What Is Going On With Krafton and Subnautica 2
The company behind PUBG, Krafton, is locked in a legal fight with the former leaders of Unknown Worlds, the studio that created Subnautica and is working on Subnautica 2. The argument is over an earnout, which is a bonus payment Krafton agreed to when it acquired Unknown Worlds. That payment depends on how well Subnautica 2 performs.
The case has reached the point where lawyers are diving into emails, messages, and internal decisions from years back. Most of that is typical corporate courtroom drama. But one strange detail has grabbed everyone’s attention. The CEO of Krafton, Changham Kim, reportedly turned to ChatGPT to figure out if there was a way to avoid paying the agreed earnout for Subnautica 2.
At first Krafton publicly denied this and called it a distraction. They claimed the allegation was just an attempt to shift focus away from accusations that the former Unknown Worlds heads destroyed evidence. However new court transcripts paint a different and more awkward picture.
How ChatGPT Ended Up In The Middle Of A Multi Million Dollar Deal
During testimony, Kim described what he did when he realized that original Subnautica designer and director Charlie Cleveland and co founder Max McGuire were not directly involved in Subnautica 2 in the way he expected after the acquisition.
He said he started talking to internal teams at Krafton to explore their options. That included the legal team, finance team, corporate team, and public relations. On top of that, he admitted he also queried ChatGPT to quickly see what kinds of rights Krafton might have regarding the earnout and the deal with Unknown Worlds.
In his words, he uses ChatGPT like many people use a search engine, as a fast way to get answers. He even said he makes dozens of ChatGPT queries every day for general business questions related to Krafton.
Things got more specific during cross examination. Lawyers for the former Unknown Worlds leaders highlighted a June 2 message Kim sent to Krafton head of corporate development Maria Park. That message included a direct link to a ChatGPT conversation.
In that message, Kim summarized what ChatGPT told him. According to his note, ChatGPT had started to say that canceling the earnout would be difficult. Kim then complained that this meant Krafton was stuck with a contract that could only drag them along.
The lawyers also pointed out that the ChatGPT conversation about canceling the earnout and another one about a no deal scenario with Unknown Worlds were later deleted. Other ChatGPT chats from around the same time are still available, which makes those specific deletions stand out.
When asked why those queries were deleted, Kim said he removed any prompts that contained important or confidential company information. He said he had learned from OpenAI that such data could be used for training, so he wanted to protect sensitive details.
- He admitted using ChatGPT to explore options about the earnout.
- He shared a ChatGPT link with another executive.
- He said he treats ChatGPT like Google for quick research.
- He deleted some chats that mentioned confidential company info.
All of this contrasts sharply with Krafton’s earlier public denial that ChatGPT was involved in the earnout discussion at all, which makes the situation look confusing at best and suspicious at worst.
Why This Matters For Players And The Industry
On one level, this is simply a messy corporate battle over a lot of money. There are probably hundreds of millions of dollars on the line and the long term future of Subnautica 2 as one of Krafton’s potentially big titles. From a shareholder and business perspective, people might expect a CEO to rely on experienced lawyers and financial experts more than an AI chatbot when dealing with a contract of this scale.
On another level, it is a snapshot of how quickly artificial intelligence has slid into everyday business decisions even at the very top. Kim testified that he uses ChatGPT constantly in his daily work. That lines up with Krafton’s public strategy. In October, the company announced what it calls an AI first approach, promising to lead AI innovation inside the gaming industry.
Krafton plans to spend around 70 million dollars on a GPU cluster that will support complex AI tasks, including systems that can handle multiple stages of reasoning and planning. The idea is to build a foundation for what they call agentic AI which are AI systems that can act more independently and handle more complex workflows.
So the company is clearly serious about AI. That makes it less surprising that its CEO would lean on ChatGPT as one of his tools. But in a courtroom setting, especially after an outright denial, that habit now looks less like harmless experimentation and more like a potential liability.
The deletion of some chats while keeping others also raises questions. Kim insists he only deleted prompts that contained confidential information, not to hide anything related to the dispute. Combined with Krafton’s earlier public statements though, it still leaves room for doubt and gives opposing lawyers plenty to work with.
For players waiting on Subnautica 2, all of this is happening behind the scenes, but it can affect how quickly and confidently the game moves forward. Legal fights and executive drama rarely help development morale. On the other hand, the strong focus on AI at Krafton could eventually influence how games are made, how NPCs behave, or how game systems react to players.
Krafton has been asked again for comment in light of the new court transcripts. For now, the story stands as a strange mix of contract law, corporate reputation, and a CEO trying to use the same AI tools that a lot of players and developers experiment with every day.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/after-krafton-denied-its-ceo-consulted-with-chatgpt-on-the-subnautica-2-mess-krafton-ceo-says-he-consulted-with-chatgpt-on-the-subnautica-2-mess/
