A pre-trial brief filed in the ongoing legal battle between Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton and the former co-founders of developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment (UWE) alleges that Krafton officials utilized the AI chatbot ChatGPT to brainstorm ways of avoiding a substantial $250 million contractual payment. The high-profile dispute centers on an “earn-out” clause tied directly to sales milestones for the upcoming sequel, which was initially expected to be released in Early Access in 2025 but has since been officially delayed.
Krafton acquired UWE in October 2021 in a deal that included a reported $500 million upfront payment, with an additional $250 million contingent on the achievement of specific, aggressive sales targets related to the new Subnautica title. The developer’s co-founders—Charles Cleveland, Max McGuire, and Ted Gill—were terminated from their positions around July 2025, an action that occurred shortly before Krafton officially pushed the game’s Early Access window back into 2026. This delay, according to reports and the co-founders’ legal team, is the key event that fundamentally impacts the achievement of the sales targets and, consequently, nullifies the substantial nine-figure bonus payment.
The core litigation initiated by the co-founders claims the delay was a calculated and deliberate act of corporate sabotage intended explicitly to prevent the payout. Within the recent court filing, the former UWE leadership asserts that when a Krafton executive expressed concerns that the earn-out would likely still be owed regardless of the founders’ dismissal, CEO Kim Chang-han reportedly “turned to artificial intelligence to help brainstorm” a legal method of cancellation. The filing quotes the chatbot as advising the executive that it would be “difficult to cancel the earn-out,” providing a compelling, if unusual, detail regarding the internal struggle to legally avoid the financial obligation. The co-founders also claim Krafton has refused to produce these ChatGPT conversations, stating they no longer exist.
Krafton has strongly disputed the claim regarding the AI consultation, dismissing it publicly as a “distraction” from the co-founders’ own alleged efforts to destroy incriminating evidence, including material from their own ChatGPT accounts. This entire legal drama is currently unfolding against the backdrop of Krafton’s recent strategic pivot to becoming an “AI-first company,” a major push announced shortly before the publisher reportedly began offering extensive employee buyouts to significantly reduce its workforce. Both the co-founders’ lawsuit and the counter-suit filed by a Krafton subsidiary against the trio remain pending, injecting significant corporate and financial uncertainty into the development and expected 2026 Early Access release of Subnautica 2.
