South Korean publisher Krafton has delayed Subnautica 2 to 2026, according to a report from Bloomberg after speaking with people familiar with the company’s plans.
The publisher was set to pay a $250 million bonus to developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment in a matter months if the team was able to hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025. With Subnautica 2 delayed to 2026 it is unlikely Unknown Worlds would hit those revenue targets.
Leadership at the studio had planned to share the bonus with all of the studio’s employees, which is around 100. The sources stated those who were at the company when it was acquired were told they would be eligible for bonuses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures.
Krafton last week fired Unknown Worlds founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as CEO Ted Gill. Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis would now oversee the studio’s management and creative direction.
Cleveland has since spoken out saying the events of this week have been quite a shock” and Subnautica 2 was “ready for early access release.”
Papoutsis in a town hall with the company this week said Krafton didn’t believe Subnautica 2 was ready to be released this year and the game was delayed to add more content. He was asked if the delay was to avoid paying the $250 million bonus and stated he wasn’t familiar with the terms of the contract.
“It’s a good question, and I would appreciate patience on this particular topic,” said Papoutsis at the town hall. Bloomberg was able to acquire an audio recording of this conversation. The specifics of the contract were “beyond my current understanding at the moment.”
Papoutsis added, “The desire of Krafton is to have the very best version of Subnautica 2 available for its early access. While yes, the software that everybody worked on is in a great spot and it felt like, ‘Hey we should launch this,’ that wasn’t where both parties aligned around.”
“It’s never been told to me that we’re making this change specifically to impact any earnout or anything like that.”
Subnautica 2 is in development for the Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, and Xbox Game Pass.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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