Subnautica 2 studio begs rioting fans for benefit of the doubt after leadership axed by owner Krafton: 'The team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged'

Developer Unknown Worlds has shared a letter asking for patience from Subnautica fans after publisher Krafton announced the departure of its senior leadership⁠—including studio co-founder Max McGuire⁠—and the installation of Dead Space producer and Striking Distance (The Callisto Protocol) CEO, Steve Papoutsis, as the new studio head.

The news prompted a backlash from fans, including a popular post calling for a boycott of the upcoming Subnautica 2 on the PC gaming subreddit. We don't know what prompted the removal of Unknown Worlds designer/director Charlie Cleveland, CEO Ted Gill, and co-founder Max McGuire.

Beneath the boilerplate language of Krafton's original announcement are references to "development momentum," as well as the publisher's "milestones" and "development metrics." Boycott post author PeterRockLife cites this as a main concern, interpreting it as Krafton punishing developers who were taking their time.

If it's actually an instance of a team spinning its wheels and failing to make progress, the studio and publisher haven't convincingly made the case. But leaving aside specific theories of what happened, opinion on Reddit and the Steam discussions for Subnautica 2 definitely favors the departed devs, and I don't see Unknown Worlds' letter winning back hearts and minds.

It's largely lacking in substantive information or argument. An update to Subnautica's early access timeline is "coming soon"—it's hard to imagine it hitting its 2025 early access launch window at this rate. The letter does not mention Cleveland, Gill, or McGuire by name, nor does it elaborate on why they were shuffled out.

The letter does firmly deny that the game will be live serviceified or otherwise experience a monetization change. I haven't seen concerns about this specifically regarding Subnautica 2, but such tactics are an understandable ambient gamer bête noire, one the largely mobile gaming-focused Krafton clearly wanted to get ahead of.

The most persuasive part of the letter, to my eye, concerns the remainder of the dev team that hasn't left the project:

"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.

"An update to our schedule and more information, including the Early Access timeline, will be coming soon!"

Unknown Worlds and Krafton have an uphill battle winning back fan sentiment regardless. As for the leadership shakeup, I suspect we'll hear more about the circumstances behind it with time.