Fans are uneasy about the sequel to open-world survival game, which is a hit on Steam. Subnautica 2 dev team undergoes big changes

Unknown Worlds Entertainment studio has a new CEO. Previous leaders have left the company, which is working on Subnautica 2.

Maciej Gaffke

Fans are uneasy about the sequel to open-world survival game, which is a hit on Steam. Subnautica 2 dev team undergoes big changes, image source: Unknown Worlds Entertainment.
Fans are uneasy about the sequel to open-world survival game, which is a hit on Steam. Subnautica 2 dev team undergoes big changes Source: Unknown Worlds Entertainment.

Big changes have occurred at the helm of Unknown Worlds Entertainment. The company currently working on Subnautica 2 has a new head, Steve Papoutsis, who previously worked as CEO at Striking Distance studio (responsible, among others, for The Callisto Protocol).

The mentioned creator will take over the positions of Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire. Although Krafton (the publisher of both mentioned games) decided to remove these three from the leadership seats, he still decided to keep them in another, yet unknown role.

While Krafton sought to keep the Unknown Worlds' co-founders and original creators of the Subnautica series involved in the game's development, the company wishes them well on their next endeavors.

Unexpected changes in the developer's team have raised concerns among fans eagerly awaiting the second installment of the popular survival game. Some Reddit users are already stating that the title is "dead before the release" and expressing fear about the future of the sequel.

There's no wonder players are afraid. It is enough to recall the case of two directors from Build A Rocket Boy studio who quit a week before the release of MindsEye. As it turned out from the quality of this title, they most likely didn't want to be associated with probably the worst game of 2025. Of course, the situation of Subnautica 2 may ultimately turn out to be completely different. Nonetheless, concerns about its condition seem fully justified.

Subnautica 2 is set to launch in early access by the end of 2025. We'll be able to play this game on both Steam and Xbox Series X/S as part of Game Preview. The original received over 316,000 reviews on Valve's platform, of which 97% are positive, so the bar is set very high.

  1. Subnautica 2 - official website

Subnautica 2

December 2025

PC Xbox
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Maciej Gaffke

Author: Maciej Gaffke

At Gamepressure.com, he is mainly involved in writing news. Graduated in Polish philology and sightseeing and historical tourism at the University of Gdansk, which is related to his other "non-game" interests - history, books, and travel. As for video games themselves - once a fan of FPS, now converted to action-adventure games. Also interested in fighting games (especially Mortal Kombat), RPGs, and all titles focused on single-player. From time to time, likes to play tennis, volleyball, or football. Proud resident of Pomerania and Puck.