The company has been trying to avoid making this payment for some time now.
Subnautic 2 is selling like hot cakes, despite being an unfinished early access release. People are so desperate for some good old-fashioned underwater exploration that the game has already sold at least 4 million copies. That means publisher Krafton must finally make good on its promise to pay developers a $250 million bonus, according to a report from IGN.
This bonus has been at the heart of a legal battle between Krafton and developer Unknown Worlds. Krafton bought Unknown Worlds in 2021 and the contract stipulated that executives and staff would share a $250 million bonus if they hit certain revenue targets. According to the South Korean economic press, these objectives have been achieved and payment should be imminent.
This was not always assured. The developers failed to meet the initial 2025 revenue goal because Krafton delayed the game to avoid making payment. According to a pre-trial brief, Krafton CEO Changham Kim canceled the payment because it would constitute a “professional embarrassment” and make it seem like “child’s play.” The company also fired Unknown Worlds’ CEO and other co-founders before a judge forced it to reverse course.
It’s 2026, so of course there’s also a strange AI component to the story. It was reported that CEO Kim turned to ChatGPT for ideas on how to avoid paying this bonus. Even the chatbot said it would be “difficult to cancel the earnout.” However, the CEO and his best friend in AI eventually came up with something called Project X, which was some sort of convoluted plan to negotiate a lower bonus amount to take over Unknown Worlds.
“They were trying to buy time,” Vice Chancellor Lori Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery said in a ruling. “Over the next month, Krafton followed most of ChatGPT’s recommendations.”
It didn’t work, and here we are. Subnautic 2 is actually available to play, after years of waiting. Meanwhile, Krafton announced its transformation into an “AI first” company. Good luck with that.
