Subnautica 2 reportedly delayed so publisher can avoid paying bonuses to devs
For years, Subnautica dominated Steam Charts as one of the top-selling games and fans were quick to turn the planned sequel into the most wishlisted game on Steam. Now, after acquiring Unknown Worlds and the Subnautica IP, Krafton is throwing all of that goodwill from fans away.
To get the full picture of this story, first we have to go back a week. Last week, Unknown Worlds founders, Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, left the studio along with CEO, Ted Gill. This change at the top felt very sudden, as by all accounts, Subnautica 2 development had been going well.
Now, it turns out that the former Unknown Worlds’ leadership left the studio due to disagreements with Krafton. Bloomberg reported last night that Subnautica 2 had been delayed to 2026, despite the fact that developers say the game is ready to launch in Early Access right now.
Why would Krafton delay a hyped-up early access game that is ready to hit Steam? Well, it turns out that Gill, McGuire and Cleveland had a $250 million bonus heading their way if certain targets were met. Meeting those financial targets would have been very realistic if Subnautica 2 was still launching into Early Access this year. However, Krafton made the decision to delay the game, against the whishes of the three executives. It is reported that the three had promised to split the $250M bonus with development staff, with the majority of the money going to employees.
The report implies that Krafton is actively hampering its own studio to avoid paying the bonus money. As a result, fans are now looking to boycott Subnautica 2. However, in its own statement, Krafton denies that the Subnautica 2 delay is for financial reasons.
KitGuru Says: The developers doing the day-to-day grind on Subnautica 2 were well aware of the $250M bonus and for most of those workers, that bonus would have resulted in a very impactful sum of money. Now with that bonus taken away, I have to wonder how motivated those workers are going to be in the run-up to launch.
