After a turbulent development and some anger between developers and publishers, Subnautica 2 seems to be heading towards a big happy ending.
What does the happy ending look like? According to Korean reports, Krafton is said to have agreed to pay a success bonus of 250 million dollars to the developers of Unknown Worlds Entertainment. There was already an agreement between Krafton and the developers of Subnautica 2, but at one point it seemed like the Korean company wanted to back out of the commitment.
In the summer of 2025, Krafton had fired the management of Unknown Worlds Entertainment and later postponed the early access date, which would have made the developers lose their claim to the bonus. However, they insisted that the game was actually ready and the postponement unnecessary, which led to a lawsuit.
The result of the lawsuit: The management was reinstated and the bonus was extended to the entire staff. And as kedglobal.com (via IGN) now reports, Krafton has agreed to pay the amount due to the enormous success of Subnautica 2.
The underwater survival adventure is said to have sold 4 million units since the early access launch in May 2026. At its peak, the game reached 467,582 concurrent active users on Steam (source: steamdb.info). According to estimates by Alinea Analytics, Subnautica 2 generated 100 million dollars in its launch week, making it the fastest-selling Steam game of 2026.
Community celebrates happy ending
How does the community react to the report? In a discussion on Reddit, many players celebrate the team’s success. More than 3,970 thumbs up and over 280 comments underline this.
- Brickscrap writes: “These are really great news only if a considerable part of it goes to the people who actually developed the game and not just to the executives…”
- D_ultimateplayer celebrates: “Good that I bought the early access to get back at Krafton for what they did. I will probably wait a bit before I jump back in to see more content, but I am really happy for the developers.”
- BIGRolyXL is happy too: “I’m glad for them! My wife and I have been playing for the past few days and have had a blast! I can’t wait to see the whole game when it’s finished.”
Did you think the story would take this turn in the end? Let us know in the comments! But why is Subnautica 2 already doing so well in early access with many players? We asked ourselves this question and found several answers: 3 reasons why Subnautica 2 is so well-received despite no one liking water levels
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