'The team has weathered a lot': Subnautica 2 design lead says the community kept the dev team going 'when it was at its hardest'

Subnautica 2 - Surprised character looking out of his vessel at an enemy sea creature — (Image credit: Unknown Worlds Entertainment)

Considering the months of turmoil surrounding the development of Subnautica 2, it's not just exciting that the undersea survival game is finally launching into early access next week on May 14—it's a minor miracle.

But while the legal battle between publisher Krafton and the founders of developer Unknown Worlds was incredibly loud and extremely public, we haven't heard anything from the people actually making the sequel amidst all that courtroom drama.

Subnautica 2's design lead Anthony Gallegos finally—and quite diplomatically, I've gotta say—let a tiny little bit of it loose in the latest devlog posted today on YouTube. Gallegos doesn't say anything specific about the lawsuits (plural), but it's at least interesting to hear one of the development team acknowledge that working amidst that protracted public battle wasn't all that easy.

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In the video, Gallegos says that Subnautica 2 will be in early access for at least two years and while "what we have on day one is the most ambitious starting point we've ever had," players can expect a "strong playable foundation" but also bugs, an unpolished experience, and the lack of a full story.

That said, buying the game in early access means you'll get "all our content up to 1.0 release and beyond," Gallegos said. Subnautica 2 will cost $29.99 when it launches next week.

"When you buy the game, you don't just support the franchise, you support Unknown Worlds and all the employees who help bring this to life," Gallegos. "Welcome aboard, Captains."

You can watch the full devlog below.

Subnautica 2 Dev Vlog - Welcome Aboard, Captains - YouTube

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Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.