Subnautica 2 Releasing in 2024 as a Live-Service Game (Update)

Subnautica 2 will be out this year, but it'll be set up different from the first game.

By Tanner Dedmon

Update: The Subnautica 2 team shared a blog post clarifying and correcting some of Krafton's comments shared in the financial report:

  • Early Access is not intended for release in 2024, but we plan to share a lot more information later this year!
  • In reference to "Games-as-a-Service," we simply plan to continually update the game for many years to come, just like the previous two Subnautica games. Think our Early Access update model, expanded. No season passes. No battle passes. No subscription.
  • The game is not multiplayer-focused. Co-op will be an entirely optional way to play the game. You'll be able to enjoy the game as a single-player.

It is unclear why the details from the Subnautica 2 team differ from Krafton's, but we've reached out for further clairty.

Original: Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero fans finally got an update on the sequel, Subnautica 2, this week. That update dealt partially with the game's release window which should come as good news for Subnautica players, but another part of Krafton's update has resulted in concern from some players. The game will be out in 2024 among other games from the publisher, Krafton said, but Subnautica 2 will apparently be adopting a live-service model meant to support "enhanced replayability."

Krafton shared the latest on Subnautica 2 in its most recent earnings report where it talked about its forecasted games for 2024. As recently as late last year, Krafton said that the game would be out in 2025, but now, it looks like Subnautica 2 is coming out a bit sooner even if that release does happen much later in the year.

Subnautica 2 Update

One slide from Krafton's earnings report shared this week touched on the plans for Subnautica 2 which, again, look a bit different compared to the first two games. Subnautica was first fully released back in 2018, and since then, the Krafton has seen the "fandom snowballing" and wants to capture that interest in the second mainline game in the series.

What's more, Subnautica 2 will also be a multiplayer game. Developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment supported only single-player experiences in Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero with the only way to get other people in the game being through the use of mods, so multiplayer for a game like this will be different, too.

The slide in question from Krafton's update shared a few points about Subnautica 2 which confirmed the plans to make it a live-service game. That suggests that it'll continually get new content, updates, and perhaps even events in the future after it's released, but since the past games didn't utilize this model, it's unclear what, exactly, it'll look like as far as Subnautica 2 is concerned. Those points from the slide can be seen below:

Krafton on Subnautica 2

  • Explore an oceanic world in stunning stylized graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5
  • Single or 1-4 player co-op to uncover the mysteries on an entirely new alien planet
  • Game-as-a-Service model with enhanced replayability

Responses to the news have been mixed. On the one hand, Subnautica fans are excited that the game's coming out this year, but on the other, there are concerns about how the live-service model will be implemented and what that'll mean for the game's quality of content and monetization.

If you're wondering why Krafton is involved in this at all, the company which is best known for owning PUBG announced in 2021 that it had acquired Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Since its surge in popularity due to PUBG, Krafton has since expanded into publisher other games in various genres such as The Callisto Protocol as well as the mobile version of Dark and Darker.

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