Krafton has announced a major leadership shake up for Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds, with co-founders Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire leaving the studio “effectively immediately”, being replaced by new CEO Steve Papoutsis, who’s coming over from Callisto Protocol team Striking Distance Studios.
This is a very significant change, with the Subnautica 2 early access release still aiming for later this year, and is a major cause for concern amongst the Subnautica community.
PUBG publisher Krafton is keep to express that while they “sought to keep the Unknown Worlds’ co-founders and original creators of the Subnautica series involved in the game’s development, the company wishes them well on their next endeavors.” So why has this happened?
Through the press release, there’s an expectation that Papoutsis will being “renewed energy and momentum to delivering the long-anticipated Subnautica 2 experience to fans.” While Krafton CEO CH Kim says that “Given the anticipation around Subnautica 2, we owe our players nothing less than the best possible game, as soon as possible.”
The statement goes on to discuss Krafton’s oversight putting regular milestones and progress assessments in place for all its studios, and that “Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process.”
So, it doesn’t take too much reading between the lines to see that Subnautica 2’s early access release might have been in doubt for 2025. That could have been through missing milestone already or from wanting more time. Papoutsis has been put in place to ensure that a product is delivered this year.
Papoutsis has come across from Callisto Protocol developer Striking Distance Studios. The tail end of Callisto Protocol’s development was mired in controversy over glorifying crunch culture at the studio, with employees pushed to work 6-7 day weeks. Then studio head Glen Schofield walking back and apologising for comments that seemed to glorify this approach. In an interview following his departure from SDS, Schofield then claimed that Krafton forced the game to be released three months earlier than had been agreed, leading to cut content and the aforementioned crunch.
Source: Krafton
