The Subnautica 2 community received quite a shock in July when it was announced that Unknown Worlds co-founders Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have all been let go by publisher Krafton. Since then, we’ve learned that the primary reason for this was the massive $250 million bonus payout that the co-founders and other employees were to receive.
The ensuing lawsuit by the co-founders revealed a lot more information, with Krafton saying that the co-founders abandoned their responsibilities, while the original devs are still adamant that it’s about the bonus payout. A new filing in the legal proceedings has now revealed that Krafton even consulted ChatGPT on how to avoid paying the bonus.
Krafton May Have Asked ChatGPT For Help Amidst Subnautica 2 Bonus Issue
The filing stated that Krafton was looking at various ways to avoid or reduce the payout that was owed to the co-founders and the studio (thanks, Kotaku). “Smoking gun documents show that Krafton was looking for ways to ‘cancel the earn-out’ and that its secret ‘Project X’ was designed to either make a ‘Deal’ on the earnout or execute a “Take over.” When the Founders would not agree to Krafton’s demands related to the earnout, Krafton decided a ‘take over’ would be the ‘easier’ route.”
The filing continues to say that the publisher even went as far as to ask an AI chatbot for help on the issue. “[CEO, Kim Chang-han] turned to artificial intelligence to help him brainstorm ways to avoid paying the earnout. ChatGPT likewise advised that it would be ‘difficult to cancel the earn-out.’” Krafton then allegedly refused to produce the chatbot transcripts, claiming they no longer exist.
Krafton refused this allegation in a statement to Kotaku, saying, ““No. This claim is simply a distraction from their own efforts to destroy evidence, such as Charlie’s reminder to the other Key Employees (Max and Ted) to delete anything ‘incriminating’ from their own ChatGPT accounts.”
Coincidentally, Krafton recently announced that it was becoming “AI first company”, and offered employees compensation in exchange for the voluntary resignation. Amidst all of this, Subnautica 2 released its first developer update since the original story broke, however, all the comments on the video are about the $250 million payout.
