The CEO consulted ChatGPT instead of his lawyers. He fired the studio heads anyway. A Delaware court ordered them reinstated. And then, despite all of it, Subnautica 2 launched to one of the most spectacular opening days in recent gaming memory – selling over two million copies in just 12 hours and pulling nearly 470,000 concurrent players on Steam alone.
If you want a story that captures everything strange, messy, and oddly hopeful about the games industry in 2026, this is it.
The Backstory: A $250 Million Dispute and a Very Embarrassing ChatGPT Moment
To understand why Subnautica 2’s launch feels so triumphant, you need to know what it survived to get here.
When South Korean publisher Krafton acquired Unknown Worlds – the studio behind the original Subnautica – as part of the deal they promised a $250 million earn-out bonus tied to the sequel’s commercial performance. In July 2025, Krafton abruptly fired Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill and co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire. The stated reason? That the game was being rushed to release in an unfinished state, risking “irreversible harm to the entire IP franchise.”
Observers were skeptical. Then the court documents came out.
Krafton CEO Changhan Kim had reportedly used ChatGPT to figure out how to get out of paying the $250 million. The AI reportedly advised him to form an internal task force, “lock down” Steam and console publishing rights, frame the conflict as being about “fan trust and quality” rather than money, and prepare systematic legal defense materials. Kim allegedly followed most of these recommendations – initially denying he’d used ChatGPT at all before later admitting under oath that he had, explaining he used it “to get faster answers.”
The Delaware court was not impressed. The ruling ordered Krafton to reinstate Gill as Unknown Worlds CEO and extended the earn-out deadline by nine months. Subnautica 2 would launch on its original team’s terms after all.
The Launch: 2 Million Copies in 12 Hours
Subnautica 2 entered Early Access on May 14, 2026, arriving as Steam’s most-wishlisted game with over 5 million wishlists accumulated. It did not disappoint. Within two hours, the game had crossed one million copies sold. By the 12-hour mark, that figure had more than doubled to over two million.
Peak concurrent players on Steam hit approximately 467,000 – roughly nine times the all-time peak of the original Subnautica. When you factor in Xbox Series X/S and the Epic Games Store, total concurrent players topped 651,000.
For context: this is an Early Access game. Not a finished product. Players and critics have responded with generally high praise, calling the new alien ocean world larger and more dynamic than the original, with four-player co-op adding a dimension the series has never had before.
What’s New in Subnautica 2
The sequel is set on an entirely new alien ocean planet – a bigger, more varied environment than the original’s single world. Key additions include four-player cooperative gameplay (a first for the series), new alien creatures, expanded base-building systems, and deeper crafting mechanics. The Early Access roadmap indicates the game will remain in this phase for roughly two to three years while Unknown Worlds continues building out the full experience.
Given the turbulent development history, the quality of the launch build is being widely noted as a pleasant surprise – though as always with Early Access, it’s worth checking recent player reviews before diving in.
A Story About More Than Sales Numbers
There’s something genuinely satisfying about what happened here. A publisher attempted to cut out the creative team behind one of the most beloved survival games ever made – using AI chatbot advice as its legal strategy – and lost. The people who built Subnautica got their game back, shipped it, and watched it break records.
Whatever happens next in Early Access, the opening chapter of Subnautica 2’s commercial life is already one for the books.
