Subnautica 2 Confirmed for Early Access in May After Krafton Legal Battle

After months of legal chaos, firings, court rulings, and some genuinely eyebrow-raising allegations, Subnautica 2 is finally coming out.

IGN exclusively revealed that both Unknown Worlds and publisher Krafton have agreed the game is ready for its early access release in May on Xbox and PC. No specific date within May has been announced yet, but after everything this game has been through, just having a window feels significant.

Unknown Worlds head Steve Papoutsis sent an internal message to the team on March 17, confirming the news. He said the studio had "passed KRAFTON's milestone review last week" and that both parties had "unanimously determined" the game is ready to launch. The message highlighted new story chapters, creatures, and biomes added over the past nine months of development.

Papoutsis ended the note by addressing the reinstatement of former CEO Ted Gill: "We look forward to working with Ted Gill to support a smooth transition and work toward a successful launch. Our priority is getting this game into the hands of the community that has been eagerly waiting for it."

How did we get here?

This whole saga started back in July 2025, when Krafton abruptly fired Gill along with two other senior Unknown Worlds figures. Krafton's position was that the leadership were "checked out" and had failed to deliver a game ready for early access.

Gill and his colleagues pushed back hard. They filed a lawsuit arguing Krafton was attempting to dodge a $250 million bonus tied to the game's performance, a payout agreed upon when Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds in 2021. The bonus would trigger if the game met certain milestones by the end of 2025. Fire the people responsible, delay the game past the deadline, avoid paying out. That was the allegation, anyway.

Things got considerably messier from there. Among the more striking claims was that Krafton CEO Changhan Kim had used ChatGPT to brainstorm ways to avoid paying the bonus. On the other side, the fired leaders faced allegations of making racist remarks directed at Korea and Korean people.

A Delaware judge ruled in favour of Gill and his co-founders, ordering Krafton to reinstate Gill as CEO and restore the studio's access to its Steam developer tools. The ruling also extended the window for the $250 million bonus payment to at least September 15, 2026, meaning Unknown Worlds now has a real shot at earning it if the early access launch performs well.

Krafton, for its part, confirmed the internal message was accurate and stated it was "working toward an Early Access release in May." The publisher added that while it "respectfully disagrees with this week's court ruling" and intends to "explore all legal avenues," its goal is to "minimise disruption to the team and to the release plan."

Make of that what you will.

What's actually in the game?

Subnautica 2 will launch into early access with multiplayer co-op, several biomes, new creatures, craftables, and some narrative content. Unknown Worlds has been showing off bits and pieces, including a recent video walking through the co-op implementation, and the studio has been upfront that the early access build is, by design, unfinished.

Per the Steam page, the team expects early access to last roughly two to three years before the full release.

For fans who have been sitting on a wishlist entry for months (and it has been one of Steam's most wishlisted games for a while now), May feels close enough to start paying attention again. Whether the legal drama fully settles before the game ships is another question entirely, but at least the game itself appears to be moving forward.