A publisher does not want to pay a studio 250 million, and the CEO asks ChatGPT for help. The result is a defeat in court. The conflict between the publisher and the developer has been smoldering since 2025. It’s about money, reputation, and players.
The publisher Krafton acquired the developer Unknown Worlds for 500 million USD in 2021. At the same time, it was agreed: If your new game Subnautica 2 should sell exceptionally well, we will pay an additional 250 million USD. This is referred to as “earn-out” in corporate speak.
Internal forecasts also indicated that Subnautica 2 would indeed be successful. Krafton would of course have to pay the agreed bonus. CEO Changhan Kim reportedly sought help from ChatGPT to find ways to avoid this bonus, rather than following the advice of his own lawyers. It seems that this backfired.
You can read the entire court proceedings directly from the Delaware court (PDF file). Here, chat logs and requests from the CEO can also be viewed.
Here you can see the trailer for Subnautica 2:
CEO uses ChatGPT to resolve contract, suffers devastating defeat in court
What did the CEO do? Based on ChatGPT’s suggestions, he created an internal “Project X,” planned a “takeover” of Unknown Worlds, and attempted to get rid of the founders to avoid paying the 250 million USD bonus.
This also included a public statement designed by ChatGPT to the fans, which is still viewable on Reddit. However, the reactions from players to this post were far from positive.
In June 2025, the release of Subnautica 2 was also postponed to 2026, with a statement to IGN.com emphasizing that this decision had nothing to do with “contractual or financial considerations.”
The founders of the studio were ultimately fired, but they sued against the decision and won: a court has now ordered that they must be reinstated; the CEO’s strategy is in a quite poor legal and reputational position. This is evident from the aforementioned court documents, and is reported by Kotaku.com.
Especially frustrating: The CEO’s own lawyers had warned him against these steps, stating that the entire action was legally risky and quite hopeless. The CEO worked with Maria Park, the head of corporate development at Krafton, and the company’s legal department on this, and Park clearly stated:
“Therefore, we can hardly gain anything, except for a punishment by simple termination, while I fear that we expose ourselves to the risk of lawsuits and reputational damage.”
However, there are also positive examples where ChatGPT can provide a real advantage to the user: A family man sells his house entirely with the help of AI in just five days. From planning to choosing wall colors, ChatGPT takes care of almost everything: A man sells his house, letting ChatGPT tell him how to paint the walls: “Expectations exceeded”
