Subnautica 2 early access starts in May, in the wake of its publisher and fired leads’ legal dispute

Following a legal saga which challenged the firing of its leadership team, Unknown Worlds has finally announced the early access date for Subnautica 2.

A new cinematic trailer for the game has been published, revealing that early access starts on May 14 at 8am PT / 11am ET / 4pm BST.

“We’re also thrilled to announce that Subnautica 2 will be $29.99 USD at Early Access launch,” Unknown Worlds stated on the game’s official website.

“You will only need to buy Subnautica 2 once during Early Access. You’ll get all additions, updates, and hotfixes up to our 1.0 launch and beyond.”

The announcement comes roughly a month after publisher Krafton was accused of ignoring a court order by announcing to staff that the game was releasing in May, despite such a decision seemingly being the responsibility of the newly reinstated CEO Ted Gill.

Gill, co-founder and creative director Charlie Cleveland, and co-founder and technical director Max McGuire were fired by Krafton last year, with the publisher accusing the trio of an “absence of core leadership” and claiming it felt “a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans”.

The three claimed, however, that Krafton had betrayed them by firing them right before delaying Subnautica 2, a move they allege was designed to deliberately prevent its Early Access release, and avoid it selling well enough to trigger a $250 million bonus for the development team.

Last month the Delaware Chancery Court agreed, declaring that Gill was “hereby reinstated as CEO of Unknown Worlds”, that Krafton had to “immediately restore [Gill’s] access to the Steam platform”, and that it was not allowed to “impede Gill’s authority over the early access launch of Subnautica 2”.

The following day, however, it was reported that Steve Papoutsis – who had been put in charge of Unknown Worlds by Krafton – had sent a memo to staff telling them Subnautica 2 was “a game we are truly proud of, one that each of us and our partners at Krafton unanimously determined is ready for Early Access release in May”.

“Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community, let alone this Court’s Opinion,” the fired trio’s legal team said in a letter to the court.

“Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game. That entire process was supposed to be driven by Mr Gill.

“However, in defiance of the Court’s Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community.”

It would appear that the matter has been resolved to at least some extent, with Unknown Worlds’s announcement today of a May 14 early access launch.