An earlier press release caused mass anger amongst fans.
A screenshot from the first Subnautica game.

Krafton, the publisher behind the upcoming Subnautica 2, released their latest financial report (PDF) earlier today that caused a fair bit of anger amongst fans. Remarks in this financial report seemed to suggest that not only would Subnautica 2 be a multiplayer-focused sequel that would use the games as a service (GaaS) model commonly seen in games like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and even the recently released Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

This resulted in a few hours of angry social media outrage before Subnautica 2's developer, Unknown Worlds Entertainment, had to put up a new blog post to clear the air.

First off, Unknown Worlds specifies that Subnautica 2 is not a multiplayer-focused title. They say that while co-op is "an entirely optional way to play the game", you will still be able to play through the full game in single-player just as the original title.

Secondly, they state flatly that Subnautica 2 will not be a games as a service title. Unknown Worlds says that they "simply plan to continually update the game for many years to come, just like the previous two Subnautica games". They emphasize there are "no season passes" nor are there any battle passes, nor any subscriptions.

Finally, Unknown Worlds says that an Early Access release is not planned to come out in 2024. However, they will share more information on the game and the Early Access release later this year.