There have been many reports and much controversy surrounding Unknown Worlds and Subnautica 2, but the company has now announced that Subnautica 2’s Early Access release is delayed to 2026. According to a Bloomberg report by Jason Schrier, publisher Krafton is delaying the release to avoid a $250 million payout. The announcement of the delay comes less than a week after Krafton confirmed Steve Papoutsis as the new CEO of Unknown Worlds. Since then, the original founders of Unknown Worlds have shared their side of the story on Reddit, albeit vaguely.
The team explained that it has identified areas for improvement and wants to add more content to the game for its first Early Access release. For what it’s worth, one of the original founders and creators of Subnautica claims that Subnautica 2 is ready for Early Access. The developer also said it will now take time to add more biomes, vehicle upgrades, additional tools, and story expansions, with the game releasing in 2026.
For those who followed the original development of Subnautica, you’ll know it was a wildly successful Early Access program with a very passionate community. With Schrier’s report, it’s no surprise the community is rallying around the original creators and developers, with attempts to boycott the sequel. Unfortunately, most gamers won’t pay attention to the business side of things and will most likely play the game anyway. We’ll see. Oftentimes, these situations are more complex than what we hear, especially since we’ll never get the full story from both sides. It is a real shame, though, that the original founders of Unknown Worlds have seemingly been ousted.
