(Bloomberg) — South Korean video-game publisher Krafton Inc. is delaying the release of the highly anticipated survival game Subnautica 2, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, just months before it was due to pay a $250 million bonus to the development team.
Subnautica 2, the second-most-wished-for upcoming game on the PC platform Steam, was originally set to offer early access to players later this year. The schedule changed last week after Krafton pushed out the leadership of its Unknown Worlds Entertainment studio, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren’t authorized to talk to press. A representative for Krafton didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The first Subnautica, released in 2018, was a smash indie hit, selling more than 6 million copies. Three years later, Krafton purchased Unknown Worlds at an enterprise value of $500 million and said afterwards that a sequel was in the works.
The sequel’s delay to 2026 was against the wishes of the studio’s former leadership, according to the people. The $250 million bonus was due to kick in if Unknown Worlds hit certain revenue targets by the end of 2025, according to the purchase agreement, which was reviewed by Bloomberg. By delaying Subnautica 2 into next year, the company is unlikely to hit those targets and therefore the employees may not be eligible for the payout, the people said.
Unknown Worlds’ leadership planned to share the additional money with all of the studio’s employees, which number around 100. Staff who were at the company at the time of the acquisition were told they were eligible for bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to seven figures, the people said.
Last week, Krafton announced that it had fired Unknown Worlds founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, as well as Chief Executive Officer Ted Gill. It said Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis would take that role, overseeing the studio’s overall management and creative direction. Krafton didn’t say why it made a leadership change, but said in a press release that “we owe our players nothing less than the best possible game, as soon as possible.”
In a statement on social media several days later, Cleveland wrote that “the events of this week have been quite a shock” and that Subnautica 2 was “ready for early access release.”
During a company town hall this week, Papoutsis told employees that Krafton didn’t believe Subnautica 2 was ready to be released this year and that the delay was to add more content to the game. When asked whether Subnautica 2 was delayed so Krafton could avoid paying the $250 million bonus, Papoutsis said he was not familiar with the specifics of the contract.
“It’s a good question, and I would appreciate patience on this particular topic,” Papoutsis said, according to audio of the town hall reviewed by Bloomberg. He added that the specifics of the acquisition were “beyond my current understanding at the moment.”
“The desire of Krafton is to have the very best version of Subnautica 2 available for its early access,” he said. “While yes, the software that everybody worked on is in a great spot and it felt like, ‘Hey we should launch this,’ that wasn’t where both parties aligned around.”
He added that “it’s never been told to me that we’re making this change specifically to impact any earnout or anything like that.”
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