suggesting otherwise. The former Unknown Worlds head along with his fellow ousted leaders then announced legal action against Krafton, after the publisher shared a statement accusing the former employees of 'abandoning' the underwater survival sequel. A few days later, Krafton said it "look[s] forward to defending itself in court".

That brings us to today, and that aforementioned pre-trial brief. According to the brief, which was uploaded by GameDeveloper, the ousted leaders state Krafton and its CEO Changham Kim only made the move to take over the studio after they stayed firm in negotiations on bonus payouts for both themselves and the Unknown Worlds team.

"Already concerned that Krafton had paid too much to acquire Unknown Worlds, Kim feared that making any earnout payment to Founders would earn him a reputation as a pushover and endanger his position as CEO," the brief reads. "Desperate to avoid such a professional embarrassment, Kim obsessed over finding a way to avoid Krafton's obligation to pay the earnout."

Slack messages shared within the brief also show a back and forth between Kim and the newly-appointed CFO of Unknown Worlds Richard Yoon floating the idea of a potential takeover. When discussing the payout, a message from Yoon read: "It might be easier to just take over..."

The filing additionally claims that Kim looked to AI tool ChatGPT in a bid to find a way out of paying the bonus, after Krafton's head of corporate development Maria Park told the CEO that the company would more than likely have to pay the earnout if sales targets were met. This would be "regardless of dismissal with cause," the brief reads.

However, the brief alleges ChatGPT also advised Krafton it would be "difficult to cancel the earnout" should targets be met. Therefore Krafton's solution was to push Subnautica 2's early access release to outside the earnout's window. A footnote in the brief states Krafton did not provide the ChatGPT conversations and, "when pressed, confirmed that they no longer exist".

Eurogamer has asked Krafton for comment on these allegations.

These most recent claims from the former Unknown Worlds leads come just weeks after Krafton declared itself an "AI-first company". In October, the company announced a move to "place AI at the centre of problem solving" via a "complete" reorganisation.

For more, our Bertie recently chatted with PUBG creator Brendan Greene, who has distanced himself from investor Krafton's controversial 'AI first' mandate. Green told Bertie he is "heartened" to see people rally against the use of generative AI when used to make games.