Subnautica 2 delay saves Krafton potentially a cool $250 million in sweet bonuses

Man, the games industry is a tiring place. On the one hand, we have really cool games I can’t put down, and on the other, it’s the just the drip-drip-drip of corporate money-making with a lack of regard for anybody who plays the damn things unless it’s raking in the moolah. So what’s today’s fun and games?

Subnautica 2 is the sequel to one of the most loved survival games of all time which sold over six million copies as an indie game out of nowhere. It is currently the second most-wishlisted game on Steam and was due to arrive before the end of the year. Assuming it hit certain revenue targets, which it was likely to do, it would have triggered a bonus payment of some $250 million to the developers, according to reports.

Early Access was on the cards this year until, somewhat out of the blue, the game was delayed into 2026 by its owners, Krafton, who also removed the current leadership of development studio Unknown Worlds Entertainment at the same time. Krafton bought Unknown Worlds in 2021, following the success of the first game.

Bloomberg reports that the delay was against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership, and Unknown Worlds’ founder Charlie Cleveland has since said that Subnautica 2 was “ready for early access release”.

According to Jason Schreier, Unknown Worlds had planned to share the bonus money with staff, with those who were at the company at the time of the acquisition set to get between hundreds of thousands of dollars and seven-figure boosts.

This is now clearly not possible, although Krafton has responded that the decision “was not influenced by any contractual or financial considerations.”

A few hours ago, at the time of publication, the Subnautica YouTube account released this enhanced gameplay trailer for the game, alongside a blog post saying:

We got some great feedback about Subnautica 2 during those playtests. The community was responding well to the environment, creatures, and story, and felt positive about the general direction of the game. It gave us a great indication that we’re swimming in the right direction.

It also provided some insight that there are a few areas where we needed to improve before launching the first version of Subnautica 2 to the world. Our community is at the heart of how we develop, so we want to give ourselves a little extra time to respond to more of that feedback before releasing the game into Early Access.

With that in mind, we’ve made the decision to delay Subnautica 2’s Early Access release to 2026.

We’re extremely thankful for the time the community has put into playing the game so far and answering our questions. We plan to continue running playtests to ensure that we’re meeting even more of the expectations you all have for Subnautica 2.

Nothing is changing in terms of the direction of the game or the team behind it. We are confident in what we’ve created; we just want to give you a little bit more content for our first Early Access release.

Krafton’s Subnautica 2 statement in full

During playtests for Subnautica 2, we received valuable feedback from our community that reinforced our confidence in the game’s direction. At the same time, the feedback highlighted a few areas that could benefit from further refinement before release.

As community voices play a central role in how we shape our games, we’ve made the decision to give the development team more time to implement that feedback and deliver a more complete experience. As a result, Subnautica 2’s Early Access launch has been rescheduled for 2026.

This decision was based solely on our commitment to quality and to delivering the best possible experience for players. It was not influenced by any contractual or financial considerations. Additionally, the decision had already been under discussion prior to recent leadership changes at the studio.

Regardless of where the truth lies in all of this, it’s just a bit grubby. Krafton has so far not revealed the reasons behind the leadership cull, and has installed Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis to take over at Unknown Worlds.

Good luck with that. A happy workforce is a productive workforce and all that.

Papoutsis, meanwhile, said during a company town hall released to Bloomberg, “The desire of Krafton is to have the very best version of Subnautica 2 available for its early access. While yes, the software that everybody worked on is in a great spot and it felt like, ‘Hey, we should launch this,’ that wasn’t where both parties aligned around.”

He added, “It’s never been told to me that we’re making this change specifically to impact any earnout or anything like that.”

Hopefully, at the bare minimum, we get a better game at the end of all this.