Subnautica 2 has been delayed and its publisher made the move just before a $250 million payout to developers.
The delay comes just a week after Krafton made changes at the top of developer Unknown Worlds, including letting go studio co-founder Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire along with CEO Ted Gill.
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In a new report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Krafton made the decision to delay the game’s early access release to 2026. The decision, Schreier says was “against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership”. In addition, the aforementioned $250 million payout was a bonus to be paid if Unknown Worlds had hit various revenue targets by the end of the year.
With the game no longer scheduled to release in any way in 2025, those targets aren’t likely to be met.
“Unknown Worlds’ leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio’s employees, which number around 100,” Schreier writes. “Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.”
As far as why the delay happened, new CEO Steve Papoutsis told staff that the game wasn’t ready to be released this year, and that the time will be used to add more to the game. Papoutsis reportedly said that he wasn’t “familiar with the specifics” when asked by an employee if the delay was done simply to avoid the payout.
On the contrary, Cleveland, in a recent Reddit post, suggested that the game was ready for early access release despite Krafton’s belief.
What do you think of Subnautica 2 being delayed prior to a scheduled $250 million payout? Let us know down below, and join the discussion in the official Insider Gaming forums.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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