Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton released an unusual statement last week. Unknown Worlds co-founders Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire were being immediately removed from the studio and replaced by Striking Distance Studios chief development officer Steve Papoutsis. A wholesale leadership change 20 years later, right before the launch of the second-most wishlisted game on Steam? Fans got worried.
Krafton had “sought to keep the Unknown Worlds’ co-founders and original creators of the Subnautica series involved in the game’s development,” but they were leaving anyway, the studio wrote in its press release. No reason was given for why that didn’t work out. Cleveland, who directed the first game, has now broken his silence, shedding some potential light on a power struggle facing one of 2025’s most-anticipated PC releases.
“We know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you’re ready to play it,” he wrote on Reddit on Monday. “And while we thought this was going to be our decision to make, at least for now, that decision is in Krafton’s hands. And after all these years, to find that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.”
According to Cleveland, the sudden upheaval came as a shock. The underwater survival exploration sim was set to come to Steam Early Access at some point later this year, but as we reported last week the cryptic press release from Krafton suggested that might no longer be the case. It alluded to quality controls and a milestone process needed to ensure the game meets player expectations.
“As part of its oversight, Krafton is committed to achieving regular milestones to assess progress across its creative studios,” the publisher wrote. “These reviews, based on clearly defined metrics and targets, will help ensure that games meet both creative and quality standards. This process is essential to delivering the right game at the right time. Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process and is committed to meeting player expectations.”
Reading between the lines of Cleveland’s Reddit post, it sounds like there was a fundamental disagreement over whether to ship sooner and get Subnautica 2 into players’ hands for feedback, or wait potentially until 2026 to make the game playable to the public. Cleveland and the others sold Unknown Worlds to Krafton in 2021, at which time the publisher claimed it would continue to “function as an independent game development studio.” I guess in 2025 that means independently of the co-founders.
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