Subnautica 2 developer Unknown Worlds is pushing back against owner Krafton’s “AI first” initiative. While the controversial co-publisher has heavily promoted its intent to use generative AI, the team behind the new survival game is not using the technology at all.
As Subnatica 2 preps for its rapidly approaching May 14th release date, creative media producer Scott MacDonald explained the game is “all traditional person-done”. While the game has traditional video game AI elements, there is no generative AI “at all” in the game.
Speaking to Eurogamer, MacDonald admitted that AI can be an “interesting technology”. Despite that, the entirety of Subnatica 2 has been made by hand. “We’re using Unity Blackboard and things like that. It’s basically all hand-done. It’s interesting technology, but it’s not something we’re using at all,: he said.
While Krafton has pitched itself as an AI-first publisher, the team explained that they were not forced to use generative AI for the game. Additionally, while the publisher handed the team a swathe of AI tools, they were simply ignored while the team made the upcoming game the way they wanted to.
“Krafton has basically said ‘here are all the tools. If you want to use them, you can’,” MacDonald revealed. “There’s no mandate to use them or anything. We are free to say yes, or no, or whatever. We decided on this particular project that it doesn’t suit us, it doesn’t suit our pipeline, or what we want to do. But it’s there if people ever want to use it, we just aren’t using it at all.”
Design lead Anthony Gallegos explained that the introduction of generative AI into the production pipeline likely would’ve been disruptive. With that in mind, this is likely why using GenAI tools isn’t a mandate for the team. Combined with the backlash the game has already seen from mere accusations of using AI, without proof, and forcing the tech would’ve been a bad decision.
“I think [Krafton] is smart enough to know that if we had to use those tools it could be disruptive to our process at this point,” the design lead said. “So a mandate would be harmful to the development of the game.”
As the game’s early access release approaches, Subnautica 2 is currently the most wishlisted game on Steam, outpacing Forza Horizon 6. The game boasts almost 4 million wishlists at the time of writing. It’s also worth noting that the original game managed to sell 15 million copies across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation with it’s Below Zero expansion selling 5 million copies.
