“Subnautica 2” apparently triggered the earn-out clause in Krafton’s purchase agreement with Unknown Worlds shortly after its early access launch. According to Korea Economic Daily, publisher Krafton will now pay up to $250 million to the former Unknown Worlds shareholders.
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According to the Korea Economic Daily, the purchase agreement stipulates that once Unknown Worlds’ monthly studio revenue exceeds $69.8 million, Krafton will pay $3.12 per dollar of sales earned – a maximum of $250 million in total. With 4 million games sold and a purchase price of $30, one can roughly estimate that Unknown Worlds has already cracked this maximum amount.
“Subnautica” sold 2 million copies in the first twelve hours alone. The survival game previously topped the wishlist charts on Steam for a long time and is also available on Xbox Series X/S. It can also be played as part of the Game Pass gaming subscription.
Krafton vs. Unknown Worlds
In the summer of 2025, Krafton fired Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill as well as co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire and postponed the early access start to 2026. They later accused Krafton in court of trying to circumvent the earn-out payment. The new early access date no longer fell within the period originally specified by the earn-out clause.
During the court case at the Delaware Court of Chancery (ref. 2025-0805-LWW), it became known that Krafton boss Changhan Kim had consulted ChatGPT, among other things, to find ways to avoid payment. The court found that Krafton could not provide a just cause for the dismissals. In March 2026, it reinstated fired CEO Ted Gill and extended the earn-out deadline to September 15, 2026. The former Unknown Worlds managers had announced that they would share the payment with studio employees.
According to a Reddit post from creative producer Scott MacDonald, around 70 people are working on Subnautica 2. Last year, Bloomberg wrote that Unknown Worlds had about 100 employees.
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(dahe)
