A post on Reddit seeks to provoke activism following recent news that Unknown Worlds founders Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire were fired by KRAFTON in a shakeup that saw Striking Distance Studios CEO Steve Papoutsis installed as the developer's new CEO. Getting its start creating the Natural Selection modification for Half-Life, Unknown Worlds became a commercial studio for Natural Selection 2, which it followed with the original Subnautica. Subnautica 2 is on the way, and the Reddit post calls for a boycott saying "reporting suggests the trio were pushing for more development time and resisted shipping an unfinished game." The ensuing discussion argues that this statement is unproven speculation, and hashes out disagreements over the accuracy of outside perspectives on internal business matters. The controversy has not gone unnoticed, as A Letter To Our Community on the Unknown Worlds Website seeks to reassure everyone about its plans. It does not touch on the question of why the company's leadership was fired in the first place, but it does state that the game's core development team remains intact: "When it comes to Subnautica 2, the team that has been working on the game day-to-day over the last few years remains completely unchanged. That team includes veterans of the Subnautica series, dating back to the earliest days of the original Subnautica, to the many incredible and talented developers who came aboard to help us bring our vision for Subnautica 2 to life." KRAFTON says it remains committed to the game and will update us on its release schedule soon:

Our commitment to Open Development and crafting Subnautica 2 alongside our community during Early Access hasn’t changed. We believe strongly in listening to your voices, and have already received invaluable feedback from hundreds of community members who have participated in early playtests of the game. We want to ensure, along with full support from KRAFTON, that Subnautica 2 meets the highest quality standards and delivers on your expectations.

While we work closely with Steve and get him up to speed with all the amazing work 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!