It has been nearly a week since Krafton fired three of the key leadership of Unknown World Entertainment: the developers behind Subnautica and its long-awaited sequel. Said three figures: CEO Ted Gill, designer and developer Charlie Cleveland, and co-founder and programmer Max McGuire, all had been key parts of the development of the Subnautica series. As you might imagine, this caused no small amount of consternation within the Subnautica fandom. With fear and worry being the key emotions expressed by numerous fans of the oceanic survival game series, as they feared for the series’ future. Specifically: the upcoming Subnautica 2 that still has an Early Access release window of 2025 despite everything.
Thankfully, the team behind Subnautica 2 is fully aware of those newly raised fears and worries. It’s why they posted “A Letter to Our Community” on their official website. The letter is fairly lengthy, but it does confirm several things.
The first is that Steve Papoutsis, formerly of Striking Distance Studios (The Callisto Protocol), is the new CEO of Unknown Worlds Entertainment. In fact, the devs are bringing him up to speed about Subnautica 2, and Papoutsis has “expressed his excitement to check out everything [they’ve] been working on and is diving into supporting [their] ongoing vision and journey to releasing Subnautica 2 Early Access”. The letter also confirms that “the team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged” and that “[n]othing has changed with how the game is structured. It will remain a single-player first experience, with optional co-operative multiplayer. No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass. No microtransactions.”
Words from the Fired Dev
That’s not all, though. After some days of silence, we finally have words from one of the fired devs himself on the subject, as initially reported by PC Gamer. Ex-Unknown Worlds Entertainment developer Charlie Cleveland (aka. “Flayra”) recently made a Reddit post titled “What is a Wave but a Thousand Drops” explaining what had happened. He also reminisced on his early history with UWE, but that’s not what we’re here for, however interesting it is. Rather, Cleveland reveals three things about his firing. The first is that “the events of this week have been quite a shock”. The second is that Subnautica 2 “is ready for early access release”. Lastly, the third is that “this is not where the story ends”.
What Does This All Mean for Subnautica 2?
Fortunately, this is actually good news about Subnautica 2 for once. Both the letter and Cleveland himself basically confirm that the development of the game is still on track despite the firings. Cleveland let slip that the game is very close to Early Access. Exactly how close is still anyone’s guess, alas. From the sounds of things, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get an Early Access release trailer in the coming few months…maybe even as early as a few weeks from now. Well, we can dream for now.
Alas, Cleveland also reveals some key things about his and the others’ firing in his Reddit post. Krafton apparently fired them out of nowhere and gave little to no reason for their firing. It’s the only way to explain the shock they all felt. Not only that, but Krafton fired them right at the point where Subnautica 2 was just about ready for launch. Or at the very least: Early Access release.
Now, this is just pure speculation, but it seems like Krafton wanted to reap the benefits of the game and avoid sharing it with the old leadership of Unknown Worlds Entertainment. Either that, or Krafton wanted to take control of the game’s development right after all the groundwork had been laid. I don’t understand how it benefits them to do that, but the timing is awfully suspicious. We will just have to keep an eye on Subnautica 2‘s development for now. But at the very least, things are overall still looking up.
What do you all think? Are you now hopeful about the ongoing development of Subnautica 2? As well as its impending Early Access release? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Source: Unknown Worlds Entertainment, PC Gamer, Reddit
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