Subnautica is going to be an interesting game when it releases. That’s the problem right now, that the game isn’t even going out to early access just yet. If you didn’t already know, Subnautica 2 is under some legal problems. It’s a case where the old dev team is suing the publishers for the money they are owed.
A little history lesson
Unknown Worlds Entertainment (UWE) is the team behind the first Subnautica game (released in 2018). They had another game under their belt called Subnautica Below Zero (May 2021). The company Krafton, behind such games as Dinkum and the successful PUBG, purchased Unknown Worlds in October 2021. This means that the upcoming Subnautica 2 would be under Krafton’s banner.
What went wrong
The purchase for Unknown Worlds Entertainment was for $500 million. Kratong paid UWE the money and a promise of an additional $250 million if sales quotas were met. That sounds all good, but here’s the problem and what really went wrong. Subnautica 2 isn’t out yet, and there’s a reason for that.
Kraton is allegedly delaying the release of Subnautica 2. The reason is that the developers of Subnautica 2 wouldn’t be getting that $250 million. Naturally, the developers do not like this, so they’re pushing for the release to be much earlier or as soon as possible.
However, Krafton argued that the game isn’t ready yet. The devs stated that it can be under the guise of early access. Long story short, both sides were in disagreement, and Krafton fired the devs. Thus, this eliminates the fact that they have to pay for the $250 million.
Then the lawsuit happens
The three founders and devs for Subnautica 2, namely Ted Gill (CEO), Charlie Cleveland (Co-founder), and Max McGuire(Co-founder), filed a lawsuit against Krafton. After months of grueling legal battles, the court decided that the three founders would be rehired by Krafton. Even before that, Krafton had already assigned a team of other devs to continue working on Subnautica 2.
Due to the court ruling, Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire are now back at the helm to continue with Subnautica 2’s development. Whether the $250 million payout for bonuses is still in play is something that we can’t comment on right now. It’s also worth noting that the heads at Krafton used AI to come up with a plan to deal with the situation. They used generative AI to come up with a strategy that is laughable.
What’s going to happen to Subnautica 2?
For now, the devs and founders are back, so the game is set to be released as early access later this year. We can rest assured that the game will still be as good as the first two games. Let’s just celebrate and await the upcoming open access. After all, the issue was never really the quality but more or less just the whole bonus debacle.
