Unknown Worlds Earns $250M Performance Bonus After Stellar Subnautica 2 Launch

If you weren’t aware, a legal battle has been unfolding between Unknown Worlds, the developer of Subnautica 2, and its parent company and former publisher, Krafton, in what appears to have been a bit from Krafton to avoid paying Unknown Worlds a $250 million performance bonus relating to the launch of Subnautica 2. The battle started when Krafton fired Unknown Worlds founders Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire in what eventually appeared to be a bid to push back the launch of Subnautica 2. In a resulting lawsuit, a judge ordered Krafton to reinstate Ted Gill as CEO of Unknown Worlds, who then went on to lead the studio to the launch of Subnautica 2.

The game would go on to garner an impressive 4 million estimated sales in as little as a week after launch and reaching over 460,000 peak concurrent players on Steam in that same launch week. According to The Korean Economic Daily, citing insider sources, Krafton has now been forced to pay out that bonus, which equates to $3.12 for every $1 every month that Unknown Worlds surpasses $69.8 million in revenue, with an upper limit of $250 million. This amounts to around 35% of Krafton’s operating profit in 2025, which may explain why Krafton fought tooth and nail to avoid paying the sum. Alinea Analytics estimates that Subnautica alone generated as much as $100 million in gross revenue in its launch week, smashing through that $69.8 million threshold.