Report: Subnautica 2 Team Could Miss $250 Million Payout After Publisher Delays It To 2026 Against The Founders’ Wishes

Subnautica 2 is one of the most wishlisted games on Steam, and it’s no longer coming out in 2025. According to a new report by Bloomberg, publisher Krafton has decided to delay the underwater survival sim until 2026 which would likely deny the developers making the game a $250 million payout. That’s despite Unknown Worlds’ recently ousted founders claiming Subnautica 2 is ready for Early Access.

Bloomberg reports that Unknown Worlds would get the whopping payout if it hit certain revenue goals in 2025, which it’s unlikely to do now that Krafton has delayed Subnautica 2‘s recently confirmed Early Access launch for later this year. That delay came against the wishes of studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland, Max McGuire, and CEO Ted Gill, all of whom the publisher fired last week and replaced Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis.

According to a live recording of a an all-hands meeting reviewed by Bloomberg, Papoutsis was asked about the firings, delay, and payout by other developers at the studio. “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,” he said during the meeting.

On the question of whether Krafton delayed the game to avoid paying the studio the bonuses, Papoutsis responded, “it’s never been told to me that we’re making this change specifically to impact any earnout or anything like that.” The money would have reportedly been paid out to staff on the studio floor, including hundreds of thousands in bonuses for some on the roughly 100-person team.

The firing of the studio leadership previously in charge of Subnautica 2 has alreadyled to a revolt among some of the game’s fans, with calls for players to take the game off their Steam wishlists or boycott it at launch. Krafton’s move, which Cleveland called a shock in a letter to fans on Reddit, now comes with a likely $250 million price tag attached to it for the studio, which is like taking an existing dumpster fire and dropping an oil tanker on it.

“We know that the game is ready for early access release and we know you’re ready to play it,” Cleveland, who directed Subnautica 1, wrote earlier this week. “And while we thought this was going to be our decision to make, at least for now, that decision is in Krafton’s hands. And after all these years, to find that I’m no longer able to work at the company I started stings.”