A Delaware judge ordered Krafton to reinstate Ted Gill as CEO of Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds and restore his operational authority over the game’s early access launch. The March 16, 2026 ruling found that Krafton had breached its agreement with the studio’s former owners. The earnout dispute was later settled, but the settlement terms were not disclosed.
Why did the judge order Ted Gill reinstated?
In a March 16, 2026 Phase One opinion in Fortis Advisors LLC v. Krafton, Inc., Delaware Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will found that Krafton had terminated key Unknown Worlds employees without valid cause and improperly taken operational control. The court ordered Gill reinstated as CEO and restored his authority over Subnautica 2’s early access launch. It also required Krafton to restore his access to Steam’s publishing platform and barred the company from using corporate mechanisms to obstruct his authority. Read the court’s opinion.
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Will wrote: “Edward Gill is hereby reinstated as CEO of Unknown Worlds, and his period of operational control under Section 2.7(f) of the EPA will be extended by the time that elapsed between his wrongful termination and his restoration.”
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The order reinstated Gill, but it did not return Unknown Worlds co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire to their former peripheral roles. Game Developer’s account of the ruling describes the distinction between Gill’s restored operational authority and the co-founders’ positions.
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How did the ruling affect the earnout period?
The court extended the base earnout testing period by 258 days, moving its deadline from December 31, 2025, to September 15, 2026. Fortis Advisors retained an option under the agreement to extend the period by a further six months, through March 15, 2027, if it gave written notice. These dates and the extension are set out in the court opinion.
The 258-day adjustment was part of the remedy for Gill’s wrongful termination and restoration; it was not a court award of the maximum earnout. The opinion reserved questions about whether Krafton impaired the earnout and whether damages were due for a later phase of litigation.
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Was the earnout dispute later resolved?
Yes. On July 1, 2026, Yonhap News Agency reported that Krafton and former Unknown Worlds leadership had settled the earnout dispute and agreed to withdraw pending lawsuits. Yonhap said the settlement terms and financial impact were not disclosed, so no settlement amount or additional payment can be established from that report. Yonhap’s settlement report.
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Subnautica 2 entered early access in May 2026. Yonhap reported on July 1 that more than four million copies had been sold following the launch; the report did not give a separate measurement methodology for that figure. The Yonhap report covers the launch and sales figure.
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There was also a dispute over Krafton’s announcement of the May early access window. In an April 23 report, Game Developer said Gill and the other former executives no longer argued that the release-date announcement violated the March opinion; their lawyer asked the court to cancel a sanctions hearing and treat related requests as moot. That side dispute did not result in a lasting finding that Krafton violated the reinstatement order. Game Developer’s report on the release-date dispute.
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