The delay of Subnautica 2 has sparked into somewhat of a controversy between developer Unknown Worlds and parent company KRAFTON. Let’s take a minute to recap what happened, chronologically:
- The game was originally meant to launch by June 2025, but that clearly didn’t happen
- Earlier this month, KRAFTON replaced the Unknown Worlds studio leadership (Charlie Cleveland, Ted Gill, and Max McGuire) with industry veteran Steve Papoutsis
- This week, Bloomberg reported that KRAFTON had delayed Subnautica 2 to 2026. They also added that this would cause Unknown Worlds to lose a $250 million bonus linked to reaching a certain amount of revenue by the end of the year.
- The delay was subsequently confirmed. However, KRAFTON claimed that it was not at all influenced by financial or contractual considerations.
- Shortly afterward, the Korean publisher attacked the former leadership directly, stating that they had abandoned their responsibilities and caused the game to slip. For example, they said Charlie Cleveland focused on a personal film project of his instead of working on the game.
- We also learned that the studio leads would have received 90% of that $250 million bonus.
Now, some Reddit user has leaked an internal KRAFTON document that shows exactly why the publisher didn’t want the game to launch. In the current state, Subnautica 2 lacked the ‘level of polish and market impact required to drive IP growth and expansion.’ The document also adds that content was removed from the original plan for the early access launch, such as two biomes, one type of Leviathan, certain creatures, several tools, about six hours of narrative content, and even the character customization feature.
Basically, KRAFTON highlighted that the current version of Subnautica 2 wouldn’t make users happy, thus the need for the delay to add more content and polish before making the game available to the public.
So far, former studio head Charlie Cleveland has countered KRAFTON’s claims with the following statement:
We know (and love) that the expectations for this sequel are high. But the team has poured their hearts into the game and their dedication really shows. We helped pioneer early access and our community seems to love it just as much as we do. It’s the best way to develop a game like this.
So you can see why for Max, Ted, myself, the Unknown Worlds team, and for our community, the events of this week have been quite a shock. We know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you’re ready to play it. And while we thought this was going to be our decision to make, at least for now, that decision is in Krafton’s hands. And after all these years, to find that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.
Will this escalate into a legal battle? Only time will tell. We’ll keep you updated on that and, of course, on Subnautica 2 as it gets closer to its launch, now slated for next year.
