There are some strange things going on with Subnautica 2. Last week, the three cofounders of Unknown Worlds left the company and were replaced by Steve Papoutsis. Today, Bloomberg sheds some light on the matter…
According to the site, Krafton has decided to postpone early access to Subnautica 2 until 2026. It was originally scheduled for release later this year. Former management would have liked to release the game this year, but Krafton decided otherwise. Papoutsis says the delay will allow more content to be added to the title.
In addition, the South Korean publisher was to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team. To get it, the studio was supposed to reach a certain sales target by the end of 2025. Except that, with the delay of Subnautica 2, Unknown Worlds has virtually no chance of generating enough revenue to qualify for this bonus.
Some believe that Krafton deliberately delayed the title to avoid having to make this payment. The co-founders of Unknown Worlds had originally intended to share the $250 million with their 100-strong team.
