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Krafton have reportedly agreed to pay Subnautica 2's devs that $250 million bonus, following strong early sales
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
this post was submitted on 28 May 2026
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Honestly I think ultimately all the drama worked out for them.
If my understanding was correct, the problem they had was that the bonus was structured in such a way that if Subnautica 2 did well but not great, they could pay more in bonuses than it earned. Somewhat similar to the 'welfare cliff' that people can encounter where it's better to be unemployed than work a low paying job in terms of benefits.
Of the 3 possible outcomes: S2 doing poorly, S2 doing just ok, and S2 doing amazing, it's obviously easier to just guarantee it'll do poorly. They can't guarantee a smash hit, which means they faced a significant chance S2 would do well enough to qualify for the bonus, but bad enough that paying the bonus would be a net loss. So that's what they tried to do.
Only that backfired obviously, except now the publicity has basically guaranteed it's going to do really well, which is still ultimately good for Krafton.
Generally drama means a shitty game though, s2 is actually good. I don't think it would have sold less if this drama hadn't happened. I held off on buying it due to the drama, until the reviews started coming in
How does it compare to the other 2? Have they removed the sense of isolation like the trailers and previews suggested? Do you no longer kill and eat fish to survive?
I finished s2 with a buddy so it's not so isolated anymore. You catch fish and eat then, but there's no killing in the game.
I finishedy s1 but got bored early on into the second one, this feels alot like the first subnautica. It's a really pretty game and the story ends right when it starts to get interesting. I'd probably call it the most refined initial release of an early access game I've played. I'm excited for the final release.