The Subnautica 2 early entry launch that spawned a lot recrimination (and so many billable hours) is lastly right here, and all that sweat and anger appears form of humorous in hindsight—as a result of in any case that drama, Subnautica 2 is good, and it is a hit, too.
Subnautica 2 launched like a rocket on Steam, surging to greater than 370,000 concurrent gamers in its first half-hour. That quantity would climb by one other 100,000 earlier than lastly beginning to ease off—not dangerous in any respect for a random Thursday in Could. However it seems that there are a nice deal extra individuals who personal the sport however simply have not performed it but, as a result of they have to work at a widespread PC gaming information website or no matter.
Over 1 million Subnauts have already dived into Subnautica 2 🤯
We won’t thanks sufficient to your assist!— @subnautica.bsky.social (@subnautica.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-05-14T21:38:51.467Z
The timing is notable: That submit went up at 12 pm ET on Could 14, one hour after Subnautica 2 launched. One hour!
(*1*)
The rapidity of that ascent, like hauling ass from a Reaper Leviathan, is not completely stunning on condition that Subnautica 2 was the most-wishlisted sport on Steam, hitting greater than 5 million wishlists simply prior to launch: It is virtually inevitable that a sport is going to put up huge numbers when that many individuals are giving it the eyeball.
That additionally signifies that the overwhelming majority of individuals who added it to their wishlist are but to commit, so the potential for extra hundreds of thousands to come in the comparatively close to future is clear. That is very true when you think about that a minimum of some of these hour-one Subnautica 2 purchases had been made by individuals who hadn’t wishlisted it first—not to point out the “very optimistic” score on Steam, which is sure to assist persuade those who they do not want to watch for early entry points to be hammered out earlier than they dive in.
That is excellent news for Unknown Worlds, but additionally dangerous information of a kind for mother or father firm Krafton. Regardless of Krafton’s claims that it was merely doing what was greatest for the sport, courts finally dominated that its dismissal of Unknown Worlds principals Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire was pushed by a need to keep away from paying them a $250 million bonus that can be earnable if Subnautica 2 achieved sure gross sales targets.
A submitting shared by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach in 2025 stated Krafton was placing collectively a plan to promote 2-3 million copies by the finish of that 12 months, which “would have left the sellers poised to simply make their full $250 million earnout.” The particular gross sales numbers required for that earnout aren’t identified, however on condition that Subnautica 2 is greater than a third of the method to the excessive finish of the goal cited in that submitting in its first hour—and that the decide in the lawsuit prolonged the deadline by 9 months to make up for the time misplaced—I’d say it is very seemingly Krafton is going to eat it on this one.
Source link
#Subnautica #sells #million #copies #hour #imagine #CEO #Krafton #pouring #stiff #drink
