In its latest earnings report, Krafton celebrated the success of aquatic survival crafting game Subnautica 2 by confirming that the company wants to turn it into a “franchise IP”. This comes thanks to the title having sold 5 million copies in just 22 days of its release across PC and Xbox Series X/S.
This means that future plans for Subnautica 2 will involve a “focus on quality and community trust until full launch, while pursuing long-term franchise expansion.” In the short term, Krafton wants to “scale up the creative” behind the game by offering more features like expanded scalability for co-op gameplay while preserving its core.
The success of Subnautica 2 comes despite the title and its development team – Unknown Worlds – going through quite a bit of drama following its acquisition by Krafton. Earlier this month, CEO Ted Gill announced that he was stepping down from his role as part of a settlement with Krafton that ensures that the publisher will pay out its promised bonuses.
“We mutually agreed to part ways. New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward,” he said. Both Unknown Worlds and Krafton are working together to find a new CEO for the studio in the meantime.
“Krafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings,” said Krafton in a statement. “Unknown Worlds and Krafton are focused on supporting Subnautica 2, its Early Access journey to the full 1.0 release and the global community that has made the franchise so special. Unknown Worlds will continue leading development, with Krafton providing support for the success of the game.”
The bonuses in question led to quite a bit of controversy, and even ended up with Unknown Worlds co-founders Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire taking Krafton to court. These bonuses amounted to more than $250 million, and were promised as part of Krafton’s acquisition of the studio – a deal that was valued at $500 million.
As for Subnautica 2 itself, the title has seen incredible success, managing to sell more than 4 million copies in its first five days alone. In a statement, executive producer Fernando Melo thanked the game’s community for the support and promised that feedback will continue to drive development momentum for the Early Access title.
Interestingly, Subnautica 2 also saw some minor controversy due to design decisions made by the developers that prevented players from killing the underwater creatures of the in-game world. In a Discord server, the game’s level designer said, “We aren’t a killing game. Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill.”
Following some player backlash, Unknown Worlds announced that it would rethink its approach for Subnautica 2, and promised players that the game’s creature encounters would get balancing changes, with players getting some tools to mitigate the threat presented by some of its more dangerous encounters. While Subnautica 2 will continue not to focus on combat, the studio wants to give players enough tools to deal with larger predators in more meaningful ways.
