Subnautica helped me vanquish (control, really) my thalassophobia

Me too... in video games lol. Real water can be like a thousand times more murky, and wreckage can be full of dangerous rust and things to get your equipment tangled on 😞

But anyway yeah it became one of my very favorite games and I even beat it on hardcore mode. The cyclops only tried to yeet my character once or twice lol

I'm told it's great in VR. Never tried it, but if the steam frame ever appears. . .

The game engine itself was by far the most dangerous thing in hardcore mode 😆 But I got lucky and finished it too and it was a hell of a rush. More about caution and planning than mechanical skill like a lot of games.

It will be co-op, 1-4 players.

You won't be locked out of any gameplay loops as a solo player, but you can bring in a few friends at any time.

The company working on the game (Unknown Worlds) was bought by Krafton (famous for PUBG) with a contract where Krafton would give $250 million if Unknown Worlds hit certain sales targets by the end of 2025.

Subnautica 2 was supposed to release as early access in 2025. Krafton had run the numbers and estimates were putting Unknown Worlds around receiving almost all of the bonus payout that Krafton had promised. The CEO had buyers remorse and consulted with his lawyers who told him that there wasn't much they could do. The CEO then consulted with ChatGPT and came up with a plan to kick out the leadership of Unknown Worlds (the co-founders) and delay the release of Subnautica 2.

The plan was to push the narrative that Unknown Worlds was forcing the game to be released as early access before it was really ready for that. Also the leadership of Unknown Worlds would be blamed for not being involved enough in the game and for refusing to delay the game's release to a more reasonable date.

It worked for a bit, the playerbase was split on Discord. Many took sides one way or another with some players seeing through these actions as being related to the $250 million payout.

The courts recently ruled to restore the former Unknown Worlds' CEO to his position and to extend the contract's deadline by 9 months (September 15, 2026). Krafton had an internal goal to release the game by May of 2026 and Unknown Worlds is sticking with that schedule. Krafton is no longer listed as the publisher of Subnautica 2 on Steam. The overall court case is still ongoing.

They kinda got it back in court.

They got it back!