Unknown Worlds Drops a New Subnautica 2 Teaser Five Days Before Early Access Opens

Unknown Worlds released a fresh Subnautica 2 gameplay teaser during the First Dive Showcase, with the game heading into Steam early access on May 14. The two-minute trailer shows tools, crafting, and weapons in quick flashes, alongside narration urging the player to "find a convenient way to die," ignore the voices in their head, and avoid the pull of something called "the tree."

The teaser sits inside Unknown Worlds' two-hour-long Subnautica 2 video, the deeper showcase the team released alongside the trailer. Community members confirmed during the Deep Dive that every player who buys Subnautica 2 in its first week will receive a buildable in-game Reaper statue for their base.

The release date itself remains the most contested element of the launch, with Ted Gill's legal team filing a motion on March 20 seeking a contempt finding against Krafton after the publisher confirmed the May early access window to multiple outlets without consulting Gill. The filing came one day after a Delaware court ruling reinstated Gill as CEO of Unknown Worlds and granted him full operating authority over the launch. Judge Lori W. Will found Krafton had breached its Equity Purchase Agreement by terminating Gill, studio founder Charlie Cleveland, and special projects director Max McGuire without valid cause, and by improperly seizing operational control of the studio. The board resolution that removed the three was declared ineffective.

Within a day of the ruling, Steve Papoutsis, the Striking Distance CEO Krafton had installed in their place, shared an internal memo announcing that Subnautica 2 had passed a key development milestone and was ready for May. Krafton then confirmed the date publicly. Gill's lawyers told the judge they believed Krafton had intentionally leaked both the memo and the release plan to lock in a date Gill should have controlled.

"Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community — let alone this Court's Opinion. Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully driven by Mr. Gill. However, in defiance of the Court's Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community." — Gill's legal team

Krafton disputed any wrongdoing. The publisher argued Papoutsis was simply celebrating Unknown Worlds employees' efforts toward Krafton's pre-ruling determination that the game was ready, and said Gill retained the ability to independently assess the game's state and determine an appropriate schedule. Krafton added that Papoutsis' message did not affect Gill's authority.

The teaser itself frames the early access fiction around the colony ship CICADA, which transports survivors driven from their home by ongoing conflict. The ship's AI insists the mission must continue after something goes wrong, leaving the player stranded and forced to survive. Game design lead Anthony Gallegos told the showcase audience the prequel's tension carries into the sequel, noting that even after years of internal playtesting some sections still pushed him past his comfort threshold.

"I think the dark gets real dark and, you know, it's real scary and… I work on the game. I'm a little bit broken. Most things don't affect me. But there are still things that I play right now where it gets really dark and I'm like… Nah. This is really quite a challenge to playtest."

— Anthony Gallegos

I think Gallegos' admission lands harder than any of the trailer footage, because most studios brief their leads to keep horror beats vague and a quote like that breaks the line. The line also fits the team's behaviour through the wider Krafton dispute, where Unknown Worlds has consistently undercut its publisher's framing rather than fall in step with it.

The clearest example is the team's stance on generative AI. Krafton declared itself an "AI-first company" in October 2025 through a Korean-language statement on its website, committing to prioritise AI as a central means of problem-solving across the company. In April, creative media producer Scott MacDonald and Gallegos told Eurogamer that no generative AI has been used on any aspect of Subnautica 2. MacDonald said the creature AI runs on Unity Blackboard with programmers writing the behaviour by hand. Gallegos said he believed Krafton had not mandated AI tools because forcing them would be disruptive to the studio's process. The same position has now extended to Project Windless, which Krafton announced at February's Sony State of Play, with the publisher confirming the game does not use generative AI for content creation or narrative elements either.

I see the AI position as the cleanest signal Unknown Worlds is going to send before launch, given that everything else the team has said in court filings has been filtered through legal language. A direct "no" from the design lead and the creative media producer cuts past that.

The wider lawsuit remains active. Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds in 2021 and removed Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire last summer, with the three founders alleging the publisher deliberately forced them out and delayed the game to avoid paying a $250 million earnout bonus tied to performance targets. Earlier coverage cited a real internal milestone review showing the early access build was missing biomes, a vehicle, a game mode, and around six hours of narrative content. Krafton used those gaps to justify the leadership change. A subsequent court development centred on a Krafton CEO allegedly asking ChatGPT to brainstorm ways to avoid paying the bonus.

Subnautica 2 launches into Steam early access on 14th May. Gill remains the reinstated CEO of Unknown Worlds. The contempt motion is unresolved.

Read also, Krafton shifted its legal arguments mid-case from claiming the founders had abandoned a launch-ready Subnautica 2 to accusing them of deception, with Judge Lori W. Will described the reversal as troubling and Fortis Advisors called the pivot a "seismic shift." The earnout dispute centres on a $250 million bonus tied to performance targets, with the founders alleging Krafton intentionally slowed development to avoid the payout and the judge pushing back on the publisher's narrow approach to document discovery.