Subnautica 2 Sold So Well That Krafton Now Has to Pay the $250 Million Bonus It Fought to Avoid

Turns out the underwater survival sim was the easy part. The legal wrangling? Far messier.

After months of ugly back-and-forth between developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment (UWE) and publisher Krafton, Subnautica 2 is out, and players have stampeded toward it. The game smashed Steam concurrent records on day one. And here's the kicker for Krafton: those sales mean the publisher now has to hand over a $250 million earnout it spent the better part of a year trying to wriggle out of.

Since its early access launch on 14 May, Subnautica 2 has reportedly sold around 4 million copies. One report even claims it shifted a million units inside the first hour. None of this was guaranteed. Back in summer 2025, Krafton pushed out UWE CEO Ted Gill and other senior staff, then delayed the game. A very public lawsuit followed.

How the $250 million deal actually works

The bonus traces back to Krafton's 2021 acquisition of Unknown Worlds for a reported $500 million. Tied to the deal was an extra payout linked to the sequel's performance. The structure is unusual, so stick with me.

• Krafton owes $3.12 for every $1 of revenue
• The trigger fires any month the studio's revenue tops roughly $69.8 million
• The total bonus is capped at $250 million
• The clock runs from the 2021 acquisition onward

A single strong month does most of the heavy lifting. By some estimates, the first month alone would land near a $218 million payout, with the cap mopping up the rest. Subnautica 2 generated $100 million in its opening week and became the fastest-selling Steam title of 2026, according to IGN and South Korean business reporting. You can do the maths.

The Korean Economic Daily reports that Krafton has agreed to pay the earnout to UWE's former shareholders. Neither company has commented publicly, and given the litigation, they might stay quiet. The reported win for the devs lands alongside Gill's return to the studio.

For context on the stakes, the report notes the $250 million figure sits at roughly 35% of Krafton's 2025 operating profit. That's a sum no executive shrugs off.

The ChatGPT mess that backfired

This is where the story gets genuinely strange. Court documents allege Krafton CEO Changhan Kim turned to ChatGPT for advice on how to avoid the payout. The chatbot reportedly told him cancelling the earnout would be difficult. He pressed on anyway, with internal plans referred to as "Project X", aimed at either forcing a cheaper deal or taking over the studio outright.

A Delaware Court of Chancery ruling did not go Krafton's way. Vice Chancellor Lori Will found the founders were not fired for cause and ordered leadership reinstated. As Will put it, Krafton "looked to buy time" and followed most of ChatGPT's recommendations over the following month. You can read more on the AI angle to the case via Engadget. The court is still expected to settle the exact figure owed.

Krafton wants AI, Unknown Worlds doesn't

Here's the irony nobody scripted. While one arm of the company leaned on a chatbot in a courtroom saga, the wider business was busy reinventing itself around the technology. In October 2025, Krafton's CEO committed the company to an "AI-first" future, reshaping operations and offering buyouts to staff who wanted out.

Unknown Worlds sits on the other side of that fence. The studio has stated plainly that Subnautica 2 used no generative AI in its writing, art, or game design. Two very different visions, one corporate roof.

What's next for Subnautica 2

Most fans aren't fussed about boardroom politics. They want to know where the game goes from here. This is early access, and the team has been upfront that the campaign isn't finished, with the period potentially stretching to three years as player feedback shapes the back half of the story.

The Subnautica 2 roadmap points to:

• Quality of life improvements across the board
• Deeper co-op and multiplayer features
• New biomes, vehicles, and creatures
• Major expansions to the core story content

So where does the developer-publisher relationship land after all this? Hard to say. The two are bound together for now, and the next financial results will tell us plenty about how comfortable that arrangement still is. For the moment, though, the people who built the game appear to have won twice over. They got it shipped, and they look set to be paid.