Subnautica 2 might be a chill survival game, but the journey to May’s early access launch was filled with drama, legal battles and accusations of sabotage. Just recalling it all is giving me a massive headache, which I’m now going to give to you.
In 2025, Krafton ousted Unknown World’s leadership and delayed Subnautica 2’s early access launch. The publisher accused the studio heads of abandoning the game, who then fired back and accused Krafton of delaying Subnautica 2 so it wouldn’t have to pay a promised $250 million earnout—a strategy Krafton’s CEO came up with thanks to ChatGPT.
The result of the dispute was a judge forcing Krafton to reinstate Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and extend the earnout period. But the drama wasn’t over. Krafton then almost immediately announced an imminent early access release date, which Gill believed was its final attempt to sabotage the game and avoid paying what was promised.
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It’s genuinely a miracle that after all of this Subnautica 2 launched and it was really, really good. Earlier this month, it hit a new milestone: 5 million copies sold. Gill announced that he’d left around the same time—voluntarily this time—which isn’t a surprise given his acrimonious relationship with Krafton. The game launched, it was a success, and Unknown Worlds staff will all receive bonuses from the earnout. His job was done.
Krafton, meanwhile, has been trying to draw a line under the whole mess by celebrating Subnautica 2’s success. Today, it announced a record second quarter performance, with reported revenue of KRW 1.29 trillion and operating profit of KRW 410.9 billion, both the highest they’ve ever been for the second quarter.
“The success of Subnautica 2 and steady growth of the PUBG IP were the main drivers” of this, it said in a press release. PC revenue has exceeded KRW 500 billion for the first time, too, and is much higher than console and mobile revenue—though both have still risen year-over-year.
But Subnautica 2 has also cost the publisher a lot, thanks to the expensive acquisition and, more recently, the $250 million earnout. While the KRW 410.9 operating profit is a new record, the net profit actually shows a deficit of KRW 29.9 billion.
So Krafton might have made a lotta cash, but it’s spent even more.
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