The studio making underwater survival game Subnautica 2 have promised fans that “nothing has changed” despite a recent drastic change in leadership at the company. The game is still planned to be a single player survival adventure with optional co-op.
“Nothing has changed with how the game is structured,” said a statement posted to Unknown World’s website yesterday. “It will remain a single-player first experience, with optional co-operative multiplayer. No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass. No microtransactions.” Okay nameless statement, this still dosn’t clear anything up.
“We know that you have a lot of questions and concerns about the news from our publisher regarding the leadership changes at Unknown Worlds,” it begins, and then spends eight paragraphs not answering those questions. “We’re also supporting Steve Papoutsis as he transitions into his role as CEO at Unknown Worlds. He’s already expressed his excitement to check out everything we’ve been working on.”
Earlier this week Krafton, the publishers who own Unknown Worlds, announced that three senior staff members were being replaced by an executive from one of their other studios. Steve Papoutsis, who worked on sci-fi horror game The Callisto Protocol, is now the CEO of the studio. Those leaving include studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max MacGuire.
In the press release which made that announcement, there were some lines about a renewed commitment to “achieving regular milestones”. The subtext is that Krafton believed Unknown Worlds were not working fast enough. Their new guy, they suggest, will commit to regular checks from on-high.
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“These reviews, based on clearly defined metrics and targets, will help ensure that games meet both creative and quality standards. This process is essential to delivering the right game at the right time. Unknown Worlds’ new leadership fully supports this process and is committed to meeting player expectations.”
Fans of Subnautica (hi) are squinting heavily at the megapublisher with untrusting eyes. Hence yesterday’s damage control in the form of a “letter to our community”, which is mostly a defence of incoming CEO Papoutsis and his benefactors at Krafton.
“We want to reassure you that KRAFTON feels strongly about supporting that vision at the studio, as we continue to navigate the game toward Early Access,” the letter continues. “While we work closely with Steve and get him up to speed with all the amazing work the team has already done on Subnautica 2, we also understand that it means we’ll need to ask you to remain a little patient and support us as he comes on board.”
They go on to promise that a new schedule and early access timeline will be coming soon, but still don’t answer any obvious questions about this whole drama. Ousting the long-serving leaders of a studio and installing a former EA producer who presided over Battlefield Hardline is a drastic assertion of control. So what happened? Why kick out those three specific people? Should more people expect to be laid off? Will the team face the reportedly disastrous crunch conditions that affected The Callisto Protocol? No answers are forthcoming.
The studio promises not to fill the game with lootboxes, and okay, thanks? Lootboxes are not the real worry, and the game is reportedly so far along in development it would likely be technically unfeasible to introduce such features anyway. The real worry is that the culture, morale, and day-to-day working experience at Unknown Worlds may alter for the worse.
A final wrinkle in the story: former studio head Charlie Cleveland says he is “Now making some films!” on LinkedIn. This comes after he recently moved to LA and set up a movie company, the website for which is awash with generative AI movie posters and wonky-faced placeholder images. Which I imagine might distract someone from actual game development. But unless anyone involved speaks plainly about this messy situation, all we will have is speculation.
