The second-most wishlisted game on Steam,Subnautica 2, has been delayed.Subnautica 2is the highly anticipated sequel toSubnautica, the underwater survival game that took the world by storm in its 2018 release.Screen Rant’s reviewcalled it “one of the more interesting survival games on the market,” with specific praise for its unique setting and its relaxing (until it’s not) gameplay. Suffice it to say thatSubnauticais a well-loved game, and many fans are clamoring for a sequel - so many thatSubnautica 2takes the number two slot on Steam’s list of most wishlisted games,right belowHollow Knight: Silksong.
Originally due out in early access sometime this year,Subnautica 2is now slated for a 2026 release- no exact date has been specified. In a statement from development studio Unknown Worlds, published byPCGamesN, it was revealed that the decision to delay resulted from community feedback during the game’s early playtests. “Nothing is changing in terms of the direction of the game or the team behind it,” the statement asserts.“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.”
Subnautica 2 Has Been Hit With Controversy
Devs Leave, Fans Call For Boycott
This latest news comes on the heels of controversy out of Unknown Worlds. Last Wednesday, it was revealed thatseveral of Unknown Worlds' higher-ups, includingthe creators ofSubnautica, had left the company.
The exact reasons for the departure of CEO Ted Gill, along with studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland (Subnautica’s director) and Max McGuire, are unclear. However, publisher Krafton’s press release on the subject, which stresses the importance of “delivering the right game at the right time,” has led some to speculatethere may have been a conflict around the game’s development timeline.
After this news went public, fans on Reddit called fora boycott ofSubnautica 2. A since-deleted postcalled for players to removeSubnautica 2from their Steam wishlists, cease all preorders of the game, and avoid purchasing it at launch. While it’s unclear how many players took action on this boycott, it doesn’t appear to have affectedSubnautica 2’s wishlist ranking all that much - according toSteamDB, it’s maintained a fairly steady increase in Steam hub followers.
Fans Have Longer To Wait For Subnautica 2
The New Release Date Is Unclear
Whatever the case, all we know for certain at the moment is thatit’ll be a bit of a longer wait forSubnautica 2. Fans who were expecting to play it in early access later this year will doubtless be disappointed, but still, it’s probably for the best that Unknown Worlds and Krafton made the delay clear when they knew the game wouldn’t ship on time, instead of waiting until the last minute.
The bigger concern is the creators of the series leaving the studio, but absent any official statement from them, we can only guess as to what happened there. Really, a delay isn’t the worst thing in the world - to paraphrase the immortal words of Siobhan Beeman (often attributed to Shigeru Miyamoto), a delayed game has a chance to eventually be good, but a rushed game will be forever bad. If the devs are genuinely taking the time to respond to feedback from early playtesting, thenSubnautica 2will likely turn out all the better.
