Subnautica 2's EULA doesn't belong in The Discourse™

Subnautica 2 has been out in early access since May 14, and that's apparently the right amount of time for the outrage engines to fire up and for The Discourse™ to find something to latch onto. So, here we go again.

Subnautica 2 has had a, let’s say, troubled few years. But the game already passed two million units sold and hit 400,000 concurrent players on Steam within two hours of launch. It is safe to say that the game has overcome its difficulties.

I’ve spent about 20 hours with it now and it is exactly what it needed to be — more Subnautica. Or rather, it’s Subnautica, but more. If you liked Subnautica, you’ll like Subnautica 2. If you didn’t like Subnautica, you won’t like Subnautica 2. If you’re afraid of the deep ocean or open water, neither of the Subs-nautica are for you.

Subnautica 2 feels like Subnautica. It plays like Subnautica. And that’s all you can ask, really. I don’t even know that Subnautica 2 is better than Subnautica — and I mean that in a good way. Subnautica 2 didn’t have to reinvent itself or the survival-crafting genre.

Subnautica 2’s story is a little more prominent and creepy. There's this foreboding atmosphere of engaging mystery with some transhumanist, survival-of-the-species, existentially apocalyptic horror overtones. And also there’s aliens? 

It’s good. It works. It’s extremely worth the $30 price tag.

There. Review (and tax write-off) achieved. But also, none of that is why Subnautica 2 is in The Discourse™.

My biggest misgiving about Subnautica 2 was that all the Krafton and legal shenanigans would take away from the game’s design, gameplay, or just overall experience. And, to Unknown Worlds’ credit, that’s just not the case. But it does cast a shadow over the game that’s hard to ignore. And that sets the stage for (ill-informed) scrutiny, outrage, and The Discourse™.

When you first launch Subnautica 2, you’re greeted by a license agreement that is shockingly long. Like, it’s on par with something from Ubisoft or EA. And then someone took some time to read it. That user made a list of all of the objectionable things they found, and that’s where it entered The Discourse™.

Except there’s nothing special about the EULA. Everything that original user took issue with is, in fact, in the EULA — and some of it even means what they say it does — but none of it is unique, special, or even suprising. Here’s a good response, but let’s go through a couple major points.

Paying for Subnautica 2 doesn’t mean you own it. Instead, you get “a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-transferable, non-sublicensable right to download, install and use one (1) copy of the Game.” The EULA goes on to clarify, “The Game is licensed to you, not sold.” This is not news. I actually wrote about this last week and a couple weeks before that.

Here’s the Terms of Service from Forza Horizon 6: “we grant you the right to install and use one copy of the software per device on a worldwide basis for use by only one person at a time as part of your use of the Services … The software is licensed, not sold.” Here’s LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight: “Warner grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, and fully revocable license.”

It’s still a problem that you don’t own games you pay for. But it’s not unique to Subnautica 2.

Krafton and Unknown Worlds do get the right to remotely access your computer through the EULA: “Company may, as applicable, update, patch or modify the Game remotely and access the Game Software residing on your Device for such purpose.” This is called “downloading an update.” This is nothing.

A huge chunk of the EULA boils down to “don’t do illegal shit and don’t use our game while doing illegal shit.” This is also not unique to Subnautica 2. Another big chunk of it has to do with the online co-op aspects of the game — basically, don’t be offensive to other players and don’t cheat. Again, nothing special. There are lots of clauses in there to protect the IP — basically, you can’t pass off anything from the game as your own. This is not unique and it’s just common sense. You know, unless you’re a generative AI company. There’s also a huge chunk that is legalese boilerplate that’s in every EULA ever.

And … that’s it.

So what’s really going on here? Well, everything over the last couple years made the game feel tainted. The short version is: the publisher, Krafton, bought the developer, Unknown Worlds, and then did a lot of shady shit to avoid paying out a substantial bonus. The founders were fired, delays were announced, one of the founders was reinstated by court order, and then a release date was announced the next day. It’s been a mess. I'm pretty sure there are still ongoing lawsuits.

Krafton set the stage for exactly this kind of reaction by making the game all about the money. Hell, at this point, Krafton has stepped back to co-publishing Subnautica 2 with Unknown Worlds and the Krafton name has been removed from both the Xbox and Steam pages. But the damage was done and people were ready to be mad.

The reaction to the EULA is misguided — or maybe misdirected. There’s a lot of anti-user stuff in the EULA, but it’s something that’s unique to Subnautica 2, Unknown Worlds, or Krafton. Every website, TV, phone, and smart fridge have a EULA that looks a lot like this. It’s part of living in 2026. Krafton just made the mistake of pissing people off enough to notice it.