5 Million Wishlists Deep, Subnautica 2 Finally Launches

Over 5 million Steam wishlists. A messy legal battle between developer Unknown Worlds and publisher Krafton. A leaked build circulating online days before launch. Subnautica 2 has had one of the most turbulent roads to release of any game this year, and today it finally hits Steam Early Access.

Unknown Worlds game design lead Anthony Gallegos told PC Gamer that the studio is confident in the state of the build. "The game that we're putting out right now is bigger and more polished than anything the studio's ever done for a first early access release," Gallegos said. That's a claim with real weight behind it; the original Subnautica launched into Early Access back in 2014 in rough shape and spent four years iterating with community feedback before its celebrated 1.0 release in 2018. If Unknown Worlds is already ahead of where that game started, this launch could land well. The studio has also set up a Nolt feedback board for players to submit and vote on ideas, mirroring the open development approach that defined the first game.

The last few days haven't been smooth, though. Unknown Worlds confirmed in a statement to IGN that unofficial builds leaked online before launch, warning that they were "incomplete development versions" that don't reflect the actual Early Access release. Creative media producer Scott MacDonald acknowledged the community will be vocal: "I'm sure the community will let us know what they dislike as well, because they're usually pretty loud." Gallegos also pushed back on the idea that player feedback should dictate everything, noting that vocal players represent "less than a percent of your actual audience" and that the studio intends to "stick to our guns" on its creative vision.

I'm excited about this one. The original Subnautica is one of the best survival games ever made, and the addition of multiplayer co-op is the single feature that community has begged for since 2018. Whether Unknown Worlds can deliver on that while maintaining the isolation and tension that made the first game special is the real test. Subnautica 2 is available now on Steam Early Access, with an Xbox Series X|S release also planned.