Crossposted from https://piefed.social/c/games/p/2025041/subnautica-2-early-access-cinematic-trailer
Description from the video:
Subnautica 2 is an underwater survival adventure game set on an all-new alien world. It is the next chapter in the Subnautica universe, developed by Unknown Worlds.
Driven from your home by ongoing conflict, Alterra offers you the chance at a new life. But as the colony ship CICADA shepherds you and your fellow Pioneers to your new home, something goes awry. The ship’s AI insists that your mission should continue. Stranded and faced with near-insurmountable odds, you must do everything in your power to survive. The future of humanity on this world is in your hands.
Subnautica 2 enters Early Access on May 14th, 2026, at 08:00 PDT / 15:00 UTC.
Wasn’t this game stolen from the devs by some shady Korean company?
The company working on the game (Unknown Worlds) was bought by Krafton (famous for PUBG) with a contract where Krafton would give $250 million if Unknown Worlds hit certain sales targets by the end of 2025.
Subnautica 2 was supposed to release as early access in 2025. Krafton had run the numbers and estimates were putting Unknown Worlds around receiving almost all of the bonus payout that Krafton had promised. The CEO had buyers remorse and consulted with his lawyers who told him that there wasn’t much they could do. The CEO then consulted with ChatGPT and came up with a plan to kick out the leadership of Unknown Worlds (the co-founders) and delay the release of Subnautica 2.
The plan was to push the narrative that Unknown Worlds was forcing the game to be released as early access before it was really ready for that. Also the leadership of Unknown Worlds would be blamed for not being involved enough in the game and for refusing to delay the game’s release to a more reasonable date.
It worked for a bit, the playerbase was split on Discord. Many took sides one way or another with some players seeing through these actions as being related to the $250 million payout.
The courts recently ruled to restore the former Unknown Worlds’ CEO to his position and to extend the contract’s deadline by 9 months (September 15, 2026). Krafton had an internal goal to release the game by May of 2026 and Unknown Worlds is sticking with that schedule. Krafton is no longer listed as the publisher of Subnautica 2 on Steam. The overall court case is still ongoing.
The CEO then consulted with ChatGPT and came up with a plan to kick out the leadership of Unknown Worlds (the co-founders) and delay the release of Subnautica 2.
And it’s worth noting that ChatGPT also told the CEO that there was nothing he could do until specifically prompted to go ahead anyway.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t touch the game until the legal issues are resolved.
Why not? It’s not like the game/company is going away whether they ultimately win or lose in this legal battle.
This is a legal battle between the co-founders and Krafton. The co-founders were heavily involved with the first Subnautica, but for this second (third) game they were mostly just providing the overall direction for the game.
The way I see it, buying the game before September helps to take more money away from Krafton and give it to Unknown Worlds.
They kinda got it back in court.