Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton has confirmed the game's Early Access delay to 2026, first reported by Bloomberg earlier this afternoon. Seemingly as some sort of peace offering, it's also published the game's first official gameplay reveal teaser.
A writeup shared to the official Unknown Worlds website confirms Subnautica 2's Early Access launch is now happening in 2026, but a more specific date has yet to be revealed.
According to Unknown Worlds, and of course by proxy, Krafton, Subnautica 2 was delayed simply so that the developers could add more stuff to it before Early Access.
"Nothing is changing in terms of the direction of the game or the team behind it," reads the update. "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."
Unknown Worlds reports that feedback from playtests has been "positive about the general direction of the game," but "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."
This conflicts with a statement from Unknown Worlds co-founder and original Subnautica director Charlie Cleveland, released after his dismissal from the company. Cleveland said the shakeup came as "quite a shock" and that "we know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you’re ready to play it."
Earlier today, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that Krafton made the decision to delay Subnautica 2 just months before it was supposed to pay developer Unknown Worlds a $250 million bonus that Schreier's sources said hinged on Subnautica 2's release in 2025.
Naturally, this reporting poured fuel on the fire spreading through a community that was already uneasy about the abrupt firing of key members of Unknown Worlds' leadership team last week.
In a statement to GamesRadar+, a Krafton spokesperson rejected the idea that the Subnautica 2 delay had anything to do with money, and was being discussed before the leadership shakeup.
"This decision was based solely on our commitment to quality and to delivering the best possible experience for players," the spokesperson said. "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."
Anyway, we have a new gameplay clip! Unknown Worlds says it wants to "showcase some of that confidence by giving you a longer look at some of Subnautica 2's gameplay.
"This is our first gameplay reveal teaser, and includes a glimpse at some parts of Subnautica 2 that we've been holding close to our chest," the studio says.
To be clear, we've seen snippets of gameplay before, but those were part of a dev vlog instead of an official teaser. And what can I say? This looks great! We get to see some base-building, some interior decorating, some deep see exploration, and oh god what is that?
It's everything you'd want from a Subnautica 2 gameplay teaser, but I do wonder if releasing it amidst the chaos of the day was the right move. It's almost hard to watch it, as beautiful as the footage is, outside the context of the delay and reporting that, at the very least, doesn't cast Krafton in a positive light.
If you want to know the vibe in the Subnautica 2 community right now, just check any one of the thousands of comments on the new teaser. A vast majority of them are from people furiously demanding Unknown Worlds get its reported payout from Krafton.
Regardless, my hat's off to the folks at Unknown Worlds for crafting what could still be a worthy follow-up to one of the all-time survival greats despite seemingly challenging circumstances internally.
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