Unknown Worlds has finally announced the next sequel to its popular indie survival game franchise, Subnautica, and released a teaser trailer alongside the reveal. While details are still scant, the first trailer divulges some key information about the upcoming game. For starters, and likely the biggest divergence from Subnautica and the Subnautica: Below Zero expansion, is the addition of multiplayer gameplay, supporting teams of up to four players. For now, it looks like gameplay will either be single-player or online co-op, although it's unclear whether teams will be able to mix the two, popping into four-player sessions alone or with one or two players sitting it out.

Just judging from the trailer and Steam Store page, it looks like Subnautica 2 will take many of the same game mechanics—crafting, resource management, and an open-world sandbox—as the other games in the franchise, and build on them, instead of trying to rewrite the story. Likewise, it looks to be leaning into the Lovecraftian horror themes earlier on in the game. There also seems to be a new upgrade mechanic that will allow players to augment the biology of their characters, which should add an extra layer of depth to the game. Unknown Worlds has not yet published the full retail price for Subnautica 2 or pinned an exact release date, but it will release as an Early Access game sometime in 2025. Fans of the genre and franchise can wishlist and follow the game on Steam, Epic Games, or Xbox or join the Discord community.

Epic Games has been pulling a few major moves in the PC gaming market lately, none bigger than creating their own game store and following up with shifting over some of their games from Steam. The company promises a more lucrative profit distribution share to developers (to which Valve had preemptively countered slightly with their own Steam revenue update), and that did help get some game developers and publishers on board, including Supergiant with their new games Hades.

To appease the cautious PC audience thus far, Epic Games has decided to begin with some free games for account holders. As of the time of this post, the excellent aquatic survival game Subnautica is up for grabs. The game was somewhat of a sleeper hit this year, and well worth the free price of admission for anyone interested. The game is available through December 27, after which Epic Games will offer Super Meat Boy for free the following two weeks.